Premiering on the eve of the millennium in 2000, the “Final Destination” franchise gave a generation of millennials some very specific phobias, including lumber trucks, airplane tray tables (a friend still checks hers before every flight), lawn mowers, shower curtains and roller coasters.
By weaponizing otherwise mundane objects into murderous Rube Goldberg machines set into motion by carelessness or random chance, “Final Destination” set itself apart during the late ’90s teen horror trend by what it lacked: a knife-wielding killer.
Death emerged from the world around these characters, seemingly wielded by a unseen force. The only explanation for these outrageously violent deaths was the theory that they had escaped their fate thanks to a harrowing premonition. In the world of “Final Destination,” death wants what it wants, and it is a vengeful god.
The original five-film franchise spanned 2000 to 2011, years that included the Y2K panic, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the two presidential terms of George W. Bush. In a world that may have felt out of control and increasingly violent, “Final Destination” amplified that feeling, perhaps offering a strange kind of emotional catharsis in its magnification of the horrific randomness of life and death. It stands to reason that the franchise might resonate anew, five years after a deadly global pandemic and with the climate crisis accelerating and images of war and suffering pumped into smartphones regularly. Plus, movie studios love a dependable piece of nostalgic IP.
“Final Destination: Bloodlines” does respond to our collective anxiety about death, dying and how to control it. (Spoiler alert: You can’t.) In the original, Devon Sawa played the psychically gifted Alex, whose bad dream set off this violent string of events. In “Bloodlines,” the dreamer in question is Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana). Her night terrors are causing her to flunk out of college, and her roommate demands that she go home and get some answers so that she can get some sleep.
Stef dreams of the same thing every night: a mind-meltingly horrific collapse of the Skyview Hotel in 1968, centering on a young woman, Iris (Brec Bassinger), who doesn’t listen to her intuition about going up that very, very high elevator. Iris is Stefani’s grandmother, who has turned into a paranoid loner living in a rural fortified compound only the Unabomber could love. When Stef pays her a visit, her grandmother sees she’s received her psychic gift, and passes on her years of (terrifying) research. It’s enough to drive a girl mad.
“Bloodlines” is directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein and written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor (who developed the story with Jon Watts). The film reinvigorates “Final Destination” in a way that makes its predecessors proud, using a family tree death order structure that links the Skyview Hotel event to the freak accidents that now plague Stefani and her extended family. The connective tissue to the previous films takes the form of the late, great Tony Todd, who before his death in November reprised his role as a wise coroner offering guidance to our characters, frantic to halt their impending doom.
The “Bloodlines” characters are well drawn, but make no mistake — the stars of the film are the over-the-top death sequences, which Lipovsky and Stein have elevated and escalated. One involves a backyard barbecue littered with hazards. A masterfully executed tattoo-shop scene involves a ceiling fan, skull bobblehead and septum piercing. The opening Skyview nightmare is especially great for its 1960s style, manic energy and sheer scale.
Each sequence is cleverly staged, and the rhythm and cadence of the edit is executed perfectly by Sabrina Pitre. There’s an odd smoothness to the look and feel of the cinematography by Christian Sebaldt, but the uncanny valley phenomenon is welcome when watching bodily destruction unfold. The artifice is a comfort.
Existential questions, philosophical quandaries and mental health themes are present if you want to look for them, but “Final Destination: Bloodlines” mostly revels in the gleefully gory and low-brow bloody thrills that are the hallmark of the franchise. The shockingly wild death traps keep you gasping for meaning in a world that’s out to get you.
The post After ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines,’ you’ll never look at a septum piercing the same ever again appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
