FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES
***
Directed by Zach Lipovsky & Adam B Stein.
Starring Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Tony Todd.
Horror, US, 110 minutes, Certificate 15. Released in cinemas in the UK on 14th May by Warner Bros
It has been fourteen years since an unsuspecting group of protagonists managed to evade death caused by a large-scale disaster, thanks to an unexplained premonition, only to face an even more sadistically cruel demise set in motion by wickedly complicated set-ups. Fourteen years since the franchise went out on a pleasingly neat call back that showed the deviousness of some metaphysical forces inescapable grip. In an age where franchises are seemingly rebooted or remade at the drop of a hat it is surprising that the Final Destination series was allowed to rest for so long while other long-running franchises have exhausted themselves creatively. It is a long respite that pays off handsomely for both long time fans and a new audience eager to see a cast of fresh faces meet their maker in gruesomely fun and ingeniously gnarly fashion.
As ever we bear witness to a large-scale disaster to kick things off. Going back to the nineteen-sixties for the opening of a large space needle like building we meet Iris, a young woman taken by her devoted boyfriend to its large scale opening. Thanks to yet another unexplained instance of extraordinary foresight, Iris manages to avoid a grisly and spectacularly explosive fate. However, this kink in Death’s plan begins to straighten itself out in the present day as Iris’s grand daughter Stefani begins to have visions of what was supposed to have happened. Cue a desperate search for answers as increasingly convoluted and gruesome deaths begin to plague Stefani and her immediate family.
Anyone who has seen directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein’s previous film FREAKS, which played at Glasgow FrightFest back in 2019, will no doubt be aware of the invention and skill that they are capable of bringing to otherwise familiar genre narratives. Those traits are on full display here in this entry that ups the scale of the black humour that has always been present, and in upping the tension of exactly how the cast of characters stumble into their deviously executed fates. The wheel isn’t exactly re-invented here but it is greased in such a way that the film barrels along from one setpiece to the next, making this perhaps the most entertaining entry since the first sequel. Of course the audience knows the score, so Lipovsky and Stein can have fun with Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor’s script which deals with the usual scenes of exposition in a humourously inventive fashion that enlivens the proceedings.
Of course there is also a bittersweet quality to this particular entry as it marks Tony Todd’s final onscreen appearance as the ever present mortician who has always seemed to have had a knowing insight into how Death works. Along with the interesting wrinkle that has been cleverly worked into his character here, Todd’s final speech, improvised by himself, brings a touching and near meta quality that has been absent from every other film so far.
The lacking quality as ever is the cast of characters, most of whom cannot hold a candle to Todd’s much missed screen presence. This is a franchise designed to make us perversely anticipate the deaths of our heroes and as such there is next to no-one to truly root for or sympathise with. As Stefani, Kaitlyn Santa Juana is plucky enough but pales in comparison to Richard Harmon as her obnoxious cousin Erik whose sarcastic attitude to proceedings and vast array of piercings set up truly wince inducing situations that enliven the film to an even more entertainingly sadistic degree.
In an age of “elevated horror”, sometimes you just want to have fun and watch people die. FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES certainly delivers on that front, and does so in such entertaining fashion. It serves as a welcome reminder of what the genre can deliver on a more base level without descending into shock value as more than a couple of ongoing franchises feels the need to do. When done with such skill and verve as accomplished here, this will more than do, making for a fun night out at the pictures as a promising summer for the genre begins to shift into gear.
Iain MacLeod