207 - Final Destination Bloodlines

Slash and cast. Welcome back, fiends, to handle Whisk Air presented by the Slash NCast Podcast Network. Our show discusses horror movies and the footage they emphasize. i'm your host i'm really drunk and throughout may we're celebrating halfway to halloween by deep diving into some of this month's biggest releases as well as some of this year's horror highlights

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With me here tonight, as always, is my host Granite of Zombie. And zombie, needless to say, it has been a turbulent week for both of us for different reasons. A lot of down moments and a lot of frustration. uh this past week's release though i have to say bloodlines was such a fun movie going experience and it just comes to show that you know regardless of a sort of formula that this franchise may have they still keep finding ways to keep it fresh entertaining and uh come to find out this

Ended up being the highest grossing film of the franchise, which we'll talk numbers here in just a bit. But it's also one of the best reviewed, both critically as well as by the audience. And, you know, the show ends, you know, unfortunately for. For Final Destination, it kind of got some of the larger screen formats taken away from it by some other movies that are out right now. But the audience really came out in droves for.

You know, a sixth installment of a horror franchise, which is not very common that we're this late into the series and the money keeps raking in. Well, yeah, when you do a follow up. Over a decade later, it's the least possible promising thing. And much to both my chagrin and yours. Yeah, to call this movie fun, I think we're going to repeat that word a lot in this because it was fun. The interesting thing is from the rest of the franchise, they always tiptoed up against the humor.

but then sort of kind of pulled back just a little bit. And this one did not do that. It leaned on the humor and then often gave you kind of a humor-settling splatter. directly after it um so it in its own way it sort of tamped it down but there were moments of this movie where i laughed out loud because of what happened um and normally in a horror movie i would say

that's a discredit, right? It's like, oh, there's a demerit for me laughing at your horror movie. But the way they did this, the way it was shaped and even scene by scene, it was so well done that... You could laugh and 30 seconds later be like, oh, my God. Like, I mean, because they really. As much as they leaned into the into the comedy and just said, screw it, we're going to own it.

They also leaned hardcore into the gore. And then moreover, one of the things that I really liked, because I think everybody can relate to having... a good luck charm whether it be a lucky penny or you know um an amulet of some sort something And with this, they lean into taking those things that you've always considered that kind of come with a certain level of good charm to them. And then in this case, it's like, nope, not even a little bit.

If you are not a fan of Abraham Lincoln, you'll love this movie because Abraham Lincoln factors heavily in a lot of the destruction in this. Not quite in the way you think. But to your earlier point, I mean, most of the Final Destination movies, when you watch them, they're not fun. Right? They're definitely, they've got a story to your earlier point. There's definitely a formula. I mean, it's the final destination, right? The final destination is being dead. But with this, it's...

Throughout the series, it's always been a bit of a cat and mouse game. But with this one, like you said, they kept it fresh and they changed the whole dynamic when it started. Now, I will say this, and I'm going to copy your phrase here. If I had one gripe about this movie, it's the family connection piece of it. To me, they didn't sell it real well. It wasn't a thing that I clung to and was like, oh, there's...

You know, there's Grandma, but I don't think it was meant to be that kind of movie. It was not meant to be that heavy connection, let's rely on your emotions movie. It was meant to be a very fun splatterfest, and they definitely pulled that off. Yeah, it's either a fun splatter fest or if you are a conspiracy theorist, there's a lot of there's a lot of webbing in this movie with newspaper clippings. And obviously there's a whole lore book on death just in particular from the grandma.

But final destination, Bloodlines. The plot for this one, plagued by a recurrent violent nightmare, a college student returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them. So this marks the sixth installment in the Final Destination franchise, and it's the first new release that we have seen since Final Destination 5, which came out in 2011. You know, we revisited here this...

this past week. And I will say this, it is definitely not my favorite. I think if there wasn't a loop around to the first movie, it would be even more forgettable than it already is. It's amazing that you say that. There are so many people that think that Final Destination 5 is the best of the previous offerings, and it is my least favorite.

Yeah, and it's weird how that works. Some people glom onto it and just think it's great, and other people are just like, eh. But yes, you're right. I think the loop around is what ultimately saves it, and I think it's that...

probably is that connection point that makes people like it a lot. Because we had no indication of it being a prequel to Final Destination, which is kind of looped in there at the end. But anyways, we had a 14-year hiatus between... movie releases and as I mentioned this one garnered critical acclaim achieving a certified fresh rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes accompanied by an 88% audience score.

And Bloodlines really just retained the franchise's signature charm while also introducing some fresh and engaging twists that helped captivate the audiences. Now, box office wise, I mean... Record-breaking opening for the franchise, the film launched with a staggering $51 million, far exceeding initial productions, and easily secured at the top spot in the box office for the weekends.

And that debut nearly doubled the previous record held by the final destination, which was not actually the final destination. But that one opened to 27.4 million back in August of 2009, and it was nearly triple. what Finalist Nation 5 made back in 2011. And I remember, like, before the movie came out, you know, they usually release, like, okay, like, what are the early predictions going to be for the box office? A lot of...

Indicators had it in like a $35 to $40 million range. But, you know, here we are with the $21 million Friday. It did $5.5 million in the Thursday previews, which is also really good for a horror movie at that. The horror fans came out, and what's interesting to me, just specifically when it comes to the box office... You know, horror films in particular don't really like nosedive based off of bad reviews. Like if you're a horror fan, people will typically like still go out and see it.

But in regards to having really high reviews, that definitely does help enhance the overall performance that a movie has in the theaters. So to see just... So many people coming out and seeing really not any sort of dip in between the days throughout the weekend was a very big surprise to me. And I'm just glad so many people actually went out of their way.

to go see it uh we'll see what sort of longevity it has because obviously like this franchise in particular doesn't really have a lot of wheels when it comes to that uh so it's probably not gonna make a ton in the you know in the grand scheme of things but by the end of the day there's no doubt like it's already it's already turned a profit when you factor in the international take too

Oh, yeah. No, it's funny. So I have two main movie theaters that I go to. One is close to home and one is close to work. I mean, and I think the reasons are obvious. And it's funny that... I tend to go to movies on a Thursday if I can. That's usually what I do. And the theater close to home usually shows them at about six o'clock. Not exactly sure why.

The theater close to work shows them at about 4 or 4.30. So, I mean, if I want to see it by work, I mean, A, I'm leaving work early. So, hey, jackpot, right? But I've noticed something amongst... We'll call it the regulars at the theater. There's a lot of, I see a lot of guys that are like me, a little bit older, clearly coming from work.

You know, they still have their sort of business casual going on, whatever else. And then there's there is definitely a new generation of of horror out there. And they're the people. And the funniest part is a lot of them are female too, but they're always, you know, in their sweatpants or their pajamas, they always bring a blanket and a pillow and they always make a fucking nest out of their seat. I'm not sure why they do that, but that's what they do. They're birds, man.

well yeah exactly yeah and but i see a lot of it's the same people so i'm like i'm like and when i was at final destination i ran into a guy who was just like me um But he was also similar in the fact that he needed to put seven gallons of butter on his popcorn and all that kind of thing. And not that we need to go details, but he taught me a trick about how to properly butter your popcorn.

I will be forever grateful to this gentleman for teaching me that. But for a Thursday movie, I was really amazed. For a Thursday, I think it was about 4.30, the theater was probably half full. I mean, and that... doesn't happen for probably 90% of the movies that I see. So, I mean, I think it, I think it says a lot about the buzz for this. I think it says a lot about the marketing. And I know we talked a lot about.

In the big cities, the logging trucks driving around the final destination. I mean, not only is it brilliant, it is fucking balls. Somebody. Somebody sold that to somebody in marketing and said, we should do this. And every, you know, everybody in the room went, really? I love that person that came up with that idea, but I think they're also a fucking asshole. Well, they might be because it did the same thing to me where it was like, oh God, we're going back to that. But you say what you want.

it made you want to see it more. Even if it made you uncomfortable, it made you want to see it more. And that, so that to me was just fucking brilliant. Seeing all the social media stuff with the, just the login trucks driving around. I mean, that's. It's nothing short of just fucked up, right? And to see that and to see that a company was like, screw it, we're going to roll the dice and see what happens. And it was...

It was profound. It was impactful. But I also believe it was a part of what drove their box office way up, too. Absolutely. So Bloodline serves as a... Pivotal installment in the franchise because it delves deeper into the origins of the Final Destination Premonitions and exploring why certain individuals are marked for fate.

I will say, like, if you guys have not seen this, this film does not feature any post credit scenes. Instead, we kind of have like a montage of news clip ins that allude to other impending tragedies. uh that are going to occur uh in you know the franchise uh but This film culminates in a dramatically explosive finale, which does warrant a closer look. And I know you and I both were pretty happy with the way that this movie ended.

But as it comes to previous entries in the Final Destination series, Bloodlines opens with a very vivid and harrowing catastrophe, as you would come to expect. That results in numerous fatalities. And while that may seem pretty typical for the franchise, the twist comes when we realize that our... Central character is not the one experiencing the violent premonition. Instead, we have a college student, Stephanie, who has been plagued by this recurrent nightmare about her grandmother, Iris.

on the night of her engagement. So if Iris and her boyfriend Paul were set to visit the Skyview restaurant tower for its grand opening... It's an exclusive new venue known for its breathtaking views of the city and live music. And Paul intends to propose Iris at the top of the tower. But of course, those plans are throtted by a series of obstacles.

