The Final Destination franchise has always had a pact with the viewer: to provoke existential chills through improbable accidents and inevitable deaths. Those who have watched the previous films know what I’m talking about — it’s impossible not to quicken your pace when you see a log truck in front of you or rethink the idea of getting into a tanning bed. With Blood Ties, the sixth chapter in the saga, this pact is renewed with blood, fear and an unexpected touch of family emotion.
Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, and with a script written by Guy Busick (Scream 5 and 6), Lori Evans Taylor and Jon Watts, the new film surprises by leaving aside the groups of friends and betting on a narrative centered on a family haunted by a transgenerational curse. Young Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) begins to have brutal visions involving the death of her loved ones. Seeking answers, she returns to her origins and finds in her grandmother Iris (played by Gabrielle Rose and Brec Bassinger, in flashbacks) the thread of a trauma that dates back to the 60s — an era in which fate also tried, in vain, to be fooled.
What elevates Blood Ties among the best in the franchise in relation to the last ones is precisely the script: cohesive, well-paced and emotionally anchored. The deaths here once again have a purpose. They are not just miraculous accidents — they are carefully planned omens to play with the viewer’s imagination. You leave the theater thinking twice before having a barbecue or even going to the hospital. The feeling of vulnerability returns with force.
The soundtrack is another asset of the film. It acts as a foreshadowing, creating a tension that pulses like a heartbeat about to stop. The direction, although competent in managing the scares, is flawed by an excess of artificiality in its initial sequences — especially in the tower scene, where the computer graphics compromise the immersion.
But Blood Ties is not only about scares. It is also about legacy. By bringing back Tony Todd as the iconic JB — now with a revealed origin story —, the film ties up loose ends and offers fans of the franchise a belated reward: the understanding that Death, in this universe, is an impersonal but vigilant entity. JB is the link between generations of survivors and also a reminder that no one escapes forever.
By opting for a blood bond as its emotional core, Final Destination 6 reinvigorates its mythology and reaffirms its relevance. It is a worthy, bloody and, above all, effective return. Because what really marks a good Final Destination film is not just how one dies — but how much these deaths make us fear for our own lives and think about them in everyday life.
You can find Final Destination 6 – Blood Ties in theaters starting next Thursday (May 15).
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