Creative Cruelty. Review of the horror film Final Destination Bloodlines

The Final Destination franchise has always held a special place in the pantheon of youth horror. Originating in the early 2000s, it captivated audiences with its simple but terrifyingly effective concept: Death cannot be fooled, it will find you in the most ingenious way – and at the last moment you will be surprised how ordinary household items can turn into tools for creative murders. Each new part was perceived with a mixture of anticipation for the next dose of adrenaline and skepticism about the authors' ability to offer fundamentally new experiences. It seemed that the series had exhausted itself after the fifth part, but the sixth still reached the audience, even though it took almost 16 years to wait.

The announcement of the film Final Destination: Bloodlines has caused a cautious wave of interest. Can the film breathe new life into a familiar formula? Will it become another repetition, parasitizing on its former glory? After all, times have changed, and what was frightening and exciting two decades ago may seem naive today. However, strangely enough, the new film finds a way not only to pay tribute to the franchise's sources, but also to offer exactly the experience that modern fans expect from it, skillfully balancing on the verge of nostalgia and self-irony. And it works, even if the overall plot turns into complete convention.

The main character of Final Destination: Bloodlines, a young girl Stephanie (Caitlin Santa Juana), constantly sees the same nightmare. In it, all the people who came to the opening of a chic skyscraper restaurant die a terrible death. It turns out that this is not just a dream, but a prediction that the grandmother of the main character (Gabrielle Rose) once saw. The latter managed to save many lives because of this, but Death does not like it when people interfere with her plans. Now not only the people who survived in the restaurant are under threat, but also their children and grandchildren. Stephanie, along with her friends, also find themselves on Death's list. They will have to learn the rules by which Death hunts them, because even an ordinary room can become a dangerous trap for the heroes.

It is in these traps that the main strength of the film, as well as the entire franchise, lies. Final Destination Bloodlines with pleasure demonstrates the same creative cruelty for which the series was once loved. Each scene of death is a small masterpiece of engineering, a complex mechanism in the style of Rube Goldberg, where the smallest detail, the most insignificant everyday object can become a murder weapon.

The film's creators masterfully play with the viewer's expectations: you see a potential threat, you tense up, waiting for the inevitable, but Death strikes from a completely unexpected direction. This game of "guess who will kill you next" is quite nerve-wracking, and the ingenuity with which the fatalities are arranged evokes a mixture of horror and some kind of perverse delight.

This is despite the fact that the blood and "flesh" in the film are depicted somewhat cheaply, as if not much budget was spent on computer graphics. Another argument in favor of practical effects. However, don't worry, the new "Finance Point" still has plenty of naturalistic moments, during which sensitive viewers should not stare too closely at the screen.

The film successfully captures and recreates the atmosphere of youth thrillers and slashers of the early 2000s. It has everything: a group of stereotypical young people, typical of the genre of location - there was even something from Twilight - a sense of inevitability of fate and the company's black humor. This nostalgic flair is enhanced by a high level of self-irony. "The Family Curse" is perfectly aware of its own essence. This is a bloody attraction, so the film does not try to pretend to be something more. The cruelty here is so hyperbolized and inventive that it often causes not so much fear as nervous laughter.

It's that rare occasion when watching gallons of plasma being sprayed and frankly grotesque deaths can be entertaining, while not denying moments of physical disgust at what you're seeing. The film seems to wink at the viewer, acknowledging the absurdity of what's happening and inviting them to simply enjoy the spectacle. It's this dedication to the audience and self-aware humor that is the film's strength, allowing the horror to feel both familiar and fresh.

However, behind this bloody extravaganza and nostalgic wrapper, there are also significant shortcomings. The main one is the script and characters. The story, which connects episodes of inventive murders, is frankly mediocre. It serves only as a functional framework, and attempts to add depth to it through the theme of the titular "ancestral curse" or family dramas look strained. The characters are flat, devoid of individuality, and it is difficult to feel any empathy for them. Their dialogues are often primitive, and their actions are dictated solely by script conventions. The characters regularly do something frankly senseless, far-fetched, or simply annoying, just to advance the plot to the next bloody massacre or to artificially create tension.

This weakness of the narrative part leads to the fact that the film, despite its inventiveness in depicting deaths, does not offer anything new in terms of developing the ideas of the franchise. It perfectly copies the successful elements of the original, but hardly evolves. Its strength is in its fidelity to the familiar formula, but this is also its weakness for those who would expect something more than just a set of creative deaths. On the other hand, the authors, as we can assume, perfectly understood the task: to pay homage to the past, correct some of the mistakes of the previous, less successful parts, and provide the audience with a bloody and fun attraction. And they coped with this task.

Final Destination Bloodlines is a worthy return of the franchise, which knows exactly its audience and its expectations. The film skillfully plays on the sense of nostalgia, offering spectacular and often stunning scenes of death, seasoned with a solid dose of black humor and self-irony. This is a film that, first and foremost, entertains, albeit in a somewhat perverse way, encouraging viewers to eagerly await how the authors will surpass themselves next time. However, a weak script, cardboard characters and dialogues that exist only to connect action episodes, do not allow the film to rise above the level of simply a good representative of the genre. However, if you are willing to close your eyes to the narrative flaws for the sake of first-class "death design" and the atmosphere of 2000s horror, then "Final Destination" will definitely not disappoint you.