Final Destination: Bloodlines – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Final Destination: Bloodlines – Family Bonds of Fate and Death: We are Together

To speak about going to the movies, it becomes a feeling of intrigue.  For every movie fan, it is a pull that brings about a rush of excitement, a hope, that whatever you see will be worth the escape.  For horror fans, there are a variety of ways that can pull at your heartstrings.  From situational fear to bombastic gorefest, it is marked with intensity of the auspicious kind.  Through all its clichés, a horror film can still stand out on its own.  With this review, I look at the latest horror film to hit the big screen.  In this sequel, it builds upon the old framework with a bag of new tricks.  Even in its predictability, Final Destination: Bloodlines becomes a horror revival that builds upon the question … how many generations can fend off death. 

When violent nightmares turn into an ominous warning, a young woman returns home to find the truth of her heritage where she must face the inevitable.  Franchises are scattered among different eras and genres.  From James Bond to Star Wars, franchises build upon a journey in a framework of familiarity and certainty of dynamics.  For horror, franchises like Friday the 13^th, Scream or The Conjuring Universe tackle this trend through a crux of certain figures, scare tactics or periods.  Through all the obvious details, it becomes a place where you have to make the audience believe in the world created.  With a return to Final Destination, it is a mixture of recognizable tropes through a unique twist of fate.  In the beginning, we start with a flashback that builds upon something familiar to fans of the franchise: A big set piece marked with death and destruction.  After the epic sequence, we learn that it is actually a premonition, one that has become a constant nightmare for Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana).  This leads her to return home, where she wants to find out how her visions tie back to her family.  After a series of general introductions (to view the cast, visit the film’s IMdb page – link) and conversational moments, the truth about her family comes to light, and she begins to understand that the inevitability is coming for her family.  From this point, it becomes a push and pull of circumstances that are marked with familiar aspect of the franchise.  Even with its predictability, the film doesn’t fall into this trap because it is elevated by a directive that blends horror elements with familial themes and thorough developed characters.  In the journey to ‘save’ her family, it becomes a fragile balance of understanding the causality of the situation; knowing death is around every corner.  That allure is strengthened through the uniqueness of moments, organic dialogue (between the family), and the individuality of characters.  It is here that you feel something for this family, one where the inevitability is heightened by honest truth: existence against fate.

As the journey becomes a marker of the ‘what’ and ‘why’, it is the situational moments and techniques (by the filmmakers) that build a tension of wondering ‘when’ death might occur.  From props to atmosphere, the building of the moment is marked with a suddenness that revels in horror elements that are elevated because of the characterization (that came before).  As we head into the finale, it is a mixture of bombastic allure, false hope and the inevitable but adrenaline filled climax.  Final Destination: Bloodlines is a grand return of this horror franchise.  If you are a fan of this IP, horror films or dramatic journeys, this is one for you.  Even if you’re new to this franchise, I say it is worth the full price of admission.

Full Score – 4 out of 5 (Full Price)