The reservation is inexplicably missing. A disruptive child is causing chaos, throwing objects from the tower. There's a lot of disorientation when it comes to the height. making Iris feel uneasy at that. And, you know, despite those challenges, Iris is also secretly pregnant. and is grappling with how to share that life-changing news with her boyfriend. Yeah, I mean, so for the time, that's kind of a...

It's kind of a big deal, right? I mean, this is a time when women were sent off to convents and to church basements and shit to have their kids and they were adopted out because it was such a shame on the family. And I think with stories like this, it's normally where we get the guy who's like, oh.

And he just is horrified. He just storms out. He's like, I want nothing to do with you, even though I put my penis inside you. And, you know, because it just tells you what assholes men are because because we're assholes. It's just how it is.

this is kind of the rare occasion where he was excited and he was like, he literally was like clapping his hands together. Like, God damn, let's get this shit moving woman. And for me, that was kind of a refreshing take on it where it's like, we don't have a guy who. you know, has sex with you and the obvious things happen. And then the obvious thing happened. And then he was just horrified and says, what did you do?

What? Because we have a lot of movies that are like that, where it somehow magically becomes the woman's fault. And I've never understood that about Senovi because, you know, from... At 12 years old, Don, I knew how it worked. So it's like it's the old adage of it takes two to tango. It's like, you know what? You were party to the whole thing, too.

But anyway, so, yeah, so that was refreshing that he was just like, yeah, Paul's just like, let's fucking go. This is going to be great. You know, and he's going to propose, and they're up in this magical restaurant that looks oddly like the Space Needle. But as a pursuant to what a Final Destination movie is, it has to have something catastrophic. And this opening...

Everything Goes to Hell is now my second favorite opening of Everything Goes to Hell. Final Destination 2 is always going to be my favorite. I'm a car guy. I just love all that stuff. This is my second favorite without a doubt. And, you know, up until the point, and they don't shy away from it, movies are starting to break with some of the traditions of things that we don't do because this movie kills children.

And it alludes to, hey, we might see that baby over there. Just watch for a second. And so it and it's like, well, wow. So we're like absolutely going there. And while it's always been. I mean, kind of taboo, except for certain movies like The Coffee Table, for example. Totally not taboo, which is already being remade because we all need that, right? Anyway.

But so as as we're shifting in our movie making and it's it's interesting to watch, because even though this child was going to die, you also had somebody who was working tirelessly to save said child. So it. I think it tempers a child's death with a very hard outpouring of humanity where we're going to do what's right anyway.

Between the cracking glass and the explosions and people falling and people being impaled on things. I mean, it just was going everywhere. I mean, up to and including a certain... a certain pain in the ass kid, um, getting to tickle the ivories one last time. Um, it, it gives you, it gives you everything in the first like 15 minutes of the movie. And you're just like,

I don't think you can do better than this. Why did you give it all to me at once? Because now I'm just going to be disappointed. And it turns out you're not. It does continue to get better. Like I said, the family thing. honestly, I still think is a little bit weak. I don't, I don't think you go out to meet grandma in her, you know, she's, she's supposed to be sort of our clear river from, from two, right? Where she's, she's isolated herself.

But where Clear River just isolated herself and didn't play the game at all, Grandma is playing the game. Not only just playing it like she's full in, she's, she's playing, she's, she's jumping the board. She's saying King me when she has to, but she's also taunting death at every moment, which honestly was kind of refreshing. Like she's just.

She just kind of walks through her house with a middle finger like, yeah, I see you. I see you. And you're not going to get me, bitch. But the family part of it, it didn't connect. It felt a little... I mean, I know that there's definitely some... estrangement going on um but it was the estrangement was too hard in the paint where everybody sort of kept everybody at arm's length and it made it hard to connect to the family

Part of the whole thing, because even with the regular family of of our college students, Stephanie. Even they were. You know. And the estrangement, the arm's length estrangement continued on through that family too. So, and maybe that was on purpose and that was not something that I picked up on and was like, oh, I see what you're doing.

But it made some of the connections, it feel a little false to me. So as I went through it, it's like, I still get what's going on, but I don't think some of you like each other as much as you claim to. yeah so getting back to the sky view um you know with the initial catastrophe uh structurally uh this tower is compromised various issues undermining its integrity

We have the young boy who was inadvertently throwing pennies off of the roof, which becomes a lodge in one of the restaurant's events. We have a crystal chandelier that's been cracked, which further weakens the glass and dance floor. Iris, being a pretty perceptive individual, experiences this premonition of the impending disaster that threatens the lives of everyone inside the tower, and she acts swiftly, honest, alerting all of the guests of the imminent danger.

ultimately saving dozens, if not hundreds, of lives. So in the years to follow, death comes for those who escaped the Skyview restaurant tower disaster, targeting them in the order they were meant to perish. which is pretty true to the blueprint that this franchise has been following. But before Death's arrival, one of the intended victims may have had a premonition of their fate.

A theme that was, of course, explored in the previous five films of this franchise. So the delay in settling the score is, you know, just due to the sheer number of survivors who evaded Death's Fate. uh on that day and you know many of these individuals went on to build families you know lives that were never meant to exist in the first place uh so consequently

The pursuit extends beyond the original survivors. It now seeks to eliminate every descendant of those who escaped the Skyview, which is the essence of the title Bloodlines. So the narrative isn't like solely about avenging the past. It's about eradicating any life that was never intended to be. Well, and that's kind of a new theme for these movies, right? I mean, we're.

Not only are we going after the babies, but we're going after the babies' babies. And to think that you have a bloodline, and that's hence the subtitle there, that was never intended to exist. um and all the things that have happened since and then even furthering that bloodline further um it does make for an interesting thought process as you're trying to lay it out in your head. Now, with the survivors of the original disaster, it's...

It's funny because in my head, I was like, OK, so once they did that, I'm like, how are they going to lay this out for me in a way that I can digest this? Because if they tried to show me everybody that died. It would be like a comic book, Sin City comic book, just panel by panel splatter, just like splatter, splatter, splatter for like 15 minutes. That's all they would have given us. So the... I'm not usually a fan of the, unless you're doing like either a mob movie or you're doing.

like a serial killer thing. I'm not a fan of the pictures and the strings and the news articles. I'm not, to me, that usually is a, it's a little bit, it feels like a cheap plot device. In this one, I think it actually. took our story and put it into hyperdrive and got it you know here's what happened i understand it now or at least the character understands it and

We get to get past it because we're at a place where if we're honest, it doesn't really matter anyway. But you see some of the small news articles and it's like, you know, and you see the stuff that you'd expect, freak accident and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I was actually glad that they didn't spend a lot of time on that. And they just gave us kind of a black and white cardboard narrative that, you know.

Because it's simple enough that you can keep bringing it up and say, see what happened here and see what happened here. But we don't have to keep going over the story and giving us these boring details that don't really matter anyway, don't really impact things. But then with Stephanie's family and how there are, well, let's just call it some problems and estrangements of their own there, you know.

Mom having beat feet years ago and people who we thought were our cousins who weren't really our cousins. I mean, there's a little, this, this is going to sound terrible and I don't mean it to be disparaging anybody, but there's a little bit of like backwards, Tennessee feel to this. Like, you know,

Like, I was drunk and I stumbled home to the wrong trailer and then I had your brother. But your brother's dad's really Bob, it's not Ted. You know? So we get into not only... uh you know horrific things that have happened but we do get dynamically as a family this is probably the deepest they've ever gone into a family where we see that

Yeah, families aren't perfect. And some people do some shit and whatever else. And, you know, people finding out who their real fathers are and going, God, that guy was a dick. And, you know, it's like, well. And it's like, yeah, you're the guy that works in the tattoo shop and has, you know, you're covered head to toe in tattoos and you look like you ran on a dock and fell face first into a tackle box. I mean, so it makes sense.

I think with that kind of thing, it's generally the most confused of people are the ones that end up, you know, and then people like me who are only heavily tattooed are sort of middle confused, you know? So it's like... It feels a lot like life and the things you encounter in life and then moreover how you react to some of these things. So when it comes to the characters in this movie, as...

Screwed up as this family is and as you try to pluck the bits and pieces of information that you have and put them together into something that's cohesive and makes some sense, I think it's... I think the reason I enjoyed it the most, honestly, is because of the struggle to make everything make sense, because that feels a lot like life. And, you know, having things like.

The giant big backyard barbecue, that feels like one of those moments where people are trying to, you know, put aside their differences and they're just trying to have some fun and trying to connect. Even in the real world, it never fucking works. So there you go. Just whatever you do, don't step on the rake. If you don't do that, you'll be fine. Yeah, well, not everyone's going to move the rake in the first place.

So, you know, some kids are going to get caught eventually at some point by that one way or another, even if it's, you know, through the trampoline or just sideshow bobbing themselves like in The Simpsons. So with Stephanie. She begins to experience these visions of her grandmother's permission. And that is because Iris's turn is quickly approaching. Iris was the second to last person to die.

