“All of the movies except for one have been filmed here”, he told Zavvi, “So in the early 2000s, it felt like Final Destination: The City! Both the rollercoaster ride and the suspension bridge are the big ones in our city, and if you explore Vancouver further, you’ll find that nearly everything has played a part in a Final Destination set piece.
“A lot of my friends growing up had died in those movies, so it was cool as a filmmaker who had grown up in the city to enter the pantheon of this franchise too. Plus, as a director, I’ve always loved the movies for having a unique antagonist; death isn’t a guy in a mask, the suspense comes from close-up shots of objects, so when you think about it, it’s really the filmmaking that comes for the characters...”
In Bloodlines, the story takes place decades after the opening premonition, with death now coming for the children and grandchildren of Iris Campbell (Gabrielle Rose), who managed to rescue everybody from the disastrous opening night of a restaurant 400 feet in the air. Iris became a shut-in after realising the survivors began dying in the order of her premonition, and after spending decades cheating death, being diagnosed with cancer finally caused the curse to pass down to the next generations.
Because the premonition sequence has no bearing on the movie’s reality, the directors have complete freedom to go over the top with the bloody carnage. This time around, it includes a particularly brutal death of a ten-year-old boy that had my audience laughing, cheering and applauding – and the director duo knew when making the movie that this moment would be a crucial litmus test.
Adam Stein explained to Zavvi: “The tone of a Final Destination movie is a unique one, as you know you’ll see ghastly spectacle on a scale you don’t normally see in a horror film, but you’ll also be smiling and cheering throughout. Making one of these movies is a balancing act, between letting you have that fun, whilst also taking things seriously enough to keep the stakes high, so you are invested in the fact nobody is safe.
“That moment where a child gets crushed to death has been our barometer for whether the movie is working for an audience or not. We’ve seen people leap out of their chairs and pumping the air in joy, which is what we want as this is a very fun movie, but I think it’s also a far more intricate scene; you’ll laugh, but you’ll also be pushed further to the edge of your seat, knowing anybody could die next”.
By focusing on a family fighting death this time around, the directors wanted to pull off the tricky balancing act of making you root for their survival, even as every grisly death is designed to make you laugh and cheer.
“It was the main thing that got us excited about making this movie”, Stein continued. “It freshens up the narrative formula, and allows for us to add a lot more depth to the characters, as they already have a previously established relationship going in.
“It’s undeniably tricky to get right, because now we have characters who care about each other a lot more than in the previous films, which means there’s a lot more tragedy when it comes to death, as these are people they love and have grown up with. As filmmakers we want to reflect the fact these characters desperately want to protect these people they love, keeping their feelings of grief very authentic, without wanting to get too lost in that feeling.
“It’s a fun movie, but we wanted you to root for them to make it through to the end – which is not usually the case with Final Destination!”
Our lead protagonist this time is Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), who reconnects with her grandmother after experiencing her premonition from decades earlier as a recurring nightmare. Her arc isn’t just about getting her family to believe in the curse but trying to make them understand the trauma that made Iris into a self-imposed outcast.
“This absolutely has more heart than the previous Final Destination films”, Juana told Zavvi. “It’s the first time in the whole franchise where the characters have known each other their whole lives, which makes the dynamics more interesting – even if it were only about that bond between a grandmother and her granddaughter, it would still have way more heart than the earlier movies.”
Linking the generations is Stefani's mother Darlene, played by Rya Kihlstedt. The actress has been open about hating horror movies in the past, but she believes this franchise is different for reasons that couldn’t be further from the emotional storyline.
“If I’m being honest, I’d never seen any of the Final Destination movies before being offered this one, but I have a friend who likes them, and so I was sat down and made to watch them! I’m not an easily scared person in real life, but in horror movies, that changes – I remember seeing Scream in the theater, and I was constantly looking behind me when walking down dark streets for months afterwards.
“I don’t like anything about that feeling, but with these movies, you’re cheering for death to kill everybody – there's no dude with a knife, just a spiritual entity that will come for all of us. It’s that humour that helps me get past this genre not being my comfortable area, although I’m still far more comfortable with real blood than I am with the gory fake blood on a screen!”
For everybody else in the cast, the main appeal of being in a Final Destination movie was simple; they all wanted to have their own notorious death scene. As Anna Lore, who plays Stefani’s cousin Julia, puts it, if you don’t hear an audience howl with laughter, then as an actor, you’ll probably worry that you’ve done something wrong.
“It’s an honour to have audiences cheer at your death! I know a lot of my cast members haven’t seen the film with a crowd yet, but I’ve been to a few screenings, and that insane reaction is exactly what I want.
“If people were sitting quietly during my horrific death, I’d be worried, and I’d feel bad that I’d let that side of the film down. I’m glad everybody is clapping when they see me die!”
Co-star Owen Patrick Joyner agreed, arguing that; “the death is the most important part of any character, and far more important than any of my acting choices! You hope when reading that there will be a very drawn-out scene, and mine was maybe three pages in the script.
“It makes us feel great – we're there to be killed, and we want to be killed in the most fun way possible!”
Final Destination: Bloodlines is in UK cinemas now.Related Articles
