Final Destination: Bloodlines ★★★½

BRAVO to the creatives behind the Final Destination horror franchise.

After five films, the last one released 14 years ago, you would be excused for approaching a new instalment with trepidation.

But Final Destination: Bloodlines succeeds in ways that most so-called reboots do not.

This film isn’t just a reboot – it also works as a prequel and sequel that expands and explains the lore of the franchise, adjusts the formula in interesting ways and presents new and impressive death sequences.

For example, after five films you would have thought the ways to create a series of coincidences resulting in a horrible accidental death might have been exhausted.

But no, there are a couple of clever ones again here; in particular one in a hospital that is possibly the best of the entire franchise.

In case you’re not aware how the franchise works let me quickly explain.

In the first film a group of teenagers board a flight from the US to France for a high school excursion. We are quickly introduced to a range of characters, including a male student who is very concerned about flying.

His fears are realised soon after take-off when the plane explodes, killing everyone onboard.

But wait. It’s a dream/premonition and he’s back in his seat waiting for take-off. He grabs the chance and tries to get off the plane, creating a ruckus that leads to he and a half-dozen other students being kicked off the flight.

Of course, it then explodes for real and everyone else is killed.

He immediately comes under suspicion but that’s not the focus of the story. The survivors start to get killed in bizarre accidents in the same order that they died in his premonition.

A mysterious mortician tells them it’s all because ‘Death’ doesn’t like being cheated.

This formula is basically repeated throughout the next four films with the initial set-up and manner of deaths changing.

For this sixth film the studio handed the reins to four young people who had backgrounds in horror films but, significantly, were all new to the franchise.

This injection of fresh, new blood and ideas definitely worked.

The new film starts decades before the original one to create a neat narrative springboard for Death’s involvement in all the subsequent films.

At first the new film seems like the film will still be using the same formula, just in a different period setting.

But that doesn’t exactly happen in the way you expect and the story moves skilfully into the impact of Death’s plan on a family, as opposed to just a group of friends, thereby adding more emotional weight.

The sixth film is arguably the best of the entire franchise.

Watched at the cinema.