All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

27. FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES (aka FINAL DESTINATION 6, 2025)

Released on May 16, 2025, and streaming on HBO MAX from New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers!
Directed by Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein.
Written by Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, Jon Watts.
Check out the trailer here!!

After having a premonition that a high-rise restaurant is going to collapse, Iris (played by STARGIRL’s Brec Bassinger) saves hundreds of lives by having them evacuate the building in time. As we have learned in previous FINAL DESTINATION movies, death doesn’t like it when lives are saved and always comes for its just dues. Years later, Iris’ granddaughter Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is plagued by dreams of the building collapse and finds out that death has finally tracked down all of the survivors and now it is Iris and her family’s turn to meet their maker.

While watching FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, I found myself wondering what makes this series so popular and fun to watch. Moreso than any horror franchise, the FINAL DESTINATION films follow a specific narrative structure and rarely derivates from it. Someone has a premonition that a disaster is going to occur. That someone saves a group of people. And soon, the people who were supposed to die are killed in extravagant and imaginative ways until it catches up to the one who had the premonition. For six movies now, that has been the basic plot and while many film series are criticized for being repetitive, the FINAL DESTINATION films are immune to such criticism. Why? Well, I think most importantly, the series, even the worst films in it, never fail to be fun. Sure, it’s dealing with death, but through one ridiculous contrivance and one Rube Goldbergian series of events after another, each death has a load of creativity dedicated to each and every kill. We don’t go to a FINAL DESTINATION film for deep plot or strong character work. We go to see one elaborate death sequence one up the last one over and over again. Yes, this appeals to our basest of instincts, to gaze at that car crash on the side of the road on the highway, but the FINAL DESTINATION series understands a winning concept and realizes that if you’ve got a good thing, why change it.

But going a bit deeper, I feel the appeal of the FINAL DESTINATION movies and horror movies in general with young audiences is that fascination with death we all have. Death is the furthest thing from the minds of the young, so the FINAL DESTINATION series serves as a moral lesson for the young to let them know that death can come for them any time, using common instruments we interact with every day as tools of the grim reaper. In many ways, it allows the young and the youthful like me to walk that tightrope from the safety of my theater seat.

So how about FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES? “How was it?” you might be screaming at your monitor. It was…a FINAL DESTINATION movie. It followed the well-worn path made by the previous films. There is an additional twist; that this time, it took death two generations to finally track down the survivor who had the premonition and, in that time, that person had produced a family, and thus passing the curse onto them. This twist makes things a little more convoluted and reveals a little more about death’s plan that will be elaborated on in future installments, as this franchise is one of the most consistent, continuity savvy, and connected series in horror film history. But in the end, it’s a bunch of people getting killed in ridiculous ways…again. And as I said above, it’s fun despite the fact that it follows the same plot as the first, second, and so on.

One thing I appreciated was that FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES takes the time to send off the one consistent character of the entire series, Tony Todd. It’s obvious Todd was in poor health during the filming, but he still delivers one of the best scenes in this new film. Not only does it honor a character Todd made classic, but it also adds a little bit of history to the character of William Bloodworth and explains why he knows so much about death’s plan. If anything, this film does Todd a solid for graciously allowing him the opportunity to replay one of his most iconic roles.

The deaths are elaborate, especially the main disaster scene, which takes an extraordinarily long time to build up to. Thankfully, Brec Bassinger, who plays Iris, and her boyfriend, Paul (played by Max Lloyd-Jones) are strong actors and make the long anticipation for the disaster interesting all the way through. This can’t be said for the rest of the cast. Aside from genre actor Richard Harmon, the rest of the cast is particularly bland, unfortunately. Harmon does appear in quite a few of the most memorable scenes in and film and sure, Kaitlyn Santa Juana is decent as the lead Stefani, and carries some dramatic scenes, but I think a little star power added to this dull cast would have done this film wonders. A lot of drama, comedy, and horror had to be conveyed by this group, and I just think that some of these actors just didn’t have the range to do that. I understand that the bulk of the budget is dedicated to the elaborate death sequences, but they could have saved a couple of shekels for a few more recognizable faces.

FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES peaks early with the scene highlighted in the trailer in the tattoo shop and later in a very memorable scene set in a hospital lab. By the time the climax of the film occurs, the threat pales in comparison to the deaths we’ve seen prior. Though I really liked the way the last moments of the film played out.

Overall, FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES is a lot of fun. It offers some gruesome effects and deadly sequences that you’ve never seen before, taking modern day situations and using them in the most gory and devious of ways. This series continues to be one of my favorite horror franchises and while I prefer films that show me something new and different, sometimes it’s fun to rely on the comfort of a series that has perfected the concept, knows what it is, and delivers a solid, albeit familiar movie over and over again.