In the Skyview Tower, meaning that death must first work through all the other survivors and their families. So aware of death's relentless pursuit, Iris is chosen to live in seclusion within a fortified compound. where she believes she can shield herself and her family from the impending doom. However, her battle against time is compounded by the fact that she does have a cancer diagnosis, which limits her remaining time on this earth.

And Stephanie is determined to connect with Iris in an effort to manage her persistent nightmares because Stephanie has a lack of sleep, which is taking a toll on her college grades. taking a grade on her mental health as well as their relationships. But as Stephanie is delving deeper into Iris's experiences, she uncovers more than she initially anticipated.

She witnesses the entity claim her grandmother and then she realizes that it is now her responsibility to protect the rest of her family from freak accidents or similarly gruesome fates. And I will say this, like, I love the fact that Grandma Iris is essentially just living in... It's basically what you expect like a junkyard to be in like a fucking zombie apocalypse. It is one of the... Honestly, the compound was one of the more confusing things to me of this movie.

Because if I'm trying to, you know, stave off death, I'm not going to surround myself with a bunch of pointy fucking objects and spears everywhere. But that's just me. i know i completely agree with with the compound it was like what were you protecting yourself against it's like did you think death was going to come to your front door dressed as a ups guy and just knock and be like hey package so it it

Aside from the clunky family dynamic, the compound was the hardcore miss in the whole thing. It did not make any sense at all. It's like... I'm afraid of death, so here's what I'm going to do. Build a giant wall full of pointy, rusty shit. So... Even if I don't get stabbed to death, I'm going to get fucking tetanus and die anyway. So, I mean, it just, it did not make any sense. And then as far as someone who's like, I call it a practical.

prepper somebody who wants to be isolated wants to be there were so many things in that place where that's like that's not what you would do that's just no i mean it's You don't have surfaces full of clutter and weird stained glass windows that can focus the sun. But I think at the same time, they were trying to show her as, you know...

kind of a little bit nuts, which makes some sense. So if you look at it from that standpoint, it's like, well, okay, she's kind of insane. So she built a compound out in the middle of nowhere where even if she did die, nobody would know forever. So, sure. Yeah, so... Yeah, I... Every movie's gotta have a hiccup, and this is the one where you just went... Like...

Okay, so you built a place in the middle of nowhere that's really fucking hard to get to, and you have to have like a speaker box thing to get into, but then the whole place is covered in nothing but sharp stuff and rust. Like I, I, yeah, I, it didn't make any sense. I completely agree, but it's a movie and I still enjoyed it. But, and I, if they didn't fuck little things up, you know, I'd have nothing to bitch about. I mean, it's like, well.

Fair enough, but it is literally the thing where it's like, with Clear River in part two, it's like, she was in a pristine white padded cell, and the only thing she had was a couple of black and white photographs. Up to and including...

Polaroid of the dead guy, which still does not make a lot of sense. But I digress. Yeah. I completely understand the need to... seclude oneself in order to protect their family uh but that was certainly a choice to say the least uh but it did lead to our uh what is essentially our our lore book of uh that's the blueprint and you know there's this moment when iris basically um

Like, Stephanie is about to leave and, like, she hasn't really, like, sold the idea yet to her granddaughter. So she actually, and I know this is scary for some people, she went outside of her compound. And sure enough, that ended up being a fatal decision because death came for Iris in that moment. And Stephanie essentially got a bloodshot. Yeah, that's a way of looking at it. Yeah, when you're so scared of death that you live in a compound in the middle of the woods by yourself, and then...

You finally step outside. I mean, and at this point, I mean, Iris has told her that she's terminally ill, right? So, I mean, she does not have a ton to like, you know, there's not a brighter tomorrow around the corner. but it's, I hate to say this, but it feels like commitment to me. That's what it feels like. Like I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you how things actually are. And to me,

I love that. I love just going to the fucking mattresses for your cause. And then, you know, for all that, she's killed by a weather vane. And that... I'm going to call it, like, I sort of knew something was going to happen. That one was surprising. And that one was also gloriously gory, too. Just the whole, you know.

looking at grandma and grandma's going to tell you which direction north or south is and it's like yeah right now it doesn't matter because grandma's got a headache you know yeah the way that they used again because it was It was on the edge of funny for that. And that I think is where they started really like tiptoeing into the humor. Like we're going to, we're going to, we know what this is, but we know what it's going to do. So they're tiptoeing into the humor.

And having grandma get smoked by her own weathervane was pretty good. And from there, honestly, they don't slow down on the whole humor thing. Honestly, they kind of ramp it up. But like I said earlier, they... They keep it just on the edge enough where it's like, it's still a horror movie. We know that. But even you know, as a human, if this happened to somebody that you knew, you'd laugh a little bit.

and that's what we do you know and so yeah once grandma iris uh is kind of out of the picture um you know everyone kind of has this i don't know there's like a big Call it a reunion and people start coming out of the woodwork, right? And it's where we have our... our big speech by the uncle who's like you know what you can't you can't choose your family you just have to love the one that you've got and it's like well first of all

I disagree with that statement completely. You know, Uncle Howard, you can go eat a bag of dicks. Sometimes your family sucks and you don't have to deal with them if you don't want to. I'm lucky in the fact that most of my family doesn't suck, but I know people who have family that suck, and they just choose not to, and that's their right to do. But with this family barbecue and...

Anyone who's ever had a family barbecue knows one thing and one thing only. It's supposed to be a glorious, happy event. Everyone is supposed to have a good time. Everyone is supposed to eat too much, drink too much. Fall asleep in a lawn chair and get a sunburn. Just do all of those things. And Uncle Howard's house, for whatever it may be, it's also awfully fucking fancy. He's got some fancy shit in his house.

Um, and what it tells me that I am super in the right, keeping my old school Weber kettle grill that takes charcoal. Okay. Because I'm never going to have half the problems this guy did. Yeah, it's definitely a nice house. I also was thinking the same thing when I was watching this. But I will say throughout the course of this movie, there are a lot...

a fake out moment. More so in this one than other entries in the franchise. And I thought the balance between the fake outs and then when things were actually happening. It was very hard for me to predict when the kill was actually going to take place. It wasn't one note in regards to the overall timing, which definitely helps keep us on our toes and keeps us guessing throughout.

the course of this now in regards to like the whole like family aspect obviously like with stephanie in particular like she's trying to navigate through this complex web of fate and family

familial ties to protect her family from the grasp of death that seeks to destroy it. But she does get Iris's notes to predict the order in which her own family members are going to... see death's embrace at that uh but the problem is like it's now her turn to try to sell it to the rest of her family so you know there's that moment when you know she sit she sits everyone down

you know we we got like our our power it's not a powerpoint but you know what i mean our presentation all together and there's just that moment when they're like really off with this it's too soon like There's definitely that moment where it's like we're still grieving. The loss of, you know, Iris in this case, even though Iris may have been, you know, estranged from the family and basically.

like was seen as a kook by literally everyone in her family like up she went nuts and then she just moved to the middle of buttfuck nowhere uh and now she lives surrounded by sharp objects because that's a totally a normal thing for someone to do regardless of if they have cancer or not. But for Stephanie, unfortunately for her, she's not able to act quick enough because she is unable to prevent the death of Uncle Howard.

So after witnessing both Iris and Uncle Howard die, she starts to find a little bit more confidence in regards to her predictions. So... Her primary obstacle that she faces right now is just her lack of knowledge regarding Eric in particular. Now, for those that don't know, Eric... is not Howard's biological son. Obviously, they make some comedic moments out of that. Eric is the tattoo artist. He was also the vampire boy from Trick or Treat.

I don't know if you know this. He was. He was. Yeah. We also last saw him last year in one of, well, for me, one of the two of these standouts, the Low Lives. Yeah. Other than that, he, I think he's. more prominently known for, uh, the 100, which is on the CW. Uh, but yeah, it's just, it's funny. Cause on online Twitter discourse about this movie, other than the fucking movie being amazing has all been about.

girls fanboying over Eric. I shit you not. Now, I will say this. Obviously, I want to talk about the marketing of the film because initially... They're like, OK, here's the trailer for the movie. And then we watch it and we're like, well, that's not a fucking trailer. That is a goddamn scene. And of course, it is a scene when Eric is.

Basically working late and having a close up shop after basically the death of his uncle. And, you know, whoever the, you know, the tattoo shop owner is fucks off and does whatever. And then we have our prolonged. quote, a death sequence or what we thought was going to be Eric's demise. Turns out that motherfucker does not die in that scene. And in that moment, I kid you not, I was like, are you fucking kidding me? I was upset.

but also really happy at the same time because it's like it's one of those scenes where, you know, we were set up to have a certain expectation and then we veer into left field. And then we have these moments that are baked into the story with Eric in particular, where he is just essentially taunting death. And just outright just not giving a shit.

About anything. So the whole time he's just like sticking his middle finger up. He's literally just trying to butt fuck death. And so like, yeah, you can get me. Oh, like, what's the worst that could happen? You know, it's just like, I'm just going to do. really stupid shit, and I'm going to be absolutely fine. So the fake-out moments that come from that really help with the sort of balance of the comedic elements leading into some of the other deaths in the movie.

