“Final Destination Bloodlines”, the latest sequel of the Final Destination series, is actually better than expected. Just like its several predecessors including “Final Destination” (2000), the movie surely and firmly sticks to its diabolical rule on how to eliminate its main characters one by one along the story, but it did the job pretty well while also showing some morbid sense of fun, and you may gladly go along with its naughty thrill.

Just like “Final Destination”, the movie starts with a spectacularly striking disaster sequence which turns out to be, yes, a very bad dream. For some unknown reason, the young heroine of the story keeps having this bad dream at every night, and she comes to sense that this bad dream is somehow connected to some old hidden past of her family. She naturally asks about that to her older family members later, but, not so surprisingly, they are not so willing to talk about that for understandable reasons.

Of course, she becomes more determined to get to the bottom of her strange situation, and that leads her to a certain family member who willingly tells her about a horrible secret beneath their family. That horrible disaster shown in the dream could have happened to this family member and many others in 1968, but they all survived because this family member had a premonition via her bad dream in the previous night. However, almost all of them and their descendants eventually got killed one by one during next 47 years, and now our heroine and her family are marked by some malevolent presence which can be regarded as Death itself.

Needless to say, our heroine’s family do not believe her much at first, but it does not take much time for them to realize that they are indeed in a very, very, very serious trouble. As getting more and more aware of their doomed status, they naturally try to search for any possible option for survival, but they are only reminded again and again of how helpless they are in front of their approaching doom, and Death continues to execute its ruthless and devious plan step by step as usual.

Now this sounds rather grim and solemn, but the movie alternatively jolts and amuses us as skillfully toying with our dread and expectation. For example, there is a gradually suspenseful sequence which deliberately shows many different stuffs potentially lethal, and we accordingly brace ourselves more while trying to guess which one will trigger the expected payoff moment in the end. As shown a bit during its trailer, the movie does not disappoint us at all when somebody eventually gets killed in quite a gruesome fashion.

While watching this and several other nasty moments of death, I wondered why Death does not eliminate its predestined targets in simpler ways with less pain and cruelty. I guess Death, which is exact and eventual just like tax, is not so pleased with anyone sidestepping the fate and is accordingly quite determined to punish the target as painfully, horribly, and playfully as possible. This may explain why each incident of death in the film always occurs due to an elaborate series of seemingly inconsequential happenings not so far from those Rube Goldberg machines (I particularly enjoyed how a small coin plays a crucial part more than once in the film, by the way).

Meanwhile, the screenplay by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, which was developed from the story written by them and co-producer Jon Watts, brings a bit of human depth to its main characters. They are inherently more or less than mere targets to be eliminated along the story, but the movie pays some attention to their dread and desperation, and we come to root for them to some degree even though we all know too well that they are doomed from the very beginning.

During the last act, the movie expectedly accelerates the plot a lot more than before, and you will be entertained by how it pulls all the stops for more gruesome fun and thrill. There is an outrageously horrifying sequence involved with a certain big medical device suddenly going haywire, and you may even chuckle a bit when there comes the inevitable final blow in the end. In case of the climactic sequence unfolded in a certain remote place which looks more like a death trap even though it is supposed to be a shelter, the movie goes all the way for its fiendish spectacles, and then you will be satisfied with how neatly it delivers the ending.

The main cast members of the film are well-cast on the whole. While Kaitlyn Santa Juana diligently carries the movie as its heroine, she is also supported well by several other main cast members including Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Rya Kihlstedt, and Gabrielle Rose, and the special mention goes to Tony Todd, who has played a recurring character throughout the series and sadly died several months ago. Looking more fragile and gaunter here than before, Todd is apparently well aware of his impending death just like his character, and that brings a substantial amount of poignancy to his brief but memorable appearance in the film.

In conclusion, “Final Destination Bloodlines” is fairly engaging and thrilling as occasionally showing some surprising human depth, and directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein deserve to be commended for their competent direction. Considering that the movie has already been quite successful in the box office, there will probably be another Final Destination flick sooner or later, but I will not complain as long as it will be as enjoyable as this unexpectedly entertaining sequel.