Horror’s most unkillable franchise delivers in its sixth instalment.

It must be one of the greatest ironies in all of cinema that a horror franchise whose entire MO is the idea that death comes for us all no matter how hard we attempt to avoid it, absolutely refuses to die. So here we are, twenty-five years removed from the very first Final Destination and the series just keeps on going!

Bloodied, bruised, and on the brink of death though it may have felt at times, the Final Destination franchise has shown a remarkable level of resilience over the last quarter of a century, as it doggedly clung to life while growing to become one of the biggest and most bankable names in all of horror.

But as we reach the sixth instalment in the long-running franchise – one that arrives a whole fourteen years on from the last effort – is there really any life left in the Final Destination name? Or will Bloodlines see the franchise finally succumb to the grim reaper?

Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare - premonitions that foretell the demise of the various members of her family – college student Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise awaiting them.

Twenty-five years is a long stretch for any film franchise to be going, so after a quarter of a century, you’d be forgiven for expecting death to be knocking on Final Destination’s door. If that is the case – and at several points over the last two and a half decades, it’s certainly felt a distinct possibility – death clearly hasn’t been knocking hard enough, because not only is Final Destination very much alive and kicking, it’s looking in its best shape in years.

It's fair to say many horror series tend to find themselves running on empty by this point in their run, yet Final Destination: Bloodlines may just be the unkillable franchise’s best instalment since the first one. All things considered, this is quite a remarkable achievement, and while Bloodlines certainly has its issues, they are far outweighed by its strengths.

Long-running horror franchises have a reputation for becoming lazy over time, often relying far too heavily on predictable kills, cliched scares, and formula-heavy plots to get by – yet Bloodlines does well to buck this trend. While it may not feel like it on the surface, Final Destination is a horror brand that’s always prided itself on a certain level of violent creativity, and while it’s certainly not clear of cliches and plot issues, the film’s commitment to ingenuity with its kill-heavy premise is to be applauded.

Grabbing what we already know and everything we’ve come to expect from the series and gleefully taking a lawnmower to its face, Bloodlines breathes new life into the franchise just as it looked to be on borrowed time. By simultaneously honouring the Final Destination lineage while finding new and interesting ways to toy with it, Bloodlines is a highly enjoyable death-fest that will keep even seasoned fans of the series on their toes.

With regards to the most important element of any Final Destination film – the deaths themselves – this is where Bloodlines really shows its worth. With twists, turns, redirects, red herrings, and satisfying payoffs galore, Bloodlines offers everything you demand from this franchise and so much more.

It really is a smorgasbord of beautifully constructed, utterly grizzly death scenes that managed to both inform and drive the plot in satisfying ways. And while that plot certainly has its share of problems, Bloodlines always keeps things interesting enough to avoid such issues dragging it down.

With death stalking and silently picking off cast members one by one, Bloodlines’ plot is, in essence, very much in line with everything we’ve seen before from this series, however, there’s more than enough extra spice added this time round to have it stand out from the Final Destination crowd. Gleefully playing with our expectations throughout, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, together with their writers Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, bend, twist, and tease the narrative just enough to have us on the hook and to ensure that their film feels as fresh as the sixth instalment of a twenty-five-year-old franchise can.

There are, of course, long stretches of the film that defy all logic – including one particular hospital sequence that reaches epic levels of absurdity – yet, thankfully, there’s enough going on elsewhere to ensure that these things don’t become a big issue. This is, after all, a franchise that frequently basks in its comical lack of logic, so approach Bloodlines with this in mind and you’ll be sure to have a good time.

For long term fans of the Final Destination franchise, Bloodlines feels like something of a reward. With references and nods to past instalments everywhere, it feels like a big thank you to those that have stuck with the series through the decades, often going out of its way to draw a direct line between itself and its predecessors and embed itself into the very heart of the franchise.

While franchise fatigue is very much a real thing and the overabundance of extended cinematic universes these days risks making Bloodlines’ attempts at interconnectivity feel overdone and tired, the film does a smart job of joining the franchise dots in both natural and logical ways. Whether it’s character cameos, cheeky Easter eggs, or direct references to the past in the plot, it all comes together in a surprisingly satisfying way.

For their part, the cast of relative unknowns – and a particularly poignant final onscreen appearance from the late, great Tony Todd – also do a very solid job holding everything together. As the deaths pile up and the plot unfolds in both extremely clever and supremely silly ways, the ensemble are fully aware of the assignment and commit to the part with real gusto, ensuring that it never flies off the rails or lets its absurdities get the better of it.

Whether there’s much more life left in Final Destination after this, or if this really is the end of the line for the long running franchise, who knows. However, if Bloodlines truly is its final chapter, you can rest assured that the series has gone down all guns blazing.

With a collection of highly creative kills, some nice franchise connective work, and a few clever twists to the tried and tested Final Destination formula, Bloodlines is a highly enjoyable, satisfyingly grim, logic-defying, frequently absurd death-fest. Sure, it has its plot and narrative issues, and the logic holes are often a mile wide, yet it works and undoubtedly makes for one of the best entries yet in the frankly unkillable horror series.

Final Destination: Bloodlines is in cinemas worldwide now.