Well, I think you nailed it when you said earlier this whole thing from the very first trailer that we saw. And this was the first trailer. And I agree with you, too. It was a scene. They showed me. And it was one of those things where it's like... I was confused. Movies don't do this. They don't show me an entire scripted scene.

So right off the bat, it was like, okay, this is going to be profound. This is going to be good. This guy's death is going to be fucking fantastic. And in terms of the head fake with him... They don't give us just one head, like an entire scene built up to then give us a head fake. They give us a follow up scene that has a miniature build up and gives us another head fake. I mean, and so it's like.

It's one of the rare times in this movie where it's like finally you're folding your arms and going, what the fuck are you doing, Moby? You're screwing with me, and I don't know why you're screwing with me. I... I'll tell you what, I think that having an entire scene dedicated to him, piercing somebody's tongue, closing up shop, getting accidentally pulled...

To the ceiling by a ceiling fan by his nose ring. Setting the entire fucking place on fire. And then having like a giant like blow the windows out explosion, whatever else. And he fucking lives. Might be one of the best head fakes in cinema ever. Okay. Because I've seen all the final destination movies. Nobody survives that shit. And to have him like walking home the next day and like, Hey, how's everything going? They're like,

Well, we heard the tattoo shop burn down and he's like, yep, it did. It's like. OK, you're like looking around going like, did the movie change and nobody told me? I don't I don't know what's going on here. And so head fake wise, it is. It was so well executed. And then to give us again with the big garbage truck rolling by the second head fake. And it was like, then I was like, I'd really crossed my arms and I'm like, okay, now you're fucking with me. And I don't think I like it.

Um, but then it turns out, um, with, there's sort of another, call it mini premonition. Um, and this one, it's actually Stephanie that has it. And it's like, oh. Okay, this is getting pretty good. And with Julia falling in the garbage can and then getting in the garbage truck. And they do give you this. This. great sort of choreographed montage of we're going to save her. And the best part of the whole thing is after all these fake outs,

They fucking don't. And they, they squish her so hard. And Stephanie comes falling out of that garbage truck with an arm in her hand and just being like, and for me, like gore wise, it was like, Oh, now we're, now we're getting there. Finally, here we go. And from there, they just keep ramping it up. And it's like, well, okay, this is different than the other movies I've seen from this IP. But all the things that you've changed so far...

You've either really made me mad or really confused me. And as much as I didn't think I liked either one of those things when it came to a horror movie, to your point about being kept guessing and not knowing what was happening, it was like... here we are. We're fresh and we're new. Okay, let's go. And it just keeps going from there. Well, it would lead you to believe that, uh, you know, Eric is, uh, gotta survive.

In the grand scheme of things, since he's not a direct part of this bloodline, since Brenda had an affair and that's when Eric was conceived, turns out. Eric is not safe due to interfering with death's plan, which we'll get into in a bit. But, you know, ahead. You know, we have to talk about Tony Todd scene in particular. Oh, my God. Because for a lot of us, obviously, like we know as horror fans, like this was the last movie that.

Tony Todd had shot before his passing. So everything about his scene was not written. It was direct from the man himself, which adds another. level of realness to it. But it was one of those rare moments in cinema, really, that for a lot of us fans, it was so cathartic. and it felt like it was a goodbye just in in that moment um and it you know it's one of those scenes where it's like we we got a little bit of the lore behind you know

Who that character actually is. Because like for the longest time. As we have watched this franchise. You know go on over all these years. You know there was a lot of talk about like. Oh well maybe Bloodworth is. death himself that is not actually the case so i'm glad you know at least for you know the fans out there like we we know definitively like who this character was why he was able to know so much about death he was not death himself he just happened to be you know the second

like one of the last survivors of the Skyview. So there was that direct connection with Iris and her family. So... it was one of those rare moments where it's just like that scene in particular just it was cathartic but at the same time it also felt like a gut punch but it was it was one of the things that helped really make this movie and i'm just glad we got

something out of it um and you know i i know he has other movies that are still yet yet to come out but as i said knowing that this was his last shot film and seeing the state that he was in but he was also in very high spirits at the time too so it just says a lot about the man yeah it was when he first came on screen and to see how much he had changed And to see that, I mean, let's be honest here. We all get old and we all die, right? It's just what happens.

And I think cathartic is exactly it. And it's funny because, you know, his last line in there, and I'm going to read it verbatim because it was awesome. I intend to enjoy the time I have left, and I suggest you do the same. Life is precious. Enjoy every single second. You never know when. And he just says, good luck. Now, so we're... I just need to do this to be done with it. So we're late recording and it's my fault. And it's my fault because I had to put my dog down this weekend. And scene.

Seeing the change in Tony Todd, and I've just realized this in the last couple of days, but seeing the change in Tony Todd, it really relates to me. And it relates to me because of the change I saw on my dog. And how... You can be one thing at one moment and something can happen to you and you can be another thing. And it was something as a person, I feel... neglectful that I didn't see it sooner in my dumb little dog. But seeing Tony Todd in this, it made me really kind of realize that.

like there is a thing and i you know and i don't see tony todd every day right so it's it's hard to it's hard to say that you know You can't see it because it's really obvious. And I think when it comes to the people around us and the people that we love and even our critters that we love, because we see them every day, often we don't see the changes because they're not...

They're subtle and they're small. And, you know, for me on this last Sunday, I saw a change and I had to do something because it was time to do something. But with that last message that he left, and to your point, completely unscripted, I mean, that was... That had to be a message to fans of his because... He is such an he is such an icon in horror. And, you know, and it goes back. It's not it's not years. It's decades that it goes back.

But it tells you a little bit of something about life. And yeah, there's no piece of me that ever thought that he could be death. I mean, he's always been close to it. But I think... This is what I think. Having been the little boy that survived the fall of the glass-floored tower, whoever thought that was a good idea was a fucking moron. But having been the little boy that survived that...

And having been so close to it, you know, he was very small when he was first introduced to death, the character. And so to me, it seems natural that he stayed close to it. And then... You know, as the actor, I mean, he's been... I mean, I'll just go ahead and say this. As far as horror actors go, he's as close to a god as you can be. I mean, he really is.

Um, you know, and from, you know, uh, the night of the living dead remake to candy man to, uh, fuck. He was in sky sharks for Christ's sake. Okay. I mean, he, he is. He's nothing short of a God. And to watch him say that, and like I said, to think about it the last few days, it kind of made me realize that when it comes to what we're doing every day...

And to a lot of the nonsense that we do and whatever else, just a little bit of paying attention is important. But sometimes things just are what they are, and you have to deal with things as they are, and you have to react as you can. with this with this movie and with a lot of the people in it and especially stephanie's family members i mean she has to have a discussion with them where she has to convince them that this is actually happening um

And to her credit, and you're right, it wasn't a PowerPoint, but it may as well have been. She does convince him and they are kind of like, OK, well, what do we do? How do we. you know how do we react what are the things that we can do to sort of you know preserve ourselves because that's what we're talking about is we're talking about self-preservation um and

It kind of comes to show you, in these movies, they do this so well that it's like, oftentimes, if you're marked, there's nothing that you can do. You're just next. And with... The the big PowerPoint, the string and pictures PowerPoint. There are times where it might take five, 10 years for things to get to you. And.

They don't show that often in the films because let's be honest, that would be boring, right? Waiting, you know, and then at, you know, at his 27th high school reunion, Phil was killed by a falling basketball hoop. That'd be boring, right? Nobody wants to sit and watch that. So as they keep this family dynamic, and they do a fairly good job with the exception of Grandma Iris, because she still did not connect for me.

With the rest of the family, they do a good job of like trying to keep it tighter and getting that ball tighter and tighter. And everyone's going to help and everyone's going to help. It turns out in the end. Like even when you really want to help, even when it's not actually your brother or it's only your half brother, you know, you still want to help. And it.

Family in the end is really the only thing that matters. And there's a lot of people that do a good job of overlooking some obvious problems. Just being like, you know what? Fuck it. We're still family. Let's just keep going. So with Eric in particular, obviously with him not being direct bloodline, it does kind of like give him a unique advantage in terms of the family's overall survival.

you know since death is targeting iris's direct bloodline anyone not biologically related to her is exempt from being a target uh so that would include brenda and stephanie's father You know, which positions Eric as the third family member there who should have survived. But Bloodlines ultimately claims Eric's life after he learns about, you know, some of the loopholes from Bloodworth.

And it's worth noting, like, the reason why they're in contact with Bloodworth in the first place is because the initials JB were throughout Iris's book because they were in... uh constant communication with one another you know keeping a close eye on death and their targets and just these things that were happening to all of these people and uh just all the number of ways that people could potentially die uh but

for eric in particular oh my gosh so when we get to the hospital right like we have this idea okay it's like eric is gonna try to uh to to to save his uh half brother uh by killing him and then bringing him back to life because like obviously that was a rule that they had already uh uh instated uh in a in a prior entry of the other franchise

uh and his half brother is allergic to peanuts so you know initially they're like all right well like we're just going to uh you know let's hit the snack machine right like and then they they do the whole fake out in regards to uh you know the

The nuts get stuck and then they're like trying to shake it and they're trying to lean it. And of course, the half brothers up front because, oh, it's like, oh, he's going to get crushed to death. That doesn't happen. Well, they successfully get the snacks. You know, they hide out in one of the MRI rooms. And, you know, he's got a wheelchair. They're ready to go. You know, the half brother starts eating it, has his allergic reaction.

