The Final Destination franchise will finally continue later this week with Final Destination Bloodlines. The horror series began in 2000, first introducing audiences to the world wherein lead characters try to escape the antagonist of Death itself. Final Destination Bloodlines centers around a college student who returns home in search of the person who can help break a violent cycle. The film sees the franchise return of late actor Tony Todd, and features a supporting cast including Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Brec Bᴀssinger, Richard Harmon, Rya Kihlstedt, and Anna Lore, among others.
Besides some of the cast changes, another key creative swap was the directing team. The first four movies were alternately directed by James Wong and David R. Ellis, but Final Destination Bloodlines adds new franchise talent with co-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. Though the film does not yet have a Rotten Tomatoes score, its initial responses have been positive. While the May 16 release of Final Destination Bloodlines looms, there’s a good movie to check out in the meantime.
Freaks Is An Original Sci-Fi Thriller From Final Destination Bloodlines’ Directors
It’s Currently Streaming On Netflix
Before signing on to continue the beloved horror franchise, Lipovsky and Stein teamed up to helm the 2019 sci-fi thriller Freaks. It was their first feature together, taking it on after collaborating on the TV show Mech-X4. Unlike Final Destination Bloodlines, this movie is not part of a major franchise, but rather is an original story, crafting a narrative about a young girl locked in her house by her father and who eventually leaves her front door to discover more of the bizarre and dangerous world outside. Freaks’ cast included Emile Hirsch, Lexy Kolker, Bruce Dern, and Grace Park.
Freaks earned great reviews upon its release six years ago. The movie holds an 88% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86% among audiences. Critics appreciated the directors’ affinity for getting audiences inside the head of its young protagonist. The New York Times’ Jeannette Catsoulis wrote, “Its most effective trick, though, is to trap us all inside Chloe’s head, presenting a child’s-eye view of a world gone incomprehensibly mad.” Others praised the performance by lead child actor Kolker, and some even favorably compared the overall movie to the X-Men franchise.
Now, Freaks is available to watch on Netflix. Despite its rave reviews, the movie received an extremely limited release and only made $335,050 at the box office in 2019. With its streaming availability, audiences can discover Freaks now, checking out Lipovsky and Stein’s pre-Final Destination Bloodlines work. The film may not have been widely seen when it hit theaters, but that is not an indicator of its quality in any way, making it a great movie to watch now.
What Freaks Tells Us About Final Destination Bloodlines
These Directors Can Pace A Story Well
One of the best qualities of Freaks is how the filmmakers handled its twists and turns. The directing duo (who also wrote the screenplay) proved themselves to be masters at the rate of reveal, giving the audience more information as things went along, but never giving away too much at once. Early reports have already praised Bloodlines for its “unique hook” and “twisted thrill,” so it seems that the directors’ roots are evident in this latest installment of Final Destination. They might even be able to bring a fresh energy to the horror franchise, one that can extend to any additional installments that are made after.
In addition to showing how they approach horror and sci-fi projects, Freaks is a great example of what Lipovsky and Stein can do on a limited budget. Freaks was a microbudget film; Final Destination Bloodlines is a mainstream horror movie that undoubtedly had a much higher budget. As such, it will be fascinating to see the directors’ evolution from a smaller, original genre film to something made on a much wider scale and for a broader audience.
