FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES Reviewed by GREG KING
Directors: Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein
Stars: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Brec Bassinger, Gabrielle Rose, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Teo Briones, Max Lloyd-Jones, Tony Todd, April Telek, Alex Zahara, Anna Lore, Tinpo Lee, Jayden Oniah.
The Final Destination franchise first hit our screens way back in 2000. Four sequels followed until Final Destination 5 in 2011 brought the series to a close. Thankfully with this new attempt to kickstart the franchise the formula has not changed, and fans of the series will enjoy some of the gory deaths on offer.
The film opens in the late 60s when a young Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) is taken to the grand opening of the new Skyview restaurant atop a high-rise tower by her boyfriend Paul who intends to propose to her. But disaster erupts as the glass floor cracks, the tower struts give way and all of the guests crowded into the restaurant die in grisly fashion. But the disaster turns out to be a premonition that Iris has. She warns people of the imminent disaster and manages to save many lives.
That opening scene gives way to the present day when troubled college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana, from the tv series The Flash, etc) wakes up from a nightmare in which she envisions that very same disaster. Plagued by the awful vision of gory deaths Stefani returns home and learns that she has inherited her psychic powers from her grandmother Iris (Gabrielle Rose), who survived that fateful incident. Stefani learns that Iris has become obsessed with death, believing that all of the people she saved forty years earlier are now dying because death is claiming revenge on all those who managed to evade his clutches back then. The survivors are dying in the order they would have died at the Skyview, along with their descendants who were never meant to exist.
Iris has hidden herself away in an isolated cabin in the remote woods, refusing to leave in the belief that if she does so she will inevitably die. Iris gives Stefani a book detailing all of the bizarre circumstances and coincidences that have brought about grisly and untimely deaths. But when Iris steps out of the house to pass on the book she is killed in a bizarre accident. Stefani herself then becomes obsessed with preventing the inevitable fate of her family. But despite her warnings they refuse to take her seriously until a couple of gory deaths make them become more cautious.
As with previous entries in the franchise the elaborate set up to some of the deaths adds a modicum of suspense to the material. The clever script comes from Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, and is based on a story developed by them and Jon Watts. There are a few allusions to earlier films in the series.
Directors Zach Lipovsky (a former child star and visual effects specialist) and Adam Stein both previously worked on Freaks and the live action version of Kim Possible. They are obviously familiar with the formula of the Final Destination franchise and deliver plenty of imaginative deaths, making this one of the more enjoyable entries in the series. They lace the material with an unexpected streak of dark humour.
Emmy award cinematographer Christopher Seboldt (CSI, etc) has done a good job with the visuals, and he often gives the audiences glimpses of some of the many and varied objects that wiull come into play during the complicated, elongated, inventive and very messy deaths. The key standout sequences include the opening high-rise restaurant disaster, a family barbeque that turns deadly, and even a sequence set in a tattoo parlour.
The largely unknown cast give it their all to bring the cliched characters to life. The film also marks the final appearance of horror veteran Tony Todd (Candyman, etc), who uses his brief role here to bid a poignant farewell to his audience.
Despite the fourteen-year gap between the last film and this new one, Final Destination: Bloodlines pays service to what the fans want to see and is a lot of fun, and more entertaining than expected. And, given its success at the box office, it may not be the final instalment in this long running horror franchise.
★★★☆