But that fucking MRI machine. Now, here's the thing about this scene in particular. So if I'm a tattoo artist who has a ton of piercings... One of which we only knew about, by the way. If I'm getting strut up by the fucking ceiling fan from my nose piercings. i would not wear that shit again after the fact no i would take them all out there's there's just a yeah there's a there's a limit but eric uh not only

Not only does he have his nose pierced, but he also has a couple other piercings as well. Whether it is nipples or his other head. And we'll just say this MRI machine is cranked up to 11 in regards to the magnets. So, yeah. You can kind of guess what happens. There's a moment when all of his fucking piercings are just shooting out of his body. One by one. And it's just like, oh my god, you are a fucking idiot.

The girls may think he's a lovable fucking idiot, but he is still an idiot because, like, why in the hell would you still wear all of your piercings after that initial freak accident? It just does not make any sense. But I will say, that fucking scene... Had me rolling so hard because you have like the whole suction, the guts going everywhere. And then they're like, oh, surely he's going to get crushed by the vending machine, right? That doesn't fucking happen. They think us out again.

Yes, we have the vending machine involved, but it's the fucking like corkscrew basically that was holding the snacks in place from the machine and just spirals out and just gets shot like a bullet. And I thought that was so well done. It was.

It was very comical, just obviously with the Pearson aspect of it, which, you know, it's a head scratcher why he would even wear them in the first place, but I digress. It was such a fun element that they added to it. So I'm glad that at least a fake out moment with the vending machine. happened not once but twice, but it still kept me guessing, which is honestly, for as many movies as we have seen, it's very rare for us to really not know what's going to happen next.

And this is one of the few times in recent years where I had a number of occasions where it's like, oh, that's the direction they went. And I did not see it coming. Well, so as a 51-year-old man and somebody who once was young and fun, I'm not anymore. I'm sorry. That's just how it is. I can tell you this.

I had a piercing in my ear once that I ripped out on a zipper, on a coat. Went to put a coat on and the zipper caught and it ripped the sumbitch right out. And then in a completely unrelated incident, I also... Once had a nipple piercing ripped out. Next time I see you, I'll show you. It doesn't, it doesn't look normal. And there's a reason. So this was this scene when, when he was, when the nose went.

And then the nipples went and then like the pants came out. Honestly, my testicles crawled back up inside my body. They're still there because they're still afraid. OK, it's just all I have. All I have is an Oscar Mayer Wiener. There's no there's no. There's no sausage and eggs. It's just a sausage right now. They haven't come back out yet. This whole thing is uncomfortable. I mean, it's like because I mean, everyone who's basically over.

25 and alive probably has had an MRI for some reason or another. Now, my problem with this is that with what I do for a living, I actually work with a couple of customers that build MRI machines. And nobody builds an MRI machine that has space balls, levels of power. Okay. And this one goes to fucking ludicrous speed. And it isn't one of those things where something can just fall and.

The machine has a top level, but then it can magically go past that and just go into like fucking nuclear mode. So granted, it's a horror movie, but there are times, this is one of the times where I was just like, that just wouldn't happen. It just, the ludicrous speed part of it would not happen. Now, will MRIs pull shit off the walls if people, yes, they will do that. It is a super, super powerful electromagnet and it will definitely.

I mean, there's a reason that you go into an MRI room and there's no fire extinguisher in there. There's a reason because it will rip the son of a bitch off the wall. But watching him get pulled into that thing and then get impaled by a wheelchair. And then watching fucking Bobby, a.k.a. Peanut Boy, crawl over and pull his EpiPen out of his dead half brother's hand and stab himself and be like, whew.

And then have the corkscrew from the vending machine fire. I mean, if that was happening, that MRI machine would have collapsed that building. The building would have just fell because that would have just been it.

But still, there's something about it that is just crazy enough and just, you know, kind of on the... utmost cuff of your sleeve in in terms of believability that makes it awesome to watch and that corkscrew and him just going and just it's like so you ate the peanuts that you had to fight the machine for

Because it was on the last thing, and that was the last thing in there. And we know how that goes. If you ever go to a vending machine and you're going to try to get the last Hershey bar, 90% of the time, the fucking thing's not going to fall. Because that corkscrew will fuck up somehow. And so that's your first tell that you just don't even bother. Just get a Milky Way that nobody likes, or get an Almond Joy that nobody likes down lower because it will fall.

i'm sorry that was really goddamn fun to watch and just to watch the aftermath of that whole thing and it's just like you look around and it's just like people are walking into the room and like look around and being like Holy shit. What the hell happened in here? You know, and there's.

they're literally other than watching it through the camera lens there's no explanation for what actually there's one guy who's he's folded in half all of his piercings are ripped out and he has a wheelchair up his ass and then The other guy has got a piece of a vending machine from 40 feet away stuck in his face. It's like, no, like there's no way into this happened. Right. Oh no, that's right. It's the final destination movie. Of course it did. So, I mean, it's.

It's crazy, but in terms of this movie and what it's done over the course of time, this is all pure. It has... all the providence and all of the history that it needs for this to have actually happened, because why the hell not? Yeah, just comes to show that, you know, your fate can be sealed by any attempt to interfere with that's designed at that. But, you know, I I'm glad for the sake of the franchise. And this has been.

A small gripe I've had with a few moments, because we definitely had moments when we're introducing new rules and then they're never seen again. But the whole, we're going to allow this person to die and then bring him back to life so they could kind of skip. you know, we've seen before. So I'm glad that they brought it back. So anytime we get some sort of continuity with this franchise, I'm always happy to see because...

You know, there are a lot of times when it's just like, oh, it's a one and done sort of situation and we just move on to the next scene. But there is kind of like this moment after Eric dies when Charlie... Is even like questioning like the rationale behind like why Eric died because like, oh, well, he wasn't part of the bloodline. Well, but I mean, it also.

he's still kind of fucked with death's plan though so that's why he got sort of introduced and you know as far as continuity goes i mean yeah this is it's like It's like Continuity's second cousin twice removed that they use in this whole thing. But yes, it is, in a sense, Continuity. But, you know, going back to... the grandma iris's cabin because you know hey sharp things that are rusty good fucking idea um and just i i think for me this is the place where the movie gets

It gets so crazy that it's like, well, sure. Okay. You're getting crazy and I'm just going to have to. Turn my brain off and just watch this as it happens. We have the RV that flips into a pond and Stephanie's going to drown. And then bad things happen to Charlie. And then I think Darlene. Darlene gets the old squish factor, which was pretty awesome. The amount of times that this movie basically brought down the Looney Tunes hammer and just smushed somebody.

I mean, is pretty impressive for a movie. Like, usually you can do it once and it works. But if you do it twice, it's like, eh. This movie kind of, it brought in every loaded... acme rocket and jackhammer and mousetrap that you could ever think of and used them all and it's still just it was still teetering on the edge of believable and kind of fun um

With the. So like the cabin explosion thing. I'll be honest here. I don't know why that needed to happen. I mean, I don't know if we just had to have a giant sort of. uh you know uh hollywood or halloween uh 2018 fire going i don't i don't know what that was exactly um i'll admit that i was just like well okay Sure, why not blow the whole fucking place up? I mean, I guess that kind of makes sense. But with Charlie, you know, with whom he definitely has some discontent with his sister.

So with him, you know, kind of, we'll call it bringing her back from death with, like, the CPR and things, it was kind of a nice way to, like... Keep the family dynamic alive. We're kind of getting to a point where... you know we're the last of a certain bloodline so we we've got to kind of keep it going um i'll admit i kind of appreciated that a little bit like okay you know this this kind of pissy teenager kid is like

you know, you're never around big sister and blah, blah, blah. I mean, cause that just kind of happens with kids. But with that one, it's like, well, Okay, maybe we can finally break this cycle of shit and this cycle of crappiness that we all feel, and maybe we can try to do a little bit better as we go down the road.

Well, it turns out going down the road, the road ain't all that fucking long, if you know what I mean. But at least they gave it a try, and I did appreciate that. Yeah, so as most Finalist Nation fans would know, every individual... on this list ultimately means their demise. You know, it is rare for someone to successfully cheat death a second time in these films.

