Displaying items by tag: Rya Kihlstedt

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES

US, 2025, 110 minutes, Colour.

Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Tio Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Alex Zahara, April Telek, Tony Todd, Brec Bassinger, Gabrielle Rose, Max Lloyd-Jones.

Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein.

It is a quarter of a century since audiences enjoyed the first Final Destination film. Almost immediately there were two sequels. Later there were two more, the fourth being simply called the Final Destination. Here is a sixth entry which fans and critics have endorsed.

In the first film, someone had a premonition of disaster and the rest of the film saw the death episode , some characters escaping the disaster but eventually death catching up with them. And, this was the basic formula throughout all the films. And, here it is again. So the outline of the plot is not unexpected – the interest and enjoyment is to see how it is played out.

This film opens with an extraordinarily striking episode, a young couple, his intention to propose, their going to the opening of a very high tower restaurant, Skyview, lavish, overbooked, the young man and his girlfriend disappointed, but the proposal, her acknowledging that she is pregnant, her acceptance. A great deal of attention is given to the celebrations, a singer, her little son who will become important in the aftermath, but also an obnoxious young boy, mischief maker, with a coin and the warning for him to be careful. Which, of course, he is not, throwing the coin over the high balustrade –  and the deathly consequences.

The special effects for the disaster and breaking up of the restaurant, the fatalities, the sense of danger, apprehension, fears, tragedies, are especially striking. The audience is so caught up in the overwhelming experience that they may have forgotten that this is obviously just a premonition.

That was 50 years ago. Now, the present, and it is a student at college, Stefani, who wakes up in the middle of a lecture screaming, the nightmare, and the repetitions every night, disturbing her roommate. She decides that she needs to go home, the sympathetic father, the younger brother who is disappointed that she has gone off and does not keep contact, the mother having left the family long since. When we discover that the mother is the young girl of the premonition, Iris, the drama gets going.

The dramatic ploy for the film is the presumption that Death pursues everyone, more especially those who have eluded when Iris was the one who saw the danger and warned so that everybody could be rescued. So, the tension of the film is rediscovering the mother, her 20 years’ seclusion, her investigations as to survivors, the weird Journal of sketches and death information, it now narrowing down to her and her family. Hence the title, Bloodlines.

So, for audiences who enjoy the characters, some likeable, some irritating, all pursued by Death, there is plenty of drama and excitement.

However, as with the previous films but especially now with so many horror films dramatising grisly and gory deaths, the deaths here are gruesome with many audiences wanting to shut their eyes or look away. With that alert, it can be said that this Final Destination tale is one of the best.

1. The popularity of the series, over 25 years? The basic formula, the disaster, a premonition, the central character involved in the subsequent deaths, the succession of characters disappearing, dying? Audiences knowing this and accepting it?
2. The impact of the elaborate prologue, the sky high restaurant, the opening, the guests, Paul and Iris, the strong, table, the proposal, Iris and her sensitivities, the singer indicating the pregnancy, her accepting the proposal? The boy, downstairs, the elevator, mischief? With the coin, throwing it over, the warning? Coin, going into the machinery, the consequences, the destruction of the restaurant, the deaths, people falling, Iris and the little boy, falling to her death?
3. The 2020s, the situation, the student at college, her nightmares, distant from her family, her need to understand the premonition, returning home, sympathetic father, the clashes with her brother, the mother having left home 10 years earlier, her resentment towards her mother? Wanting to know the family background, of her mother, her father’s refusal, going to uncle, the cousins, the aunt and giving the information, reading the letters?
4. The determination to visit her mother, the drive, her mother’s reaction, letting her in, the explanations, the book, investigations, the importance of survivors, only her family, and the theory of killing someone and getting their remainder of life? Dangers, mother saving her daughter, going out to the family to save them? His explanations of why she left, to save the family?
5. The return of the mother, acceptance and not, the family celebration and gathering, Stefani and her premonitions, her preoccupation, her fears, the various accidents, the trampoline and the rake, the gas and the heating, the barbecue…? And then the sudden death of the uncle?
6. The discussion about the order of deaths, age, the character of Eric, his place in the family, the confession of the aunt that he is not directly descended from Iris? The succession of deaths, the basketball and the daughter in the garbage truck, Bobby next and the plan for him to die, his peanut allergy, the visit to the hospital, Eric’s manoeuvres, the plan to resuscitate? The drama in the hospital, Stefani and the others searching, Bobby and his death?
7. Iris, bonding with her children, going back to the house, unable to get in, the drama, her death and saving Charlie?
8. Stephanie and her visit to the survivor, the little boy from the prologue, his explanations?
9. The end of the threat – or not?