Eleven years after the promised final episode, New Line Cinema revives the "Final Destination" franchise with a chapter explaining the tale's origin story.

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Photo © Warner Bros.

Kaitlyn Santa Juana - Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Kaitlyn Santa Juana in Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Final Destination Bloodlines

(In Theaters May 16)

Eleven years after the promised final, Final Destination, New Line Cinema revives the franchise with a chapter explaining the origin of the previous five installments. Kaitlyn Santa Juana appears as Stefanie, a young woman whose frightening visions star her grandmother Iris (in the present day played by Gabrielle Rose, and as a young woman by Brec Bassinger). Stefanie seeks out granny and, after learning that the family's fate hangs in the balance, she also meets the coroner, William Bludworth. Played by a shockingly emaciated Tony Todd, his mysterious recurring character is further revealed. Best to do so here since Bludworth, the sole actor to appear in every Final Destination film, was sadly, terminally ill. As always, the film's complex, gruesome deaths take their inspiration from Rube Goldberg's wild concoctions. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B Stein got the gig by staging a Final Destination-worthy death during their interview with studio execs. (Lisa Miller)

× Hurry Up Tomorrow

(In Theaters May 16)

Canadian crooner, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, long went by the handle, "The Weekend." Tesfaye's pleasing appearance, combines with pop-flavored R&B, as a screen-ready plus. He set out to write a movie as a platform for his next unwritten album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. The singer appears as a fictionalized version of himself, an insomniac musician on the verge of a breakdown. He's therefore susceptible to an enigmatic stranger (Jenna Ortega) who feeds his confusion with notions of taking a deeper dive into his moody, creativity. Shot in 2023, the film waited a year for a distributer, until Lionsgate stepped up. Given that the soundtrack virtually narrates the film, the uninitiated can hear The Weekend's "Hurry Up Tomorrow" album on YouTube, performed in Tesfaye's falsetto. (Lisa Miller)

× The Ruse

(In Theaters May 16)

Making a comeback, the whodunit format gets a boost from Stevan Mena's chilly horror. The writer-director casts Veronica Cartwright as elderly Olivia. Needing constant care and determined to stay in her remote seaside home, Olivia hires a live-in nurse who mysteriously vanishes. When replacement nurse Dale (Madelyn Dundon) arrives, Olivia instructs her "Don't sit in my husband's chair." Though Olivia's hubby is long dead, she claims they constantly communicate. These visions appear to be symptoms of Olivia's dementia, but strange "goings on" prompts Dale to reason that someone (or something) harbors foul intentions. Dale's concern is further stoked by local resident Tom (Michael Bakkensen), along with a handful of characters (played by Nicola Silber, T.C. Carter, Kayleigh Ruller and Michael Steger), each one of whom could be the proverbial "bad apple." (Lisa Miller)

× Stranger

(Arrow Blu-ray)

Writer-director Shunichi Nagasaki sets the stage in brief strokes: Kawamura is having a hushed phone conversation as her boy runs off to school and her husband leaves for work. It involves money. Next scene: she's working in a bank, and then, on the street, ready to rendezvous with an accomplice, she's arrested by detectives. Her accomplice runs for it.

Kawamura reemerges as an unhappy cabbie driving the night shit -- single, alone and hounded by her former bank to repay the embezzled money. She attracts unwanted attention on all sides as the cab company's only female driver -- and there might be a stalker. Tension gathers slowly and efficiently in this 1991 film. The neon-bedecked Tokyo streets and the film's themes will remind some of Hollywood director Michael Mann. (David Luhrssen)

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