Death’s Back, Baby and She’s Still Got Great Timing
The funniest thing about Final Destination: Bloodlines (2024) is that I didn’t even pick it. My kid, fifteen, full of “Dad’s lame” energy, and allergic to anything I like, wanted to watch it. So I did what any parent trying to look cool would do: I pretended I didn’t want to. He hit play, and boom, we were buckled in.
Right from the opening scene, it felt right. The over the top spectacle, the sense that the entire world is just one chain reaction away from disaster… that’s what the sequels forgot. That’s the juice. Bloodlines remembers it. It doesn’t waste time warming up; it hits you with that classic Final Destination energy immediately.
By the time the first death rolled out, I was in. Not because it was realistic, or because I get some sadistic joy out of watching people meet ironic ends (my hamsters already take care of that on Friday nights), but because it was ridiculous in the best possible way. It had that “funhouse of fate” vibe that’s always made this franchise special.
When the CGI Hits (and When It Absolutely Doesn’t)
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, or rather, the penny. There’s a CGI scene involving a coin that looks like it crawled straight out of the first Mortal Kombat movie. I’m not joking, the jackals from Exorcist: Dominion look more realistic. It’s rough. Like, direct to PS2 rough.
But then the movie turns around and slaps you with some of the most incredible death effects in the series. When it works, it really works; tension, buildup, and realism blending into that hyper detailed, “movie real” kind of spectacle that makes you squirm and grin at the same time.
I don’t know if it was different effects teams, time crunches, or just budget burnout, but the contrast is wild. Some shots are jaw dropping. Others look like deleted cutscenes from a 2004 DVD menu. The CGI dependence leans Marvel level heavy, but honestly? That’s part of the fun. They went big, baby.
Old Rules, New Blood
Bloodlines brings something new to the table without nuking the formula. It asks: What happens if someone fated to die in the original cycle lived long enough to have children?
That’s smart. It gives the movie a reason to exist beyond “hey, we found another way to decapitate a guy.”
Sure, it’s still mostly about setups and kills, but the characters aren’t total cardboard cutouts either. You catch glimpses of something deeper in moments like the MRI scene (and that’s all I’ll say about that). The rules of death stay consistent, though the timing of when it strikes feels intentionally chaotic, like Death’s got a sense of humor about it all.
It has a serious tone, but weirdly confident, the director knows what he’s making and leans in just enough to make it fun without winking too hard.
The Return of That Final Destination Magic
For the first time in ages, a Final Destination movie feels like… Final Destination. The pacing, the paranoia, the Rube Goldberg chain of doom, it’s all here. And seeing Tony Todd again, especially knowing this is one of his final roles, hits differently. He’s still got that voice that sounds like it crawled out of your nightmares and smoked a pack of Marlboros before speaking.
The death sequences are brutal and inventive, some of the best in the series. You can tell the filmmakers wanted to earn that legacy rather than cash in on it.
Final Thoughts
Final Destination: Bloodlines isn’t a reboot, and it’s not trying to be. It’s an evolution, one that honors what made the franchise great while proving it still has gas in the tank.
If I had to rank it? It’s right up there with Final Destination 2, sitting just below the original. It captures the energy, the scale, and the absurdity perfectly. And the fact that mainstream studio horror can still pull off something this big and entertaining says a lot about where the genre’s at.
Studio horror keeps circling back to comfort food, while indie horror keeps reinventing tropes to make them feel fresh. Bloodlines proves both can coexist and thrive.
So yeah, keep the sequels coming. As long as they’re this fun, I’m not ready for Death to clock out yet.