Final Destination: Bloodlines might be rated R-16 for gore, but it’s the emotional carnage that really lingers. After 14 years away, the franchise’s sixth installment didn’t just come back on May 16, 2025, with brutal kills. It had BAGGAGE. And we don’t mean the carry-on kind!
In a surprise turn that feels oddly in step with emotional films like Encanto, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Turning Red, this legacy sequel trades in more than just creatively thought-out deaths. It forces us to face what happens when trauma is passed down like an heirloom.
Stefani Reyes (played by Kaitlyn Santa Juana) starts her journey plagued by inherited nightmares. These visions don’t belong to her in any way, but to her grandmother Iris (Brec Bassinger) when she herself was a young lady. This twist transforms Bloodlines from a slasher into a saga.
As Iris reveals how she once defied Death’s design in the ’60s, the story gets chilling. Death doesn’t just want HER anymore. It wants her descendants. And now, the guilt of survival has metastasized into a generational curse.
The horror of generational trauma
We’ve seen horror explore inherited pain before (just think Hereditary or Wild Indian). Still, Bloodlines dares to inject it into a franchise known more for Rube Goldberg-style deaths than psychological depth. The latest Final Destination movie builds its lineage with a sprinkle of generational trauma.
That shift is critical. Iris’s decision to isolate herself mirrors so many real-life families fractured by silence and shame. The film’s message becomes clear: survival at the cost of connection is still a kind of death.
Gabrielle Rose’s portrayal of older Iris counts as heartbreak to this horror. Her quiet exile is perhaps the franchise’s most devastating moment yet. Also, Tony Todd’s posthumous appearance as Bludworth becomes even more meaningful. Not only does it offer closure to his character, but it also hints that he knew all along about the generational implications of cheating Death. His final warning? “Enjoy what time you have left.”
It’s not just for the characters. It’s for us.
Final Destination: Bloodlines Doesn’t Lose its Teeth
Don’t worry, the kills are still here. Though admittedly, some feel rushed, with editing that pulls away just as things get juicy.
Still, the premonition sequence in the skyview restaurant is among the best the franchise has ever delivered. But what makes Bloodlines unforgettable isn’t the splatter. It’s the suggestion that some curses don’t die with you. They live on in your children.
Fans have long linked films like Lake Mungo, Affliction, and Fast Color to themes of inherited pain. Now, Bloodlines earns its spot in that canon. Unlike its predecessors, it asks what happens after survival.
And if we don’t confront the past, are we just doomed to repeat it?
Final Destination: Bloodlines might not be the most technically perfect installment, but it is the most human. It stares into the abyss of generational trauma, and dares to ask whether escaping Death is even worth it if you can’t escape the past.
