Movies
‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Review – Death’s New Cycle Favors Fun Over Suspense
Death begins a new cycle in Final Destination Bloodlines, the sixth entry of the film series that’s known for its elaborate Rube Goldberg machine-style deaths. The catch here is that Death may be more ambitious than ever, aiming to snuff out an entire family’s bloodline after its matriarch evaded its grasp decades prior.
That presents clear shifts in the Final Destination formula, including an emphasis on its family theme and a dedication to lighthearted fun over palpable, drawn-out suspense. Death’s daunting ambition is more impressive in scope than in execution, though.
Bloodlines kicks off with the requisite inciting catastrophe that sees one woman, Iris (Brec Bassinger), embarking on an exciting new chapter of her life at the opening of the Skyview Restaurant Tower. What should be the happiest day of her life instead turns into a brutal nightmare when a chain of events, beginning with a small, humble penny, leads to the tower’s eventual collapse and a mass casualty event.
Bloodlines breaks from tradition by switching perspectives, just as Iris should be snapping back to her present to act on her premonition, saving countless lives and igniting Death’s fury. Instead, it’s revealed to be a recurring nightmare that’s tormenting Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a college student so plagued by these vivid dreams that she’s failing her classes. So she decides to confront the grandmother she’s never met in her bid for answers, unwittingly opening the door for Death’s design on her entire family.
Brec Bassinger as “Iris” in New Line Cinema’s “Final Destination Bloodlines,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
That perspective shift is the first noticeable departure from the Final Destination blueprint. The inciting disaster itself is a fittingly complex chain of events that spells doom in a variety of ways and yields the appropriate level of carnage, but don’t expect any subsequent deaths to reach the same level of intricacy or tension. Though that’s not to say they’re devoid of creativity or macabre humor and blood splatter.
Directors Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein (Freaks), working from a script by Guy Busick (Abigail, Scream VI, Ready or Not) and Lori Evans Taylor (Cellar Door), know that the kills are the franchise’s biggest source of fun and embrace them with playful spirit. The directing duo employ clever misdirection and tongue-in-cheek plot reveals to keep the audience on their toes, and find new ways to dispatch characters in the most outlandish ways. As entertaining as the mayhem can be, the practical effects are frequently overshadowed by more noticeable CGI.
Overcrowding Death’s design is the dense family history at the center of it all. There’s a lot of ground to cover to establish family dynamics, especially in one so fraught with residual generational trauma and estrangements, which does bog down the pacing. That’s compounded by a fairly predictable trajectory, even beyond Death’s order. Stefani makes for an affable lead, though she’s often saddled with trying to convince her family of their lethal plight over noticing Death’s signs; that eerie deja vu feeling that signals Death’s impending strike feels much more subdued than usual.
Not helping is the convenience of Iris’s handy guide to unfurl the entire rules and history of Death’s machinations, which is great for exposition but diminishes Stefani’s agency in the process when she’s trapped in a more passive, reactive state. The handy guide to Death winds up more of an expositional crutch that feels tailor-made for shorter attention spans.
Tony Todd as “William Bludworth” in New Line Cinema’s “Final Destination Bloodlines,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo credit: Eric Milner
Bloodlines operates as an accessible entry point into the Final Destination films, one laden with referential nods and easter eggs to past films, but it does bring closure for the series’ recurring character Bludworth (Tony Todd). Or rather, it brings closure to the horror icon who’s portrayed the mysterious mortician over the past 25 years. The aura of supernatural mystery behind Bludworth gets unceremoniously but tenderly dispelled, but it’s Tony Todd himself who brings affecting poignancy to his brief appearance. Todd’s monologue, mostly improvised and from the heart, serves as a heartfelt goodbye, the first genuine tearjerker moment of the entire film series.
It’s a momentous scene that also captures the film’s unevenness. The highs of creative kills and Tony Todd’s poignant final bow are offset by an underdeveloped story that struggles beyond its solid concept. The family at the center of the zany carnage is never as interesting as the idea of Death seeking to wipe out an entire bloodline, and the lack of suspense is noticeable. While it occasionally feels like a more watered-down version than its predecessors, at least in terms of lore, Final Destination Bloodlines does succeed in delivering enough summer horror fun with its outrageous deaths to appease movie goers seeking some blood-soaked escapism.
Final Destination Bloodlines opens in theaters on May 16, 2025.
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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