‘FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES’ Review: This Family Reunion is a Splatterrific Blast Full of Fun-loving, Blood-drenched Carnage

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

Rated R, 1 hour and 50 minutes

Directed by: Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein

Starring: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Alex Zahara, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, April Telek, Gabrielle Rose, Brec Bassinger, Tinpo Lee, Tony Todd, Noah Bromley

The FINAL DESTINATION franchise has introduced us to new and deep-seated fears for 25 years now. It’s taken us many places, from the seats on an exploding airplane bound for France (in the original) to the rickety stands at a NASCAR race (THE FINAL DESTINATION, the fourth and worst of the series). It’s even cleverly delivered a stealth prequel (FINAL DESTINATION 5, or what fans call FIVENAL DESTINATION). And it’s bestowed everyone with a healthy fear of poorly constructed roller coasters (FINAL DESTINATION 3) and, most notoriously, log-carrying semi-trucks on the freeway (FINAL DESTINATION 2). This series knows precisely how to prey on our personal horrors and turn them into something delightfully macabre.

It’s a blessing that we get to add another creative sequel to the lineup with FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES. While the other films have examined what the specter of death looks like stalking groups of friends, classmates, work colleagues and everyday strangers, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein upend things having the unseen entity pick off members of a fractured family, gifting us with a fun, frightening nightmare factory of gleeful gore while exploring the ripple effects of inherited generational trauma. Their sharp Rube Goldberg death traps perfectly finesse tension, dark comedy and blood-drenched carnage, easily making this a franchise favorite.

Lately, college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has been suffering from terrifying nightmares involving a petite blonde gal (Brec Bassinger) having the best and worst day of her life on top of the Space Needle-esque Sky View restaurant in the 1960s. These dreams have turned Stefani into an insomniac, impeding her sleep and studies. No longer wanting these visions to hold her back, she travels home to her caring divorced dad (Tinpo Lee) and surly younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones) hoping to get answers. The familial strife hits hard. They haven’t been the same since mom Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt) left and, around that same time, Stefani abandoned her sisterly duties.

Stefani quickly finds out the woman plaguing her is her estranged grandmother Iris (Gabrielle Rose), who went crazy and retreated to a heavily guarded compound in the remote wilderness. Upon their brief reunion, Iris warns her granddaughter death has killed off all the people she managed to save that fateful evening decades ago. Once her husband died, that’s when Iris knew her time was up and their offspring would be next, starting with Stefani’s WASPy side of the family. Those include Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara), tattoo’d & pierced eldest son Erik (Richard Harmon), fit daughter Julia (Anna Lore) and youngest Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner). Stefani’s attempts to metaphorically bubble-wrap her kin inherently fail in hilarious and uproarious ways, leading to crowd-pleasing terror. You’ll never look at an MRI machine the same way again.

Lipovsky and Stein, along with writers Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor (working from a story also by Jon Watts), take their time lining up their set pieces, making their payoffs all the more glorious and gnarly. They pay proper homage to previous installments, especially to FINAL DESTINATION 2 in many ways other than solely the logging truck. They also intelligently include a handful of red herrings in favor of a heavy comedic bent. Perhaps its most audacious element is the way they make room for poignancy, not solely showing how grief brings this family back together, but also finding meaningful sentiments in the face of death. Tony Todd’s heartfelt send-off delivered to camera is handled with graceful beauty – a genuinely moving, indelible moment that doesn’t stifle or shift the picture’s overall tone.

The filmmakers’ gruesome kills are imaginative and well-earned, never half-assed. From the penny held by an obnoxiously bratty child (Noah Bromley) to the janky vending machine spring, these innocuous props – cogs in death’s machine – lead to over-the-top outcomes. Sequences spotlighting the backyard picnic shenanigans, the garbage truck hijinks and the tattoo parlor tomfoolery are conceived and executed brilliantly, augmented by the sound design team’s amped up squelching and screaming conducted in glorious chorus with the score’s symphonics. They even squeeze in ace needle drops of Air Supply’s cover of “Without You,” Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” and transition from tea kettle whistle to Kelly Clarkson’s “(Stronger) What Doesn’t Kill You.”

Themes dealing with parental strife, needing to ferociously protect precious, vulnerable lives in such a drastic manner that it winds up harming or working to the detriment of others, feel resonant in their ruminations, particularly in the context of these frightening iterations.

Grade: B+

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES opens in theaters on May 16.