Death's backlog runs in 'Bloodlines'
Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky’s new ‘Final Destination’ film stokes the fire of an otherwise dimming franchise.
BY DEATH’S CRUEL DESIGN, the Final Destination franchise had to have a few not-so-merry go-arounds before it knew exactly what to do with its clever premise. The original, borne out of a spec script for the television show X-Files, cast Death itself in a role not so unlike Jason Voorhees (yes, post-Part VII Jason), an omniscient presence traipsing to fix any thing renders its grand designs out of whack. Dozens of maimed bodies later, we arrive here, in Bloodlines, which attempts to map out the preceding films’ events as a result of a young woman named Iris meddling with Death’s work; and Death doesn’t like punching its cards late. “Death is a stubborn son of a bitch,” she quips as an older woman in the film.
To those unaware (and unburdened by the indelible fear of giant tree logs in freeways), Final Destination films have a simple but repeatable idea. An unsuspecting character foresees a fatal tragedy and inadvertently saves themself, along with a motley band of characters, from certain and gruesome deaths. Some time later, the purported survivors die in elaborate and equally gruesome ways. This is Death balancing the books. These survivors weren’t meant to survive, a mistake that Death is determined to correct.
Over the course of five films, viewers have had to bear the brunt of collective trauma of everything from tanning beds to construction glass panes. And up until Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky’s sixthquel, Final Destination deaths haven’t served much function other than fuel for IRL phobias (I’ve had friends who delayed their lasik surgeries thanks to The Final Destination). It doesn’t help that most characters were written as mere fodder for Death’s bidding and the distraught audience to Tony Todd’s harbinger, William Bludworth, and his unsettling omens. The most recent film prior Bloodlines, Final Destination 5, at least managed to pull the rug under viewers by tying its events to the 2000 original as a secret prequel.
Unlike previous films, Bloodlines’ deathly visions happen decades from present time. Iris (Brec Bassinger), a woman out on a romantic date with her fiancée, sees a vision where a newly built observatory tower collapses, taking hundreds of lives. You know the drill. She freaks out and unwittingly saves everyone, along with the bloodlines that would have been cut short because of the incident, including hers. Decades after keeping it off her tail, Death finally catches up to her and has set its sights on Iris’ estranged family, chiefly Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), her granddaughter who’s starting to share her original vision in the ‘60s.
Admittedly, I wasn’t too hot about this direction to connect everything (at least not initially). I’ve always thought the scariest part about Final Destination films was that Death’s design was more freehand than formalist, more madness than method. I’ve joked somewhere that Oswood Perkins’ The Monkey is as Final Destination as any of the true sequels; it got the morbid sense of humor of death’s absurdities, murder buses and all. But by having Death act like this petty OCD-Karen hell-bent on collecting souls in due process, I see the humor, too, in that it isn’t exempt from dealing with a years-long backlog because it religiously followed its grand design. It’s a funny image to think about: the scary and mighty grim reaper…unable to hop over the dreaded red tape.
Now, onto the stuff you actually care about. Blood and gore, check. Anxiety-inducing death sequences, check. I’d go so far as to say it’s able to add a different dynamic to survivors trying to re-cheat death. It’s pretty great. Acting performances, check; with Richard Harmon as the clear standout. Final Destination films didn’t have much need for comic relief, but there are just actors who make films extra watchable. Oh, and yeah, sure. The story. The whole family theme plays into the film without it feeling too shoehorned-in.
Lastly, there’s Tony Todd. In the less-than-three-minute appearance he makes here, he lends the film some heart. “Life is precious. Enjoy every single second. You never know…” he pauses and laments what to say next. Ultimately, he settles with: “Good luck.”
RIP, JB. Candyman. Ben.
ABOUT THE FILM
🪙 Final Destination: Bloodlines
dir. Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky | Horror, Thriller | 🇺🇸Plagued by a violent and recurring nightmare, a college student heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle of death and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.