Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) Review & Summary

Final Destination: Bloodlines feels less like a grand return for the Final Destination franchise and more like an acceptable new entry, like it never left.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on Hours Updated on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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“Final Destination: Bloodlines” Film Details

  • Runtime: 1 Hour(s) and 50 Minutes
  • Released On: In Theaters
  • Public Release Date: May 15, 2025
  • Director(s): Adam B. Stein, Zach Lipovsky
  • Writer(s): Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, Jon Watts
  • Based On Work By: Jeffrey Reddick
  • Genre(s): Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult
  • Rating: Rated R
  • Distributor: New Line Cinema

Summary

Stefani, for two months, has been having horrible dreams, if not better said, nightmares, which seem to be of her grandmother Iris dying over and over again with hundreds of other people. To stop the madness affecting not just her personal life, but also her academics, she heads home to her increasingly estranged family for answers. Begrudgingly, she is directed to her grandmother Iris, who breaks down all that is happening, and while it seems too crazy to be true, Stefani’s family members begin dying in violent ways, and she does her best to stop Death from wiping out her family tree.

Cast and Characters

Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana)

  • Character Summary: Stefani was a straight-A student and valedictorian of her high school class, but a recent string of repeated nightmares has dropped her grades to the point where she is becoming a shell of her former self. Considering all the familial relationships she sacrificed when she got to college, she has to figure out what is going on to make this all worth it.

1968 Iris (Brec Bassinger) & Modern Day Iris (Gabrielle Rose)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring 1968 Iris: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring Modern Day Iris: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: In the 60s, Iris was just a girl, in love with a boy, pregnant before she got married. However, in present day, she is estranged from her family, she lives in isolation within a bunker made for someone expecting a civil war and she has the look and news clippings of a conspiracy theorist.

William John Bludworth aka JB (Tony Todd)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Towards the end of his career at a hospital, JB is accustomed to people coming to him for advice but sees himself no longer willing to be people’s last hope as he plans to not only retire from his day job but the one thrusted onto him regarding giving advice to people who somehow cheated death, and would like to get away with it.

Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Darlene is Iris’s second child and only daughter. She and her brother grew up with Iris paranoid about anything and everything that could happen. Now, while Darlene’s brother broke free of that and had a normal life with a wife and kids, Darlene struggled to break away from her mother’s indoctrination, which led to her abandoning her family and traveling extensively in her RV.

Erik (Richard Harmon)

  • Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
  • Character Summary: Erik is Darlene’s oldest nephew, who is the first to reject Iris’ and Stefani’s belief that death is coming for their family, and also one of the first to try to find a way to cheat the system.

Why Is “Final Destination: Bloodlines” Rated R?

  • Dialog:
    • Cursing: Occasional
    • Discriminatory Language: No
    • Innuendo: None
    • Suicide Mentions: No
  • Violence:
    • Gun Violence: None
    • Violence Against Animals: No
    • Violence Against Children: No
    • Domestic Violence: No
    • Gore/ Blood: Heavy
    • Body Horror: Yes
    • Notable Violence: None
  • Sexual Content:
    • Nudity: None
    • Sexual Situations: None
    • Sexual Violence: No
  • Miscellaneous:
    • Drinking: Yes
    • Drug Use: None
    • Vomiting: No
    • Smoking: Yes
    • Vermin: None

Links

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

The Dark Humor [86/100]

One of the things we’ve been increasingly appreciating in the horror genre, especially as we find ourselves watching more from Shudder, is horror that doesn’t take itself overtly seriously. Final Destination: Bloodlines is no different. Whether it is how two characters question if they should kill a baby, after William John Bludworth (JB) says one way to escape Death is to kill someone and take their lifespan, you’ll find yourself laughing in ways that should make you feel shame or guilt.

Now, let me be clear: This is not a comedy, and there aren’t a bunch of laugh-out-loud moments throughout. However, despite the promise of death, not everyone, specifically Erik, takes what’s happening as seriously as he should.