But in Bloodline's case, you know, Stephanie and Charlie believe that they have managed to escape their fate. They go on with their lives. And. We fast forward to Charlie's prom night. With Stephanie accompanying him to pick up his date, who happens to be the daughter of one of the local doctors. And during the small talk conversation that they're having about Charlie saving Stephanie's life.

uh by administering cpr uh the doctor uh you know has a little bit of a revelation for them well technically 70 never died Yeah, Charlie was able to revive her, but, you know, her heart never truly stopped beating. You know, she was just, you know, unconscious at the time. And then this is when... Fucking Abraham Lincoln comes into play again. Yes. Yes, he does. We have a penny that Iris had kept taped in her journal.

roll in free and it becomes lodged in the mechanisms of a nearby railroad track. You know, Iris had taken his penny from... you know the shithead boy who was acmed aka he had the giant piano dropped on his head honestly i've already told you this that was my favorite part of the movie

I love Looney Tunes kills in movies, especially when it happens to children. So eight plus plus scene for me. But anyways, she'd taken the penny away from the boy because he was meant to throw it at the Skyview restaurant tower. uh intended to you know prevent it from causing any harm unfortunately that plan backfires uh because you know stephanie starts to notice some pretty unsettling parallels to the premonition involving the skyview restaurant tower

such as, you know, a prom goer's dress resembling irises, as well as an incident where she pricks her finger on a rose thorn. So those similarities suggest that Stephanie is not merely recalling her grandmother's initial vision. She is seeing fragments of her own destiny. And then this is when our freight train comes into play, gets derailed due to the penny being lodged in the tracks, and we just see it hurtling.

towards stephanie and charlie so we have our frantic attempt to escape you know where it's all right we're gonna try to outrun the train good luck and of course You know, we have cargo breaking loose during the crash. And of course, you know, we can't have any sort of impalement without a callback to Final Destination 2.

Well, just the prom dates doctor and the discussion that they're having where he's like, yeah, and he brought me back to life. And he literally goes, eh. He literally does. He's like, eh. and they're like what like well you know she wasn't technically dead and then we get that look between brother and sister where it's like well what does that mean and then the slow rumble starts in the neighborhood and

I mean, like, I know that we run trains pretty close to neighborhoods, but I didn't think it was like, I don't have a train in my basement. So it's like, I didn't think it was that close. But as this train starts to derail and it's just. demolishing this neighborhood and it's killing all these people and i i think it's one of those things that when we see final destination seven because let's face it we will um

Something about this train crash will come into play. But the beautiful part about Charlie and Stephanie outrunning this train crash and kind of stooping over to take a deep breath like, whew. We made it. There's one last car on the train that derails and drops its cargo. And what is it, of all things? It's a bunch of logs. And each one of them gets fucking smashed by a log.

And I'll tell you what, as much as I thought it was so apropos, I also did laugh my ass off. I was just, I sat back and was like, yeah, there we go. I mean, it was the perfect way to end this. I mean, and going back to like the marketing of this movie and how they did the, you know, the semis with the logs and things like that to kind of, to kind of call back to.

to Final Destination 2, which I also, I think, proves that Final Destination 2 was the best one. So all you Final Destination 5 people, you can just go. But the ending was just... I mean, it was it was beautiful. It was perfect. It was bloody. It was funny. But it was also like. For all the.

All the healing this family had done kind of together, it was like, oh, nope, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if you make up with mom or dad at the end of the whole thing. Something bad is going to happen anyway. So it's like. I hate to say this, but it's like, why even bother? But still bother. Still do it, because it's worth it to your soul and whatever else. But it's just like, in a world where...

You survive all these things, and then you survive a train crash, and you survive drowning, and you survive all these other things, and then it's like only to get squished by a log. It's like, you kind of realize that... it's like your final realization and maybe that should be the the title for the next movie the final realization is that life just isn't fucking fair it just isn't and something's gonna get you so just smile and you know

To what Tony Todd said, make the best of what you got because you never know. Yeah, maybe you could be impaled. Your body could plummet from heights. You could get crushed. You could be the victim of a lawnmower accident. Or any of the number other accidents or freak accidents that have occurred over this entire series. Nope.

You got to watch out for those vending machines turning into, you know, deadly killers because, you know, you might have some facial mutilations that happen. You know, this film really spared no expense when it came to just imaginative. and often shock and death in it now i will say this at the end of the day this film does rely pretty heavily on cgi in spots but they do a decent job of balancing it with practical effects

They also inject it with a sense of realism, which adds to the mayhem. So I wouldn't say that this film veers into like the cheesy territory. But obviously, there are enough laughs to just help keep us in the moment. And I will say, in regards to the initial premonition, of course, my first thought was... Is this a full prequel? And then my second one was Wait a minute

This is basically the same spot as drop because it was the same sort of fucking setup. And I was like, how many times are we going to be in this situation? But I will say. Out of those, like I thought this one was definitely more well done. And yes, seeing the kid get smashed by a piano definitely added to it. But I think overall. the grand scale of things just is insurmountable compared to the counterparts. And, you know, for I've never like.

wrote down finalist nation rankings and like where i have them but like i have to say like i just had so much fun with this one and it seemed like a lot of themes did as well you know in the end with and you're right the whole the whole heights thing they definitely didn't play that up but i mean if you're honest it it was kind of smart i mean it was

Because it did sort of give us a different perspective. Now, the whole cracking dance floor thing, I mean, that's kind of a ripped from the headlines thing, right? We have all these glass bridges all over the world that people are doing things on. Every once in a great while, the right person with the right side of high heels steps on it and they go right through. And that's just it's game over. So it's it's not completely unbelievable.

As far as the kid and that, that smug little cocksucker when he, when he's going down those stairs and he's like, he just, he gives that look back over his shoulder. He's like, yeah, it sucks to be you. And then he keeps going after all those stairs collapse. And it's like. I mean, from the get-go, you hate that kid. And seeing a piano fall on that kid, I mean, that was just... That's one of those things where you...

It's like sitting back on Sunday morning and you're drinking a cup of coffee and you've woken up and somebody has already mowed your lawn perfectly. It's like, yeah. My chores are done. It's that level of satisfaction. Like, watching that little bastard get squashed. I love that. But, I mean, as far as the rest of the characters of the movie, I mean, everybody is good. Everybody. You know...

Darlene is Stephanie's mom. Stephanie's dad is really good. I mean, he plays that kind of, like, you left me, but I still want to be helpful, so I'm going to kind of listen to what's going on. The one cousin, what was her name? Julia. She's kind of a twat, but I mean, that's who she's billed to be. I mean, that.

There's no other way to look at her, you know. You know, Eric, the tattoo guy, I mean, they gave him a lot of time. And he's clearly the guy who is throughout the whole thing the most, you know. psychologically damaged i guess you know so they they give him a ton of time so there's no they don't leave anybody out of this movie i mean i think everybody everybody can find a character that you're like yep i can relate to that you know and

As bloody as this movie is, it's also pretty funny. But it gives you a lot of little real-world touches, things that you can relate to. So it's not... I mean, it's a bloody horror movie that is also funny, that is also a little bit of a, call it a life introspective, you know, and like the how should I do things when I encounter this.

Um, so it's definitely a thing that you could, I think you can sit down and you can watch with your friends. Um, at some point I'll sit down and I'll, I'll force my wife to watch it and see if she laughs as much as I did. Thank you, dear. That was my wife bringing me a beer. That was the beer wench. That was the beer wench. Yes, that was the beer wench. And then the head pops over and gives me that, what the fuck look? Okay. And then you go, he said it first. Yeah.

Yeah, it was all him. Okay. In terms of horror movies, I mean, let's face it. We have movies that are really kind of out there. They're not... mainstream-ish they're not um approachable by everybody but i think this this is another one of those that it it falls really close to that uh to clown in a cornfield where it's really approachable for everybody and

You could get a group of friends together, and some that might like horror and some might not, and you could watch it and you could find a place to relate. Now, yeah, I mean...

There are times if you don't like horror that you're going to go, oh, and you're going to cover your eyes. But I mean, that's like half the point, right? If you're not a horror fan, but you're going to watch a horror movie, that's half the point is covering your eyes and going, oh my God, that's why you show up. It's not... It's not a detriment. It's even people that don't like horror, I think, still like it a little bit. And...

Maybe they don't want to be at the level that we're at, where we're watching hundreds of movies a year. But when they want to watch one, they want to be a little bit shocked. And when you get that like, oh, oh my God, that's so, that's so disgusting. You still like it.

in the pit of your soul it's still just like i got scared i found something that i had to turn away from because it horrified me but i was also looking through my fingers when i did it you know so this is a perfect movie for that and Again, it leans so hard into the comedy that if you watch this movie and you don't laugh out loud at least a dozen times, something is wrong with you. Something inside you doesn't work right because this movie...

tried to be funny, and it succeeded in a lot of spaces. But like I said, you could grab 10 people off the street and sit down and have them watch this movie. Every one of them is going to find somebody to connect to. And when you do that with a horror movie that is meant to be a splatterfest, and this movie is a splatterfest, when you can do that, you've really done something kind of special. Now, is it...

is the movie perfect? No, there's some things we could pick apart and do whatever else, but it's really good and it's really fun. And that's kind of all that matters at the end. It's really good. It's really fun. You know, the details of. Oh, was the writing perfect? Or did this director do this thing? Or was this lighting perfect? I mean, who gives a shit? That's not what this is about. This movie is about telling a fun story.

trying to detangle this web that has been final destination for all these years. And, oh, here's a rule one day, and it's not a rule tomorrow, but it'll be a rule on Tuesday. So... pay attention i mean that's the whole point of these things but with this one you just dive in and just go and it's just it's it's a super awesome watch yeah i love that you know

This one really embraced the dark humor without taking itself too seriously. You know, especially with Eric. I mean, seriously, like he was practically inviting death over to have a beer with his antics. So we had a nice blend of gruesome thrills with some playful spirit to it. And you know, Bloodlines is just... poised to be just another triumph in the genre for 2025. Now, I do know I asked the Fiends over in the Discord what their thoughts on Final Edition were. I did not.

