FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES movie poster | ©2025 New Line Cinema

Rating: R
Stars: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Brec Bessinger, Tony Todd, Gabrielle Rose, Tinpo Lee, Rya Kihlstedt, Alex Zahara, Max Lloyd-Jones
Writers: Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor, story by Jon Watts and Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor, based on characters created by Jeffrey Reddick
Directors: Adam Stein & Zach Lipovsky
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Release Date: May 16, 2025

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES is the seventh installment in the franchise, begun in 2000, about people cursed to die in incredibly complicated accidents. This is one of the better editions, adding to the general mythology and containing lots of bizarre ways to expire.

The basic FINAL DESTINATION premise is that someone (generally a teen) has a premonition of a horrible mass casualty event. The person manages to save her or himself and some others, only to have everybody still perish one by one in unexpected and weird circumstances, because Death refuses to be cheated.

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES opens with an extended, pull-the-stops-out sequence set in an elevated restaurant, the Skyview, in the ‘70s. We mainly focus on Iris (Brec Bessinger), whose boyfriend is hoping to pop the question.

Then we’re in the present, where college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) wakes from a nightmare about this catastrophe, which we’ve just experienced along with her. Turns out this is a recurring dream that Stefani has been having for months.

Since her studies are being disrupted by lack of sleep in any case, Stefani takes a break from school to head back to the family home, to visit her dad Marty (Tinpo Lee) and younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones). Mom (Rya Kihlstedt) left ten years earlier.

Stefani’s quest to find out why she keeps having this calamitous vision over and over soon involves her Uncle Howard (Alex Zahara), cousins Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones), Julia (Anna Lore) and Bobby (Owen Campbell Joyner) and their reclusive grandmother (Gabrielle Rose).

The screenplay by Guy Busick & Lori Evans Taylor, from a story they and Jon Watts crafted, based on characters created by Jeffrey Reddick, is diligent in widening the scope of what the characters can research, while at the same time providing a better explanation of why this is happening now better than a lot of franchises do.

There are some memorably crazy kills (not to mention a pretty intense fakeout), documented with a knife’s-edge mixture of humor and horror by directors Adam Stein & Zachary Lipovsky. The filmmakers elicit good performances from their actors, with Santa Juana giving urgency to the central character.

Speaking of the cast, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES is what may be the last screen appearance of the late, great Tony Todd, who played this role in the original FINAL DESTINATION and its first sequel. He is given more substantial material here than before, although it’s daunting to see such a normally powerful-looking person seem so frail.

Structurally, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES is a little odd, in that nothing that tops the long, wild opener. It’s fine, and there’s plenty of cleverness throughout, but the movie has a slightly downward trajectory.

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES does share the underlying notion of all FINAL DESTINATION movies, which is that it’s a waste of time to help people. This will be a problem for those who see this as a less-than-helpful message. BLOODLINES at least softens it a bit by observing that interfering with Death’s plans at least gives some folks more time.

On a more positive side, one can (if desired) see the FINAL DESTINATION movies as the most graphic way possible to make the points of public service commercials about driving and littering, i.e., watch where you’re going and don’t drop even tiny items, because you never know where they’ll wind up. (Bad pennies are in abundance here.)

In any case, for those who enjoy looking at a set-up and guessing what can go wrong, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES performs admirably.

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