Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)

It’s been at least a decade since I last saw a final destination film - this was the very franchise that made me swear off horror films for years. And this film - campy, self-aware (scream 5 writers i see you) and nostalgic - was the perfect venue to confront those old demons again. 

I watched three of the films in a row when I was 14-ish during Chinese new year at my grandparents’ place up on a mountain during a snowstorm. On our way home, we had to drive down these steep, winding, and slippery snowy roads. At one point, we actually did slip and briefly lost control of the car and the front of the car (not the wheels just a bit of the front-right side corner) was actually hanging off the ledge. I was so convinced we were going to die that I started writing my own posthumous notes on my iPod Touch.

I shared this story with the friend I saw this movie with, and he asked me what I wrote. What did I want the world to know about me after my untimely death at 14?  It took me a bit to remember, but I was writing a letter to my first ever crush. Sadly, I don’t think I was brave enough to tell him I loved him even in death. It was a bunch of “It was great getting to know you in the past year” bullshit. I don’t know what I was afraid of.

Anyway, back to the movie. Um, solid. I do think you’d enjoy it a lot more if you did watch the older movies when you were young and had the unique traumatic paranoia inflicted upon you in a memorable fashion, maybe partly in realizing that you’ve grown a lot since the last 10+ years and there were things that used to scare you that do not any more.