It Doesn’t Set Up a Sequel [88/100]

To much surprise, Final Destination: Bloodlines neither sets up a sequel, prequel, nor hints at further expanding the universe. It presents itself as a potential one-and-done, where, yes, if this is a hit, they could introduce new people for death to kill. However, while modern-day Iris has newspaper clippings of different ways the people she saved died, again, nothing in this movie pushes the idea that it wants to fully reboot the franchise, like its peers, Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Gruesome Deaths [83/100]

While none of the deaths are so gross you can’t enjoy a snack while watching the movie, paired with the jump scares the film has, you may find yourself grimacing and, depending on how twisted you are, squealing with delight. For as you see objects fling into people, heads get mangled or other acts which horror fans are accustomed to, if not expect, you can see that while the special effects team wanted to give fans something satisfying, they weren’t trying to put this movie on a pedestal and have it compete with the likes of The Ugly Stepsister, or other recent movies that show a level of violence that can make viewers uncomfortable.

The Anxiety & Paranoia [84/100]

But, with that said, Final Destination, as a franchise, has survived this long because it can induce anxiety and paranoia in viewers. Most who have seen Final Destination 2 refuse to drive behind trucks with anything that could get loose and impale them. That movie has created an irrational fear for an entire generation.

Now, this film doesn’t do that. The fate averted is a restaurant in the sky coming apart, and those aren’t common enough to worry about. However, the individualized deaths that take out one or maybe two people? Those could get to you. Take the example shown in the trailer, with a broken piece of glass leading to a chain of events that could get you killed, or what a single penny could do throughout its lifetime.

Heck, just watching this in a Dolby Theater can make you think about, with every sound that vibrates the room, could it collapse? The theater, with its cracks, maybe a dripping leak, is the lobby safe? While the movie itself may not create the same lifelong fears as past entries, it does push you to think about all the ways you can die in the theater, as you make your way home, or even in your apartment or house.

You’ll Care About Who May Live Or Die [85/100]

What matters most is that you care about who will live or die in this entry. Yes, we don’t name every character part of Stefani’s family, but that’s because many of them don’t get much in the way of character development. However, because you value Stefani, and it is established that she has become distant from family members but desires to change that, you want to see her get closer to her little brother, her cousins, her uncle, or even her mom, who abandoned her when she was 10.

Which isn’t to say when people die, you are going to be devastated, or yell at the screen, but you may find yourself hoping this or that person will make it to the credits, as Death picks them off.

It’s Attempts At Getting Emotional Doesn’t Make You Roll Your Eyes [82/100]

Stefani and her mother, Darlene, have a notably strained relationship. Darlene, as noted, abandoned her husband and two kids, one of whom was Stefani. Apparently, it is because Iris’ paranoia eventually got to her to the point she couldn’t be around her kids without imagining all the ways they could die. Throughout the movie, as it becomes clear they won’t have forever to reconcile, the film makes an effort to make you feel something regarding this relationship.

Even with how often I cry in movies or shows, I got a little something, but I wouldn’t say the writing and acting gave the most emotional mother/daughter relationship. It is certainly better than the attempts we saw in movies like Clown In The Cornfield, to make the absence of a parent mean something, but it wasn’t good enough to label this film a drama. It’s just slightly better than average.

Overall

Our Rating (84/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)

With multiple franchises coming back to life for the horror genre this year, Final Destination: Bloodlines seems like it could potentially be one of the few that isn’t purely trying to live off nostalgia but dust off an old formula, modernize it just a bit, and give both old fans and new fans something to enjoy. Does it push itself to be a film you want to revive the franchise? No. In fact, if Final Destination only released a new entry every 3 to 5 years, that would be the best thing for it.

But Final Destination: Bloodlines, whether new to the franchise or growing up with it, is an enjoyable experience worth checking out, whether in theaters or once available to watch at home.

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.