"Final Destination: Bloodlines" - Review

Haunted by nightmares of her grandmother Iris dying horribly, mathematician Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) returns home to clear her head, figure out what it means and try to contact the woman in question for answers. Unfortunately, a series of events shall soon befall the clan, as the mystery peels back like skin on a Cenobite's partner...

The "Final Destination" series has always been a rather silly one, at its best when it embraces the series of cartoonish stunts, improbably intricate deaths and Rube Goldberg machinations of messy mayhem. As a teenager/schoolkid you'd always hear the kids go "oh my God did you watch that movie on Channel 4 last night with the logs?! That was messed up!"
"No way! That bit with the lift!"
And it was always a race to what would be the goriest, stupidest death.
They weren't really for me, but this one manages to nail that series and is probably the best written of the bunch?
The best of the bunch previously was 2: because it had Jonathan Cherry and enjoyed the assignment (the barbed wire death remains one of the funniest) and whilst this movie seems to agree and owes a lot of debts to it (frequent passing of log trucks for the most part), it does its own thing and puts in a lot more effort than it needs to for this sort of assignment, clearly made by people who love the material. That goes a long way in my book. It begins with a very creative, fun little flashback of the entire dream set in the 60s, complete with a mini-story within about just how an obnoxious child is going to die, which perfectly sets the tone for things ahead.
The kills are creative, and peppered with wonderfully unpredictable red herrings (particular highlights are a tattoo parlour and a hospital...), whilst the usual line-up of doomed goons are not your typical horror movie dickbags. Sure, they're not given too much to do, but the family dynamic is pleasant enough, and the makers (directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, and writers Guy Busick from Radio Silence and Lori Evans Taylor who doesn't have a Wikipedia page) weave in a rather solid "reconnecting with one's family" arc for a much needed human touch and some more pitch black humour. A standout is Richard Harmon's "Eric", the eldest cousin who has rightfully been getting praise; but personally the final and only scene of the impeccable Tony Todd was my highlight: the poignancy of his death adding weight to a final farewell and send off, giving me chills in the cinema as I watched it. Farewell king.