The first news about Final Destination Bloodlines came before the film went into production, as a sort of pre-hype gimmick to get people ready for the franchise’s return (the last film came out in 2011).

New directors Adam Stein and Zack Lipovski — I had first seen them as promising upcoming directors in the Steven Spielberg filmmaking reality show On the Lot — had fooled the executives at New Line Cinema by staging a visual-effects-heavy freak accident similar to those seen in the Final Destination films, on a live Zoom call.

The prank had gotten them the job — and a fine hire it turned out to be, because Bloodlines is the most original and fresh Final Destination has been since its first movie came out 25 years ago.

Starting way back in 1968, Iris Campbell and her fiancé Paul (Brec Bassinger and Max Lloyd-Jones) slip into an uber-posh highrise restaurant for the snotty elite that turns out to be a hotbed for a disaster waiting to happen. Iris, who had peeked into death’s plan with a premonition, ends up saving people. Years later, Iris’s grand-daughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a college student, constantly sees Iris’ death the way it was meant to happen, forcing her to learn what really happened.

Final Destination Bloodlines is the most original film in the franchise since the first movie came out 25 years ago

There is actually a reason to keep the rest of the story spoiler free, save for the fact that the title Bloodlines, despite sounding B-grade and cheesy, actually fits the premise. Bloodlines removes the friend’s angle and replaces it with family. The change shifts the emotional core of the film into a new territory where, instead of teenagers dying in unexpected ways, the stakes become higher when a close-knit family has to thwart death … or at least try to.

A few new aspects of death’s plan are revealed, including how to cheat it, and a surprise reveal of the mysterious recurring character, the coroner-mortician played by the late Tony Todd. The deaths aren’t as gruesome and the little gore one does see has a bit of campy, laughable tenor to it.

Stein and Lipovski, who directed Freaks, the live-action made-for-TV-movie version of Disney’s hit cartoon Kim Possible, and other smaller stints on television, add a novel twist by setting up each death with a classic yesteryears’ song.

The soundtrack includes ‘Bad Moon Rising’ (Creedence Clearwater), ‘Ring of Fire’ (Johnny Cash), ‘Fallin’ (Connie Francis), ‘Shout’ (The Isley Brothers), ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ (Bobbie Gentry), ‘Escape’ (The Piña Colada Song, Rupert Holmes), ‘Without You’ (Air Supply), ‘Stronger’ (Kelly Clarkson), and a few others.

These small tid-bits make Bloodlines not just a better movie, but a good one.

If there is going to be another Final Destination — and I don’t see why not, because in one week it has become the franchise’s biggest earner ($279 million and counting) — this very team of writers (screenwriters Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor who wrote the story with Spider-Man director Jon Watts) should return with Stein and Lipovski. The franchise couldn’t be in better hands.

Released by Warner Bros and HKC (in Pakistan), Final Destination Bloodlines is rated A, and there’s no point asking why

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 6th, 2025