It has been 14 years since horror icon Tony Todd graced our screens as the insightful and enigmatic William Bludworth cluing in the walking, talking body bags on how they can possibly cheat death. Todd passed away last year leaving behind a remarkable and inspirational cinematic legacy which included such films as Bird, 1990’s Night of the Living Dead, The Crow, Victor Crowley, The Final Destination franchise and perhaps his greatest achievement, as Clive Barker’s vengeful urban myth, The Candyman.
Final Destination: Bloodlines marks Todd’s final film. He passed away last year. Not only does Bloodlines flesh out the Bludworth character a bit more but Todd’s final scene is both heart-breaking and uplifting as we know going in this is the last time we will ever see him on the big screen, his eclectic body of work thrilling and chilling fans for 39 years. Bloodlines is a fitting send-off for a man who often chose to fill the shoes of smaller roles and made those minor characters unforgettable because of his unmistakable voice that reminded many of the late, great Boris Karloff and his natural, effortless ability to command our attention whenever he was on the big screen. He proved just like Dick Miller did that you didn’t have to be THE star of a movie to be a star.
Bloodlines is as sneaky and clever as the gremlins screwing with Murray Futterman’s snowplow. It takes all the expectations we have of a Final Destination movie and turns that on its head, manipulating our familiarity with how things usually go, are usually scripted. Thankfully though, it is not a parody of itself but rather a celebration of the franchise.
Rather than a group of a classmates or workmates, Bloodlines targets an entire family which makes things very personal not only for them but for us as viewers. That really ups the ante especially when the members are treated, presented as more than just potential entries in the body count. Early on when a character unexpectedly has his head shredded by a lawn mower we learn that like all entries in the franchise nobody is ever safe. They can be obliterated in the blink of an eye which is one of the draws of of the series and those deaths are as imaginative and brutal as ever before.
And, yes, people. MIR machines if cranked up to the max can become monstrous magnets that can suck in large objects like wheelchairs and chairs. The more you know, right?
Trying to shield the family from Death’s wrath is Kaitlyn Santa Juana as the rightfully perpetually paranoid Stefani Reyes. Stefani is tormented and obsessed by gruesome and ghastly nightmares which eventually compel her to track down a bonkers relative. This relative lives in a fortified bunker that only Laurie Strode could appreciate. Stefani is warned of Death’s impending drive-bys. She doesn’t take the heads-up seriously until Reyes family members start filling up the local morgue and cemetery.
Part of the fascination with the Final Destination series are the ever-changing rules, ways to thwart Death. There have been attempts to mess with Death’s set order by mucking with the sequence, adding a new life, taking someone’s place, etc. Bloodlines expands that lore but I am not sure if I buy what the producers are selling. I find the one addition, the critical addition, to be colouring outside the lines with an industrial-sized paint gun but that’s just me.
Bloodlines is on the same level as the two most seminal entries in the series, the original movie and the sequel. It was pretty much all downhill from there with a few exceptions. Who would have thunk that the creative forces behind the Kim Possible live action movie ( Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein) and the director of Spider-Man Homecoming, Far from Home and No Way Home would reenergize and rejuvenate an underappreciated horror franchise such as Final Destination? Perhaps they need to hang up their capes and sharpen those machetes instead. It is safe to say though that just as the hacked up, shot up, burnt up corpses of Jason and Freddy will be resurrected one day, Final Destination is back with vengeance.
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