Worth Noting: V/H/S/BEYOND (2024)

Released on October 5, 2025, and streaming on Shudder from Bloody Disgusting, Cinepocalypse, and Studio71!
Directed by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Virat Pal, Justin Martinez, Justin Long, Christian Long, Kate Segal.
Written by Jay Cheel, Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart, Virat Pal, Evan Dickson, Ben Turner, Justin Martinez, Christian Long, Mike Flanagan.
Check out the trailer here!!

V/H/S has become a yearly tradition and with the last few films being pretty solid focusing on specific years, they tried something new and different this year and leaned further into sci-fi horror. It’s a subgenre full of potential and I was looking forward to seeing what this new crop of filmmakers could do with it, even though in entries past, the concept of sci fi horror was often played with.

This time with V/H/S/BEYOND, they also tried a new format for a wraparound leaning more towards a mockumentary style with director Jay Cheel’s “Abduction/Adduction.” While this connective tissue to the film serves as a perfectly reasonable way to tie all of the stories together, it is by far the weakest part of the whole thing. Cheel previously did the Cursed Film series for Shudder and sticks with the documentary format for this wraparound. It’s just that the lead up to the big reveal where we see the video tapes of an apparent abduction in the last minutes of the film where a four eyed grey alien appears felt anti-climactic compared to the rest of the film. Less of a story and more of a way to tie these tales together, I found the wraparound to be lacking.

Now the film really gets rolling started with Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart’s truly ballistic “Stork” about a team of rogue police officers who search out strange and unexplained cases. This one moves extremely fast and plunges the team into a house of horrors as they investigate a spree of child abductions. I liked the way the story was explained on the fly, keeping the pace brisk and punchy. Once the guns start blazing, it plays out like a first-person shooter game as the film comes from police body cams. While there are some scenes that feel staged, like when the police officers’ line up in front of the house dramatically, the story evolves into a gleeful blood-spattered descent into hell. Cool designs for the aliens and wanton carnage ensues. This is from the maniacs behind the truly awesome THE HEAD HUNTER and the absolutely ludicrous THANKSKILLING and even pays homage to the killer bird with a disturbing and wonderfully designed bird-like alien creature. Good stuff.

Next up is “Dream Girl” by Virat Pal and Evan Dickson. Evanston Dickson from V/H/S/85 returns to write, and Pal directs bringing a Bollywood feel to the segment about a popular actor whose beauty is too good to be true. While this one didn’t rock my world, I do appreciate it that the V/H/S series is giving some international filmmakers a chance. Still, this segment left me wanting more.

“Live and Let Dive” by Justin Martinez and Ben Turner is my favorite of the bunch. A group of skydivers are hit by a UFO in the air and are forced to jump for their lives. Along with the panicking parachuters follows a few alien creatures out to do…something involving brain draining. This one gets points for the unique location as the survivors land in the middle of an orange tree plantation. It’s wonderfully chaotic as the survivors scamper around the rows and rows of trees, searching for their friends and running into aliens instead. Justin Martinez and Ben Turner who did segments for SOUTHBOUND and the original V/H/S are the ones responsible for this gory adrenaline rush of a segment.

“Fur Babies” is by actor Justin Long and his brother Christian Long and the Longs were inspired by Justin’s work on Kevin Smith’s TUSK as basically, it’s the same premise as that body horror shocker. It’s about a dog sitter who has a penchant for taxidermy and body modification who is infiltrated by animal rights activists. But the activists don’t know how twisted this doggie daycare truly is. I loved the effects and premise of “Fur Babies” and the dog things are quite disturbing. This has Justin Long’s warped sense of humor written all over it and while it is one of the lighter segments, it definitely is one of the more gruesome. Still, “Fur Babies” feels out of place compared to the rest of the more sci fi leaning entries.

“Stowaway” is made from a story by Mike Flanagan and the first-time directing effort from his partner/actor Kate Segal. It follows a plucky reporter investigating the Phoenix Lights and happening upon some kind of vessel in the middle of the desert. Upon entering the vessel, she finds all sorts of otherworldly tech that is beyond understanding. This is a wonderful little story with a lot of gory creativity going on. It’s by far the most complete story of the bunch as most of the entries simply come to an abrupt ending. “Stowaway” has a tragic and EC comics style poetic ending that wraps up the film strongly.

V/H/S/BEYOND shows how versatile this series truly is. While adding the mockumentary style isn’t new, they did it in the last one, the wraparound did work well to tie the stories together despite not really offering a payoff. I think one thing this series needs is to focus more on telling a complete story rather than relying on the tried and true “the tape just stopped” ending. “Stowaway” proved a solid, resonant ending is possible and more attention to narrative would make these installments so much better. As is, this is another strong installment and I’m already wondering what this ongoing series has in store for us next year.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
#28 – FREWAKA (THE SURRENDER)
#27 – FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES (V/H/S/BEYOND)