Certificate: 15

Running time: 110 minutes

Directors: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein

Within any form of entertainment, whether it be books, TV, videogames or films, horror and science-fiction are the two genres in which you can not only be the most creative, but you can also have the most fun. The ‘’Final Destination ‘’ franchise is one of the best examples and has become one of my biggest and most favourite guilty pleasures. They should not work as well as they do and have no right to be as ludicrously enjoyably as they are, but given the fourteen-year gap since the last instalment, it is up to the financial success of this film to determine if we have we moved on from this concept or not.

Despite being six films in and to give credit where credit is due, I actually thought this plot was more convincing than in the past and made logical enough sense. However, you need to have seen at least a couple of them to understand the logic of how all of it works as its too complicated to explain here. The story this time round is that we start with a flashback in 1968 showing a couple, ‘’Iris Campbell’’ (Brec Bassinger) and her fiancé played by Max Lloyd-Jones attend an opening of a skyscraper restaurant (the most conveniently unsafe looking building I have ever seen – made even funnier by a character saying that construction was completed five months ahead of schedule - so business as usual).

Photo credit: IMDb/ Warner Bros. Pictures

As is standard of the series, ‘’Iris’’ experiences a premonition of multiple failures that causes the building to collapse. She warns the guests of the inevitable disaster, and saves everyone. As we know by now, death does not like to be cheated and those who should have died begin to die in strange circumstances. We fast forward to present day, college student ‘’Stefani Reyes’’ (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is haunted and dreaming of the collapse. She returns home to seek answers about her grandmother. Here, they decide to put a spin on the franchise they didn’t do before.

‘’Iris’’ reveals that by saving herself and her fiancée, she has changed fate, and this has led to a generational curse where those who should have never existed are in danger. And then what happens next is the usual splatter you expect to see, with spectacularly ridiculous gore and then some. Here’s the thing, despite being unsure of if this will be the last one for definite or not, I’d be lying to say that I want it to end as there is a certain pleasure in watching this stuff play out on screen and how creative the traps keep getting, which has always been the main selling point. I’d confidently say this is the best since the second instalment (if your memory is slightly fuzzy with these films, that’s the one with the log truck, the best and most famous set piece in ''Final Destination'' history). 

Photo credit: IMDb/ Warner Bros. Pictures

What’s different here is that this actually has something approaching a believable story, whereas the last films just got caught in a trap of being about random people we don’t care about all the time. By now, they’ve realized they need to switch it up. ‘’Final Destination: Bloodlines’’ is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, going down a more comedic route has worked in it’s favour and paid off. What this does it ridicule and make fun of what’s gone before, and it should not work as well as it actually does. One gentleman in my screening was laughing so hard that I had never heard a reaction like that in a cinema before (not even for a comedy), so evidently it was working for some. There is also a hilarious reference to a past film thrown in there for extra measure which worked to perfection in the moment.

But on the other hand, I feel that this idea cannot stretch for multiple films and is very much a one-time thing and would only work once, and they were lucky to get away with it here. I simply do not know what other plots you can do. Here lies the main point though: the traps are the only thing keeping people invested at this point, but then again that was always the deal. People would keep coming back to see what new material they’d do. Is that enough of a reason to keep the franchise going or are we all used to it by now, or even bored of it? We shall also see if the time gap has proved too much. Only the numbers will tell. However, sacrificing story for pure entertainment is what Hollywood has strived on for years.

Photo credit: IMDb/ Warner Bros. Pictures

A couple of the past instalments all got off pretty lightly (at least I thought) with the 15 certificate they were given, and this was somehow able to blow them out of the water, but still received that same rating again. This is by far the nastiest of them all (which is saying something) and I think this should have been the first 18. It goes without saying this is the most violent alleged 15 I have ever seen and some of it is genuinely shocking. But, that’s what were here for and what this brand is known for best, but here, they have clearly gone all out and as far as they can, and they know it.

If this is the last we see of these films, they’ve ended with a bang. The final curtain closing moment is absolutely brilliant and at least this proves on thing for certain: after fourteen-years, they’ve still got it. 

In cinemas now