Death is back and it’s got quite a lot of baggage.
It’s been fourteen years since the last Final Destination movie and one of the most likely questions with the new installment could be: “how is this any different?” Let’s face it. The formula can get very tiring–a group of unwitting teens escapes death after one of them sees the future and prevents the accident from happening. Not long after, the survivors end up dying in weird, grisly deaths until none of them is left.
Since 2000 we’ve seen people get hanged inside the bathroom, burned inside tanning beds, and crushed by a huge glass window panel–all creative and gruesome ways to bid this earth goodbye. One would think, how would this new movie be different?
What’s good about Bloodlines is that it brings it all back to something a lot more relatable; it drives the entire thing back home.
By focusing on family instead of a random group of friends, the movie raises the stakes even higher. What could be more terrifying than knowing death is out to erase your entire lineage, right?
It was evident how the filmmakers took great measures to retain the elements we loved about the franchise while tweaking it just the right way to give us something new to chew on. Bloodlines didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel but it added a whole new layer to the lore in an attempt to make sense of the entire premise.
It took us all the way back to the 1960s where it all started. Iris Campbell had a premonition while several hundreds of feet above the ground at the Sky View Restaurant Tower. She saw the entire room set ablaze and the glass floor give way, sending dozens of people falling to their deaths.
Just like with the other Final Destination movies, the lead gets to relive the situation and alter the outcome by intervening with the events to save lives. Iris realizes she had a premonition so she warns everyone about what’s about to happen and saves some lives.
But there was something different in the way the opening scene was executed here in Bloodlines. And it was quite clever. It was a good way to transition to the present where we meet Stefani, a descendant of Iris, who soon discovers the family’s worst-kept secret.
Make no mistake: the deaths in Bloodlines are more creative than some we’ve seen in the past. They were so fun to watch. There are at least four brutal deaths in this movie that outshine the others. And while Final Destination 2’s freeway truck scene remains the most iconic and traumatic in the franchise, the Sky View disaster can easily come in second.
The buildup to each horrific takedown was so stressful–the anticipation was so unbearable a lot of times you don’t have much energy left when the actual death happens.
The funny thing is, once each death is done, and after all that screaming and shrieking from the audience is over, the people in our cinema end up clapping and laughing. I’m not sure why that was a collective reaction. But it goes to show how each scene is engrossing; you’d easily forgive the unpolished CGI in some scenes.
It seems clear that Final Destination: Bloodlines aims to cater to a whole new audience; it has achieved that goal successfully. It gave us new gruesome deaths that may very well trigger new phobias in some. But it also included easter eggs that served as nods to its predecessors, most notably William Bludworth whom you’ll remember from the first, second, and fifth movies. At long last, we finally discover why this mortician knows so much about Death. Rest in peace, Tony Todd.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is now showing in Philippine cinemas.
Watch the trailer here:
