Final Destination: Bloodlines - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

As Hollywood becomes more and more invested in strip-mining their franchise catalogs, one idiom should be remembered: let sleeping dogs lie. When a franchise has been sequelled into a box office grave, give audiences some time away before we’re fed another edition. Fourteen years seems to be the right amount. Fourteen years led Jurassic World to a massive box office haul. The same span of time seems to be doing the trick for the latest bloody entertaining Rube Goldberg death machine, Final Destination: Bloodlines. 

The plot for these films has always been relatively simple: someone early in the film experiences a horrifying premonition of a deadly event to come. They snap out of it, rescue everyone in the nick of time, and then Death goes about its grand design to execute everyone in increasingly gnarly, horrifying means. For Final Destination: Bloodlines, the deadly vision happens to college student Stephanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana). Only it’s not a vision, it’s a recurring nightmare from the 1960s, and it belongs to her estranged grandmother Iris (Brec Bassinger/Gabrielle Rose). As Stephanie tries to figure out Death’s plan for her, her brother Charlie (Teo Briones), her cousins, and her Uncle and Mother - the body count will rise, and things are going to get bloody. Unless, of course, Stephanie can crack Death’s code and save everyone. But…what are the chances of that happening?

For the last 25 years, the Final Destination franchise has been a horror staple. In just over a decade, it smashed through five films with varying success at the box office and an increasingly elaborate and convoluted lore with some gnarly over-the-top and highly entertaining deaths. Some films were great, a couple we less so. For all intents and purposes, the franchise pretty well died in 2011. But, fourteen years later, fans were ready for more bloody and squishy Rube Goldbergian kills with Final Destination: Bloodlines - and I was right there with them enjoying the hell of this flick at IMAX. 

Credit to directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein and their writers for cooking up a sequel worth getting excited for. Now, I wouldn’t exactly call any of these films “scary” per se, but they’re often suspenseful, gnarly, bloody, and quite often hilarious, squeezing out awkward laughs from the audience with every extravagant dismemberment. This sixth entry can sometimes play like a greatest hits compilation, as Lipovsky and Stein knew the franchise's roots and incorporated fitting homages and callbacks without going overboard. The family lineage angle to Death’s design was a fresh take and a clever means to line up our cast for an unceremonious “accident.” 

Final Destination: Bloodlines was a ride. It's a bloodbath blast from start to finish. So many years away from theater screens was a good move for this series. A smart and clever idea for a horror film can start to feel forced and stale after too many trips to the same well. New filmmakers, a new cast, and a smart setup were more than enough to deliver a bloody good return at the box office. A global smash, it seems the world needed a bloody outlet that was actually fun to watch on the big screen. Most endearingly, the film gave us a genuinely lovely farewell to late horror icon and franchise guru Tony Todd. It’s a moment that, in true Bludworth fashion, sets up the stakes, explains the history, and also lets Todd deliver a final eulogy of sorts to his character. There were plenty of misty eyes and sniffles at my theater, and that moment still packs a wallop in the feels. In the end, Final Destination: Bloodlines isn’t perfect, I have some small gripes, but outside of Final Destination 2 none of the films are "perfect." But that’s okay, this flick was a riot of suspenseful gory entertainment.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
Final Destination: Bloodlines eviscerates its 2160p physical media home video release with a single-disc 4K UHD + Digital outing from Warner Bros. and SDS. The film is pressed on a BD66 disc and housed in a standard black case with identical slipcover artwork. The disc loads to a static image main menu with standard navigation options. 

Final Destination: Bloodlines kills its 4K UHD debut with a generally excellent Dolby Vision transfer. Details are sharp and clear, which is important considering how elaborate the many deaths get - the joy is in the nitty gritty gory details. Facial features, costumes, production design, and the practical makeup FX are all up for observation. Now there is a bit of a double-edged sword there between the practical makeup and the CGI elements; the practical in-camera viscera tends to stand out against the digital enhancements, especially the Volume-projected backgrounds for the opening vision sequence. But that’s a relatively small nitpick at the end of the day. The Dolby Vision grading makes appreciable enhancements to the bold colors, skin tones, shadows, and dark spaces. The image has a natural and effective sense of three-dimensional depth. For how many of the death payoffs are captured, I’m surprised this wasn’t converted for 3D, but in 2160p HDR it looks pretty damned great. I do wish they’d retained the open-frame IMAX ratio experience; when that screen would “go big,” it was a really fun teaser that something gnarly was about to happen. As is, this still looks great on home video. 

On the audio front, we have a demo-worthy Atmos mix to rock away with. What I loved about this mix is that it’s not just one element or one action moment that makes it so effective. All of the audio elements, score, and FX are in perfect concert with one another to give this fully immersive soundscape to enjoy. You have subtleties in the background and surrounds to give a sense of space, but then the height channels kick in for a slick object-specific sound effect like a piece of a glass chandelier or a chain clinking near a fan blade in a tattoo parlor. Really dynamite mixing. But a great Atmos mix wouldn’t be much without that rumbling LFE, and boy howdy, there’s plenty of impact to rattle your subs! And usually every impact is followed with a wonderfully squishy splashy surround effect. Completing the auditory picture is a great moody score from Tim Wynn with clean and clear dialog throughout.

Bonus features for this release are frustratingly light. I was a bit surprised more specific attention wasn’t given to the VFX and makeup work. There was a bunch of material in the online marketing touting the blend of practical and digital effects wizardry to make these elaborate deaths all the more impactful. We see glimpses of it in the two main featurettes, but nothing extensive. As things stand, the audio commentary with our directors is the meatiest bit, but the most meaningful is a roughly 5 1/2-minute tribute to Tony Todd featuring behind-the-scenes footage of him during filming as well as a couple of quick interview snippets with him. 

• Audio Commentary featuring directors Adam Srtein and Zach Lipovsky
• Death Becomes Them: On the Set of Final Destination Bloodlines (HD 6:11)
• The Many Deaths of Bloodlines (HD 7:26)
• The Legacy of Bludworth (HD 5:24)

Fourteen years and new creative blood has been good for Final Destination: Bloodlines. With some subtle nods and acknowledgments to past entries, the film isn’t bogged down trying to pull the weight of past characters into the fold… because they’re all dead. We get a new cast, new writers, new directors, all working to create some incredibly entertaining grand gnarly gory Rube Goldberg death machines. Through all the fun of one bloody death after another, this film also slows down long enough to give Tony Todd a wonderful, heartfelt sendoff. I had a blast in IMAX, and the flick is still a riot at home. And it is a great candidate on 4K with an impressive Dolby Vision transfer and a thunderous Atmos mix. Bonus features are, unfortunately, on the slim average side for a modern release. Ultimately, if you loved the franchise you’re in for a treat. Highly Recommended