'Final Destination Bloodlines' Review: Gnarly Deaths and Tense Atmosphere Put This Stagnant Horror Franchise Back on Top

A slasher movie where the killer is the invisible force of death sounds like an idea spoken at 3 am at a frat party. How could audiences be made scared by something they can’t see? And yet, 25 years and five movies later, the Final Destination franchise has made a whopping $657 million off this very idea. Starting with 2000’s Final Destination, which many would say has yet to be topped in the series, it swapped a physical embodiment of its killer for heightened gore and atmosphere, resulting in a movie the world had never seen the likes of before. From there, the post-9/11 splatter craze of horror in the 2000s stretched its hand to the genre, and the movies became more about the insane ways one might day and just how gory it could be. A dip in quality was inevitable in the franchise, but, surprisingly, the last of the sequels, 2011’s Final Destination 5, was much better than anyone thought it would be, mainly due to its refocus on characters and that devastating twist ending. Now, 14 years since the fifth installment, the franchise returns with Final Destination Bloodlines, and out of all of the entries, none understands what type of movie it is better than this one. It’s not trying to recreate the original, nor is it a quick cash grab like the franchise’s lowest point, 2009’s The Final Destination.