If you wondered whether horror movie fans would miss the Final Destination franchise, the proof can be found in the box office receipts for Final Destination: Bloodlines. It pulled in $51 domestically for its opening weekend, higher than any of the previous five movies. This is impressive for an IP that didn’t put out a sequel for 14 years. Just as impressive was how good the movie was. No matter how fun they are, every sequel is the same, with a cookie-cutter cast of characters surrounded by some gory Rube Goldberg death scenes. Final Destination: Bloodlines could have done the exact same thing that worked before and gotten away with it, but writers Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor took a risk by shaking up the series. All of the bloody mayhem is still there, but this time it’s happening to a family. And you wouldn’t be blamed if this dynamic reminded you of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her dysfunctional family in David Gordon Green‘s recent Halloween trilogy, as both legacy sequels take a very similar approach.
Both Laurie Strode and Iris Campbell Have Driven Their Families Away
Not once, but twice, the Halloween franchise made a sequel that dealt with Laurie Strode’s trauma from surviving Michael Myers. In 1998’s Halloween H20, Michael is her brother. She’s so terrified of him that she’s faked her death, changed her name, and run off to California, where she becomes an alcoholic, overprotective mother, with her obsession about Myers pushing her son, John (Josh Hartnett), away from her. Their relationship is only saved when The Shape returns, proving that Laurie was right all along.
When that movie was hurt by Halloween: Resurrectionand its absurd plot that brought Michael Myers back, David Gordon Green examined the same themes of H20 with his 2018 Halloween. Yet again, Laurie is so traumatized by her past (this time, Michael is not her brother) that she is constantly waiting for The Shape to return. She tries her best to turn her only daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), into a gun-toting survivalist, which has seriously damaged their relationship and caused Karen to be ashamed and untrusting of her own mother.
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Final Destination: Bloodlines has a rather similar plot. In that intense opening scene, we meet a young Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) out on a date with Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) at the new Skyview tower restaurant, only for disaster to strike as the tower collapses, killing everyone. This being Final Destination, it was, of course, a premonition. But just like Laurie was traumatized by her encounter with the Shape in 1978, Iris can’t get over what happened to her in 1968, as death starts to claim everyone who escaped because of her vision — as well as everyone in their bloodline. It has pushed everyone in her family away, including her own daughter, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), who needed to escape what her mother was doing to her mentally. In Halloween and Final Destination: Bloodlines, both Iris (Gabrielle Rose) and Laurie Strode become isolated, having driven their families away.
In ‘Halloween’ and ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines,’ a Granddaughter Comes to the Rescue
In Halloween and Final Destination: Bloodlines, death returns and takes the daughter who has come back to their mother, with Karen making it until the finale of Halloween Kills. It will be the granddaughter who changes everything. In 2018’s Halloween, Laurie might not have a good relationship with her daughter, but she does have one with her teenage granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak). Allyson feels sorry for her grandmother to the point that when Laurie breaks down at a dinner, instead of getting angry like Karen, she runs to her crying grandma and hugs her close. That relationship will be tested, especially in Halloween Ends, when Laurie tries to stop Allyson from seeing Corey (Rohan Campbell), but in the third act, Allyson returns and helps Laurie put the Boogeyman down for good.
Final Destination: Bloodlines finds its young heroine in the same place. Like Allyson, Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is the smart one in the family, but when we meet her, she is struggling immensely at college. She starts having nightmares of her grandmother at the Skyview tower in 1968, and goes to her family, begging for the address of her estranged relative. No one wants to give it to her, claiming that Iris is insane and dangerous, but a persistent Stefani doesn’t give up and doesn’t judge. She tracks Iris down, who is living in a secluded home like Laurie Strode was in 2018. Both women are hunkered down in their fortresses, prepared for the return of the deadly force that altered their lives.
The conviction of both Laurie and Iris scares their granddaughters as well. Allyson runs away when Laurie is forced to kill an obsessed Corey, and Stefani tries to when her grandmother terrifies her with information overload. It takes Michael’s final return and Iris letting death take her before Allyson and Stefani step up to help fight the evil that has been hurting their family. Their endings will be different, but the familiar family plot is just another example that shows that the Final Destination franchise is a twisted take on the slasher subgenre. They borrow from the plot of an all-time great franchise because, despite the flaws of David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy, it ultimately succeeded by focusing on the connection of a family. That makes us more invested, and we don’t want to see these characters die. The laughs still remain in certain Final Destination: Bloodlines death scenes, but with the bond of a well-written family thrown in, the kill scenes are as heartbreaking as they are outlandish.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is in theaters now.
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Kaitlyn Santa Juana
Stephanie Lewis
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Teo Briones
Charlie Lewis
