Final Destination Bloodlineshas the most positive reviews in the series, earning a very impressive 93% Rotten Tomatoes score despite critics previously deriding the series. Debuting in 2000,Final Destination’s creative approach to gruesome kills quickly made it one of the most popular new horror franchises of the 21st century. Despite the commercial success of every entry in the series, critics were largely unsupportive of the franchise — with only one of the previous five films earning “fresh” status among the critical consensus.
Final Destination Bloodlinesis a huge departure from that,earning the best reviews in the seriesand sitting pretty with a critical score that rivals other lauded horror entries of the year likeCompanionandSinners. It’s an exciting development for fans of the series, with that love for the original movies (both behind the scenes and within the audience) clear from the very first frame of the film. Here are the biggest reasons why the latestFinal Destinationis earning such great reviews, and what it means for the series after the events ofFinal Destination Bloodlines' ending.
Final Destination Bloodlines Has The Best Rotten Tomatoes Score In The Whole Franchise
The Sixth Movie Has A 93% Rotten Tomatoes Score
Final Destination Bloodlineshas earned the best reviews of any entry in the twenty-five-year-old horror franchise. At the time of writing,Final Destination Bloodlineshas earned a very impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes from over 100 reviews. This isn’t just one of the best critical receptions to any film in the series, but even stands alongside the best-reviewed films of any genre so far in 2025. While the outrageous and gory deaths of the film give it a fun edge, the emotional core of the story won over critics who had previously dismissed the series as schlock horror.
2000
40%
2003
52%
2006
44%
2009
28%
2011
63%
2025
93%
Although the franchise has been commercially successful for the most part,the critical reception to theFinal Destinationfilms has never quite matched their popularity with general audiences. The only other entry to the series that has even earned a positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes isFinal Destination 5, which barely qualifies as “Fresh” with a Tomatometer score of 63%. By contrast,Final Destination Bloodlineswon over 93% of critics, suggesting a movie that better appeals to critical tastes.
Why Are Reviews For Final Destination Bloodlines So Positive
Strong Performances And Creative Kills Earned Bloodlines The Best Reviews Of Any Final Destination
Critics have been praisingFinal Destination Bloodlinesfor its gruesome creativity, strong performances, and surprisingly emotional storyline. The kills inBloodlinesare largely ridiculous but build off mundane objects and incidents, giving them the perfect blend of self-aware splatter scares with genuinely frightening turns of events. The performances have been complimented as impressive mixtures of genuine pathos and deliberate over-acting in comedic beats.Tony Todd’s scene in particularhas been singled out as a quietly powerful beatthat underscores the deceased actor’s natural gravitas.
Another useful trick ofFinal Destination Bloodlinesin comparison to the other entries in the series is the wayit threads all the black comedy and brutal deaths through a genuinely engaging family drama between Stefani and the rest of her loved ones. While it’s not the most revolutionary story in the world, this adds a layer of believability and likability to the potential victims. In previousFinal Destinationfilms, the characters were made boorish or cruel to allow the audience to be unbothered by the brutal nature of their deaths.
This allowed the films to be ridiculous with their kills, but also meant that there were rarely any characters worth rooting for. InBloodlines, even the more frustrating members of the supporting cast are portrayed with a certain amount of likability, raising the stakes for the audience as the deaths begin to feel more personal.It’s a clever way to give the cast more complex characters to playand endear to the audience while also still feeding into the creative brutality that’s defined the series and separated it from other entries in the genre.
Final Destination Bloodlines Comes After A 14-Year Gap
That Wait Has Seemingly Paid Off In The Creative Side
One of the other things aboutFinal Destination Bloodlinesthat elevates it is the clear love for the franchise that is baked into the film.It’s been fourteen years since the last entry in the series, but the films have retained a certain amount of notoriety within the horror fanbase for their creative kills. Nostalgia for the original entries in the series, made at the turn of the century, seems to have crystallized into a much more forgiving and accepting critical approach to the film that previous entries didn’t get.
That collective love for the series pays off in the execution ofBloodlines, and it found a critical audience that was receptive to the film’s mix of absurd kills, family drama, and lore-building.
That nostalgia for the series is clear from all the waysBloodlinesreferences the past movies. That includes the inclusion of William Bludworth, the confirmation that the previous films have all been connected through his research into Death with Iris, and plenty of direct references to previous iconic deaths in the series like the truck carrying logs inFinal Destination 2. That collective love for the series pays off in the execution ofBloodlines, and it founda critical audience that was receptive to the film’s mix of absurd kills, family drama, and lore-building.
What Does The Positive Reviews Mean For The Future Of The Final Destination Franchise
If The Box Office Matches The Critical Reception, Bloodlines Could Spur On A Full Final Destination Revival
On the one hand,Final Destination Bloodlinescould work as an effective finale for the series. The connecting threads between the previous films pay off with Iris' book, Bludworth gets a fitting goodbye that pays tribute to his late actor, and the ending ofFinal Destination Bloodlinescould be a perfectly gory capstone on the series. However, the positive reviews and potentially killer box office numbers forBloodlinescould ensure that the film generates a new sequel.
Since the film doesn’t reveal the true nature of the premonitions, it would be easy enough for the series to (as it has done in each subsequent movie) simply hop to a new location and focus on a new character.The movie could even bring back Iris' notebook as a guide to the rules of death in this universe. Hopefully, the positive reviews the film has been receiving will ensure that New Line Studios works to keep Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein and screenwriters Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor on a prospective sequel.
A sequel could even try to lure Jon Watts away from Marvel and Star Wars, as theSpider-Man: No Way Homeis credited as having worked on the story with Busick and Taylor. The critical success ofBloodlineswould easily suggest that the series still very much has life in it. IfFinal Destination Bloodlinescan have a positive enough box office run to match the positive reception it has received from critics, then there is likely to be another entry in theFinal Destinationseries before long.