I did not write these down, so let me switch over into our Discord. I was asking the fiends... Basically, share your thoughts on the film if you've seen it this weekend. And what is your favorite kill in the franchise? So, of course, we had a couple of people late to the party, depending on when they were going to go see it. Looks like Evan said that his favorite kills were Billy from Final Destination.

Hunt from the final destination. He abbreviated it, which confuses me. Because I don't know anyone who abbreviates it as TFD, but... That is besides my point. But yeah, he was talking about the kid who gets smashed by the window pane. Yeah, which was in the second one. Let's see.

Professor wrote his actual full review. Looks like he scored it a little bit higher. Let me pull this up so I can actually read it instead of a size fucking 8 font. Professor says... uh singing to the golden formula of the franchise this latest installment features some clever rube goldbergian uh kill scenes and while not quite as nasty and mean as finalist nation 5 there's still more than were the other series as a whole

What helps to raise floodlines above most other entries is the way it ties everything together in a satisfying manner, not to mention a shiver-inducing send-off to the late, great Tony Todd, in which he seems to be saying goodbye not only to his role here, but to this murder coil altogether.

And while there are a fair bit of, quote, fan service moments sprinkled throughout, there's at least one visual reference to every film in the franchise. Each is subtle enough so as to not detract from whatever is happening in the current story. All in all, this is my second favorite finalization film behind Final Destination 5. If only because I'm a sucker for the meanness and the nastiness on display in that one. And he gave his score. I'm not going to say his score.

Because we usually don't score films on this. But yes, you know, it is very interesting to me that a lot of fans out there do have Finalist Nation 5 as... as their favorite um i'll have to ask more people about it and and reach out to other uh people within our community to get their rankings because um mine that mine would uh not

be on the same page on that, and I don't think yours would either. Looks like we also had responses from Jess and Em. Jess says their favorite kill for me has to be the pool pump one in the final destination. Runner up would be the Tannen Session from Final Destination 3. Oh, God. Gee, I wonder why. I don't know. Gee, it has absolutely nothing to do with the female body, I'm sure. Yeah, nothing at all. Let's see.

and then she says the new final destination was a little too heavy on fan service and knots of the franchise but it does add some fun moments uh the tony todd scene hit me hard especially knowing where his health was during the filming The movie makes me not want to get more Pearsons. That's for damn sure. Bets, I'm disappointed by that. I guess that would entirely depend on where you thought she would get said Pearsons.

Fair enough, yeah. I still want to walk into a room with her and walk by with a good magnet and just see which portions of her clothes stand up. Fair enough. And then Emily says, the fire escape from Final Nation 2. In parentheses, my guy slipped on his nudes. which if you don't know if you guys don't recall in finalization 2 that's the guy who nearly burned down his fucking kitchen and then he ends up slipping on the fire escape on his spaghetti

And then he eventually gets impaled by said fire escape. She says, I thought they did better with the figure moments in Bloodline and quite enjoyed seeing the generational trauma being a focal point. Speaking of trauma. You know, because Final Destination 2, you know, Jesus Christ, I mean, it is persistent. That is never going to change.

with longer trucks in in particular uh so yeah thanks for reincorporating that in just about every turn you can whether it's marketing or in the actual said movie uh so yeah that's what the what the fiends had to say And looking ahead, next up on the podcast, we'll be talking about Companion, which was one of the earlier releases of the year. We watched this.

here on Tuesday this week. Most of us had already seen it at this point, but I know we did have a couple of first-timers watching it for the first time.

And I have to say, even on a rewatch, I've seen this movie probably four times at this point since it came out. I am still really high on the movie. Now, I do know not all the fiends are... uh super in the know in regards to marketing and what may or may not have been spoiled uh but i you know there there are so many fun moments baked into that movie And obviously we've seen a lot of different takes on AI just as a whole when it comes to this genre. Fuck bots.

honestly not a new thing either but you know they do take it in a different direction and it does kind of As Kaz had said, you know, because that was his first watch. But, you know, there is a very pivotal moment when it goes from zero to 100. And then it's like, OK, well, where the fuck do we go from here? So I know.

We were both pretty high on it, so I can't wait to circle back to that on our next show. And then after that, we got Sinners coming up at the end of the month as well, which has been another... honestly master class of horror cinema uh and still still showing a lot of life in the box office despite being out what five weeks at this point so like I am so happy that that movie has been able to find the amount of success that it has had and continues to have at this point.

You know, for Final Destination to make as much money as it did, knowing that there still is other competition out there in the scene currently within the genre itself, really shows you that, you know, in regards to... horror releases so far this year like it has been a lot of a lot of positives and a lot of momentum continuing to roll in their favor so hopefully that trend continues for some of these other upcoming releases

But, you know, we got some pretty heavy hitters coming up that we will be circling back to here in a couple of weeks. Well, so for companion, I think this was my fifth watch. And I'll tell you what, you're absolutely right that it's still... Structurally, as a horror movie and as a story, it holds up. It has...

Let's be honest here. When it comes to horror movies, a lot of them, the rewatch factor, unless you love it, and if you love it, hey, love it. I'm totally down with that. Some horror movies, the rewatch factor is not super great, right? You sort of get in, you see it, you're sort of spent, and that's just it. You don't need to go back. With Companion, the story is so complex and there's so much happening that...

Even this last time we watched it, there was a couple of new things I picked up that I did not see before. And it's for a multitude of reasons. Now, I'm still going to say that the person that leaked the, and I'm saying leaked.

but they did it in the marketing, the robot thing, that person should still be drawn and quartered. They should. In Town Square, then after they're drawn and quartered, their flesh should be barbecued and then fed to the... poor people of the town because that was bullshit that person needs to be fired i don't know who that was but find them and fire them um i yeah i i take a strong position on things maybe maybe a little too strong um

In terms of sinners, I mean, so first of all, horror movies in general, what is their big screen life? Two to three weeks, right? If we're lucky. Now Sinners has been out, I think it's coming up on the six or seven week mark. Actually, it's been out for a while. It was quite a while ago that I saw it. It's still bringing in money. It's surpassed everything that anyone ever thought it could surpass.

And people are talking about it. Like I, I go to work and people know that. I think people know that I'm the horror guy and they're like, have you seen this movie centers? And I'm like, I have seen it. And they're like, Oh, this and this and this and this. And it's like, well, okay. So why did you go see it?

And it's like, oh, I went to see it because it was a period piece. Oh, that's awesome. Well, why'd you go see it? I went to see it because it was vampires. Okay. I went to see it because I heard it had music in it. And so for as much as people gripe that it is... Two movies that are stuck together. And I think that's a fairly arguable point. I think you could do it.

I probably wouldn't have the energy I'd fall asleep halfway through the argument because I think you're wrong. But so as much as that is the fact, it was it was done in such a good way where. I think I said this, the movie would have been perfect if not for the careful, almost surgical little pair of scissors that trimmed out a little bit of time from it. Otherwise it would have been perfect.

But we've said it. It's going to be the movie at the end of the year. It's going to be up there. So, I mean, it's good that we're talking about it now so we can... We can leave some space at the end of the year for some of the movies that maybe didn't quite get there. But Sinners is damn near perfect. And yes, you can make some connections to some other movies.

Okay, you can make some connections from, there's some Salem's Lot stuff. There's definitely some Interview with the Vampire stuff in there. There's definitely some from Tell Dusk Till Dawn. None of it is a direct ripoff. It's kind of a nod, which is okay with me. There's lots of movies everywhere that make nods. That's just cinema. That's how cinema works. But it's its own unique story.

I think it would be very easy. And I've seen a couple of these arguments online and people are like, this is just the white people trying to take over the black people. And I would tell you this, if you listen to the story and listen to the actors. and the lines they deliver, it has nothing to do with that. Nothing at all. So your argument is A, falling on deaf ears, and B, you're a fucking moron. So pay attention.

um yeah no sinners is sinners is is gonna be probably this year's masterpiece unless something blows out of the water and I'll admit that I don't see it happening. Sinners is one of those movies that my wife and I are still talking about. We still talk about both character, character arcs.

the music that follows through, the period in which they are, and what they're talking about, having people from the South come to the North and make money and then come back down South and then build something. That happened. That happened all the time. So there's no piece of it that you can claim is... You know, not even a little bit remotely historical, maybe except for the vampires. There might be a little bit of on there, but the rest of it.

it all happened and so when people say yeah it's two movies that are crammed together um yeah i understand what you're saying but i don't think you're getting with the vibe of the whole thing that was that was the point the point was that You have two brothers that leave this harsh environment. They go out. They make their living. They make their way. They come back and want to make something new for the whole town. And then something changed.

And that's the whole thing about life is that sometimes you can be interrupted with things that change and you have no control over it. You just got to react. And that's what this movie to me is about. And with our Irish vampires, So I'm Irish. So I understand what music means to the culture.

I know that in the African-American or the black culture, music is a big thing too. So I think it was a perfect way to join them together. And it almost became a place where I should save this, all this brilliance for our conversation. But music was almost like the weapon in the whole thing. It was like it was the cross or the garlic, you know, or the steak. That's what it was.

