I love the Final Destination franchise. Not all of the movies are winners (*cough*The Final Destination *cough*), but they all have a particular creativity and grim sensibility that I find consistently fun. Because of this, I have been sold on the upcoming Final Destination: Bloodlines from the beginning, and its May release date can't get here soon enough – but after watching the special preview of the film that just played this afternoon at CinemaCon, I now get the feeling that the fifth sequel in the horror series could potentially be the best one yet.
An extended look at Final Destination: Bloodlines was a prominent part of the Warner Bros. slate presentation today at the annual Las Vegas convention for movie theater owners, and it had members of the audience in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace squirming and having fits (meanwhile, I watched the whole thing with a giant, goofy grin on my face). I won't tell you everything that went down in the footage as a means of avoiding spoilers, but it accomplished two things in particular that I deeply appreciate as a fan of the franchise.
The Build Up To The Two Kills In The Final Destination: Bloodlines CinemaCon Footage Was Agonizing And Brilliant
Everyone knows that the hallmark of the Final Destination movies are the complicated, Rube Goldberg-esque sequences that see minor, every day occurrences snowball into horrific deaths – but the best examples of this don't just create obvious paths that lead to obvious conclusions. Instead, they let the imaginations of the audience go wild thinking about everything that could go wrong with specific elements that have been introduced, and then they snap like a mouse trap with conclusions you never see coming.
The Final Destination: Bloodlines CinemaCon footage unleashed a perfect example of this.
In the scene, two characters (who I will not identify) go to a hospital with the intention of finding a way to cheat death (which they know is coming after them). They are aware that one way to accomplish this is to flatline and then be revived, so they devise a plan to do just that via a peanut allergy and anaphylactic shock. The sequence scatters in ingredients of potential horror – a malfunctioning vending machine, a pack of peanut butter cups, an Epi Pen, an activated MRI, and more – and I found myself in a state of pure horror fan glee wondering how all of it would mix together as bloody mayhem. My guesses all turned out to be wrong, and I was absolutely wowed by the conclusion.
There's An Awareness Of How Characters Can Try And Cheat Death
In addition to being bowled over by the footage's carnage, I was also very pleased to notice something else about Final Destination: Bloodlines: there is a recognition of franchise history. If the idea of people cheating death by purposefully dying and being revived sounds familiar, it's because it was a key part of Final Destination 2 – but that's not all! The characters in the scene also know that they can kill somebody else and steal the time they have left alive, which was a major plot element in Final Destination 5.
I don't know exactly how this info is learned in the upcoming horror film (perhaps it's shared by Tony Todd's William Bludworth?) , but I'm excited by the idea of characters who have the same awareness as the audience of the "rules" that govern the franchise, and it tells me that the filmmakers have a deep understanding of this canon. The idea of mixing old approaches with new ideas gives off a certain "capstone movie" vibe, and I'm stoked to see what the horror sequel does with it.
Fans have been waiting nearly a decade-and-a-half for a new Final Destination entry, but at long last, it's almost here. Final Destination: Bloodlines will be in theaters everywhere domestically on May 16, and it's one of my most anticipated titles on the entirety of the 2025 Movie Release Calendar. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming weeks for more about the film, and be on the lookout for more of our coverage from CinemaCon 2025.
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