Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) Dir: Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein

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The 'Final Destination' franchise is known for its absurd plots and over-the-top, extremely gruesome, kills, and has built up a loyal fanbase of horror fans over the years, despite the films not necessarily having the best critical receptions. The series seemed to be dead after the disappointing fifth instalment in 2011, but 2025 saw its return, with this Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein directed sequel. Although I missed its theatrical run, I was still very excited to watch it, particularly after its popularity online.

These films have always been known for their gruesome, often ridiculously over-the-top character deaths, and I for one was hoping that they'd be more creative than ever. True to form, the film delivered some of the gnarliest kills I've seen in a long time, which includes other films in this franchise. It was top tier absurd violence, which I found highly entertaining. I would've liked to see more practical effects - the film was very CGI heavy - but at least that CGI looked fairly good.

The film had a very strong opening, which mixed the classic 'Final Destination' foreshadowing with some genuinely sweet storytelling, which made the inevitable outcome all the more impactful. The one major problem with these films, particularly the sequels, has been the lazy and predictable writing, which made it hard to care about characters that would almost certainly die anyways. But what I found, in the case of this film, was that it seemed to take more time to give its characters personalty, and not just that, they were genuinely quite funny.

The story was also a lot better than the past films in the franchise. It felt like it had more going for it than just amusing blood, guts, and gore. Was it the best story ever written? Of course not, but it nailed the aspects it needed to, and the comedic violence did the rest. I think it helped tremendously that those who made this film seemed to appreciate where those who had come before had slipped up, and that they were able to correct a lot of those often clumsy issues.

Kaitlyn Santa Juana lead the line with a pretty commendable performance as the film's key protagonist. She wasn't wholly consistent, but she did a good enough job to make me invest in her as a character a bit more than some previous main characters. Teo Briones and Rya Kihlstedt provided two very decent supporting characters for Juana to work off of, particularly in the second half of the film. I was especially fond of Kihlstedt's work in the final act of the film.

Richard Harmon gave my favourite performance of anyone in the film - he was genuinely very funny, particularly during his scenes with Owen Patrick Joyner, who I also enjoyed a fair bit. The two had such instant and infectious chemistry, which made their scenes so fun. The only other two really worth mentioning were Anna Lore and the late Tony Todd, who had been a popular mainstay in this franchise from the very beginning.

Overall, this was the ultimate franchise resurrection - a film that rejuvenated its previously tired formula, and gave fans the quality that they had been craving for so long. This immediately became my favourite film in the franchise to-date, and reignited my interest in future sequels down the road. If anyone had asked me if I wanted a sixth 'Final Destination' film a couple of years ago, I'd have confidently said no, but I'm genuinely very glad that this one was made.