And it was just brilliantly done. So I'll shut up from there and we'll save it for the next one. Yeah, all I'll say is Fifth Weekend, $15.4 million, which was a 30% drop, which in itself, like 30% is like. child's play in regards to like horror releases normally it's like 60% out of the gate second weekend and then you know 40% plus every other week

You know, from there. But it's made domestically $240.8 million. Worldwide, $316.8 million. So, like... It deserves every dollar. Astronomical, yeah. Deserves every dollar, so... We'll be getting to sinners here in a few weeks. I know we will be streaming one of the I shouldn't say one of the newer releases, but it is still semi new. I will probably butcher the fuck out of this name. God forbid. But we'll be watching one of the recent Shudder titles. Free Waka, which came out. Free Waka.

not that long ago um i believe that's one of the the full uh horror movies if i'm not mistaken i have not seen it yet um we got that coming up but we do also have like the full month schedule for the watch parties uh in the discord uh i also cannot wait for the new fear street to come out i'm really excited about that uh we'll be watching that uh at the end of the month on that thursday so that should be a lot of uh a lot of fun

We'll see if their prom night ends up better than fucking Charlie's. Probably not. It had to be better than mine. Mine was horrible. But it kind of... Well, I mean, the problem that itself was not all that great, but long-term, I did get a kid out of it. So, I mean, it worked out pretty good, you know? And he's getting married this year. Think about that. Oh, man. Think about that.

So yeah, I, yeah, I, the fear streets are something honestly that I, I liked the fear streets when they came out because even if you don't like. They have a way of being very watchable. And I think, I don't think they're meant to be great. I think they're meant to be very watchable. And sometimes very watchable can be great, if you know what I mean. And so...

Lots of, some of them, lots of up and coming actors and actresses, things like that. And then you see them go on to do other things and you're like, oh. I saw you in a fear street. That was, that was pretty cool. You know? So yeah, we'll have to see it. I mean, that one is, it's, it has potential. So, I mean, we'll see. And there's, there's lots of other things. Yeah.

very near future i mean we have it's fucking memorial weekend like what what the fuck like i i have a three-day weekend coming up but i didn't even remember that i had one coming up so i mean it's So it's going to be interesting. And then the, I don't think it's the following. I have to consult my calendar because my internal clock is letting me down quite a bit here.

so i mean we are at what the hell day are we at is it literally the 20 it's the 21st yeah okay yeah so i'm about two weeks away from going to pittsburgh for the living dead weekend. And I'm still, I'm still nervous that this will be the last one because, you know, Hey, Walmart. So, um, you know, I don't shop often at Walmart, and if they tear that thing down, then I'm never going to shop at Walmart again. I may or may not firebomb a corporate headquarters. We'll see. Yeah, the...

The thing that's been going around to have it basically turned into a historical thing, I don't think that's going to make... It's gotten a little bit of traction, but not too much. Not enough, no. But still, you know, as a big horror nerd, I'm kind of excited for that. Right now, I could fucking use a vacation. And I'm just...

In the end, I'm happy that I get to be here. I get to be alive. I get to do this stuff. I get to talk with you about this stuff. It's funny how we were talking pre-show about... Because we don't ever give scores. We don't do that because it seems to be... Giving scores on things seems to be like a sticking point for a lot of people. And...

When you have a sticking point, you have a point of argument. And I don't do this because I want to argue. I do this because I want to talk. That's why I do this. I think you're very similar to that. But it's funny how with a lot of our scores, we're either within a quarter of a point on something or we're within five points. And more often than not, we're within a quarter of a point. But then every once in a while, one of us has one where it's like.

That one got me right in the spot. The other one's like, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. And it never turns into an argument for us. It always turns into... There's always a discussion and it is always like, well, yeah, let's just agree to disagree. We move on. But it's fun to see. And as dumb as it sounds, it's kind of fun to see on on the sheet that we have because.

you know i really get to see that and you know i try to make note of the ones where it's like we're really far away and it's like how are we so far away and it's like and then we always have little discussions and it's like well okay and but for me it's like I think I honestly, every time we have one of those, I learn something about you and something about like why you like a certain thing or why you don't like a certain thing. I'm assuming the same thing happens for you. But.

We also, and I think maybe this is one of the things the world needs to learn right now. It's not one of those things where you got to fight about it. That's not the point. The point is to have a discussion. The discussion is always what leads you to some sort of new knowledge, I guess, as opposed to just, hey, let's fucking grumble and fight and do whatever else.

one of my friends was asking me and maybe it was late last week and he's like i started listening to your thing and he's like how come you guys don't give any numbers on things and it was like well the reason we don't give any numbers is because we did the point is not to fight. The point is to have a, a reasonably adult discussion. And now I admit, I bring it down to levels that are probably less adult. Sometimes I do that. That's just me. That's who I am.

But I just love the discussion. I don't like the fighting. And that said, you know, there's a lot of our fiends that are like really like to stand on their principles and really like to, you know. Tell you why things are. And I'll admit that I love the passion. I just don't like the arguments. I just don't have the patience or the time.

you know, the heart to do the, the heart to argue, you know? So that's why I don't respond in the discord half the time. And that's fair. That's, that's totally fair. Um, and I, I, I still do love the passion, though, that people feel so strongly about something that they just got to be like, ugh. And I love that we have a couple of fiends that post some really great reviews of things, and they give these...

you know, their scores on things. And in their reviews, they tend to defend their scores. And I think that's awesome because they're thinking people and they do. They do the math and they do the homework. And I like that. So for those people, and I think a couple of you know who you are, if...

If one of us doesn't respond, it isn't because we don't appreciate what you're doing. It's just because we don't want to argue. We're not argumentative people. I mean, I know I come off as pretty argumentative, but I'm actually not. But we love that you're here and we love that you have, you have a passion and you love to express yourself. We love that. We just, we're not going to fight because it's just not us, you know? That being said, I do read every review that is posted.

Oh, so do I. Absolutely. Yep. I read every single one as well, too. And sometimes I agree. Sometimes I don't agree. I've had a couple of discussions. I try to avoid them being heated and it's. I always kind of end with, I'm not going to try to change anybody's mind. This is just what I think. I'm not here to win hearts and minds. I'm just here to have friends. And that's the whole thing. The rest of it, the whole...

And again, arguing over who a director is or who a writer is, I don't... I don't want to engage in that. I don't... I... I hang my hat on the things that I love and the things that I love might change from today to tomorrow because that's just how life is, you know? Absolutely. So just as a reminder, guys, Movies over in the Discord every Tuesday and Thursday at 7.30 p.m. Pacific time. I've got free WACA coming up tomorrow.

So join us in the Discord for that. Of course, we'll be in the Discord when we are going live for that one. And we'll be back next week with Companion. in that episode. But in the meantime, hope you guys have a great Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully we'll have some nice weather. I don't think we're going to because I'm pretty sure we're going to get all that fucking rain that you guys got.

You're welcome. Yeah, thanks, Minnesota. But yeah, should be a good time. And I will just note, I don't have a weekend. I'm working every single one. And the Monday. But you know what? Time and a half, and then holiday pay. So I can't really complain. I will take it. If it pads the paycheck, then that's... You know what? There's...

It all equals out in the end. It does. I mean, if you're doing it. If I could drive to Chicago and buy some fresh-cut watermelon, I bet it would be the best thing ever. That said, I'm still going to be packing up my house. I'm at a point now where I honestly think I have every one of my hobbies except this packed up. There's nothing. My 3D printers are packed up. My laser engraver is packed up. If you...

Almost all of my horror shit is packed up. It's honestly getting kind of sad in here. But, you know, on to bigger and better things, hopefully. And, you know, I know in the next... Definitely two weeks. We've got a whole bunch of movies coming out, and I will definitely be trying to catch some. We'll keep on getting on here, and we'll do what we always do. You know, for me, I think this week's theme is that I miss my dog. But at the same time, it's like...

You got to kind of do what you got to do at the time, and you got to be okay with the decisions you make. And you got to be a semi-decent person, and even if that's... How you treat the people in line at the grocery store or how you drive or how you do whatever else. It doesn't take that much to just not be an asshole. That said, I am...

Now that I have a dash cam in my car, I am slowly building up my stash of files for the asshole drivers in Minnesota. And I'll tell you what, there's a surprising amount of them. So, yeah, just, you know what? Enjoy your horror. Be nice to the person next to you because either... Either you're going to work for them one day or they might be making your medical decisions down the road. So just smile and make friends. And to all of our fiends, I appreciate every last fucking one of you.

The professor, you know what? Come to a watch party. Comment. You might be surprised. Have a good time. Don't just pop in with a quick comment and dive out. You know what? Horror is still the best thing. It's what drives people like you and I. I know that makes a lot of people kind of turn their head like, what? But... I think horror movies are probably the realest thing, the closest thing to what most actual life is.

And in the end, it's what makes me feel something. That's what drives me. It's what makes me feel. And I hope we have years and years and years of good horror ahead of us because that's what I want. So again, guys, we'll see you tomorrow for FreeWalka. If not then, we'll see you for our next episode on Companion. You guys enjoy your weekends, and we'll see you in a round.