Harefooted Halloween: Final Destination: Bloodlines

What I Liked: Hey FD is back and most of the deaths are pretty fun.  The opening sequence that takes place in the 60’s at a Space Needle equivalent, called The Sky View, is long and elaborate involving multiple layers of destruction and carnage.  At twenty minutes it’s a short film unto itself.  It doesn’t beat the opening of part2 with the loose logs on the highway (still the best sequence in the entire series in my opinion) but it’s impressive nonetheless for how intricate it is.  Other highlights include the MRI machine and backyard BBQ scenes.  Good buildup of tension and misdirection.  Each payoff got a chuckle out of me.

There are some clever ideas the filmmakers try out that I don’t think were in any of the previous installments.  For example, the Reaper seems to punish someone who is not on his immediate list for interfering too much in the sequence.  Also, at one point the protagonist correctly predicts how events will unfold in quick succession to cause a death.  Another couple of elements are introduced that are neat but that’s spoiler territory.

Tony Todd (The Rock) makes one last appearance as Bludworth and they give him some time to make a farewell speech.  Todd died shortly after filming and it’s sad that visibly he looks so unwell here.  At the same time it’s nice to bask in his performance one last time.

What I Didn’t Like: This item isn’t so much of a gripe but more of a personal preference.  If you read my other thoughts on the previous films you’ll know that I tend to gravitate towards the sillier entries like parts 2 and 4.  This one has a more serious tone that matches part 5.  There are plenty of moments of comic relief, and thankfully they’re handled much better than part 5’s coarse humor, but for me the balance is just not ideal.  With a premise this outrageous either give me the goofy or push the tone into dark ass territory.  Pretty sure I’m an outlier on this though so maybe ignore this paragraph.

Overall Impressions: Yep, we got a Final Destination movie folks.  Initially it may seem like part 6 is a departure from the typical structure we’re used to but it really isn’t.  The movie presents the events to you very slightly out of order in the beginning but then quickly settles into the same old familiar plot points.  A protagonist notices Death is killing those around them in a specific order, they have premonitions, search for a way to break the chain so they can survive, they think they’ve done that and eventually realize they were wrong.  Over twenty years later Part 2 is still the only one that bucks this trend a bit.

The new bloodline aspect injected into the story is both intriguing and nonsensical (which is why I didn’t put it in either section above).  In these pictures Death usually goes after its missed targets right after the establishing catastrophe.  Here he waits several generations before striking.  The backup is due to one survivor outwitting ol’ Scratch by staying alive for decades…somehow.  It’s not really explained.  Self-isolation appears to work somewhat (similar to Clear Rivers taking up residence in a mental hospital in part 2) but there are instances in the other installments of victims still dying when they’re all alone in a house.  Additional supernatural shit isn’t introduced in this one either so I dunno.  Anyway, that one particular survivor has lived long enough to have kids who in turn grew up and had kids of their own.  Whole branches of families should not exist so Death has some major cleanup to do.  This is kinda interesting because a few family members estrange themselves with their constant fear of death leading to fucked up relationships.  Honestly, this could’ve been explored a lot more by delving into mental health and such but I totally understand that’s not the kind of complex psychological/familial-relationship film they were aiming for.  On the flip side the decision to keep Death at bay for so many years comes across kinda dumb because it feels random and contrived to make the story work.

Look, bottom line is this episode delivers exactly what you expect from a FD, nothing more, nothing less.  For me it’s on par with the likes of parts 3 and 5.  What’s amazing is this franchise hasn’t missed a beat in the fourteen year (!) gap since the last one.  Shit picks up right where that one left off.  Weirdly, even the effects look like they’re from fourteen years ago.  But yea, a solid entry.  Nothing to get overexcited about.