The Direct's Russ Milheim sat down with the cast and creatives behind Final Destination: Bloodlines to talk all about the absolutely crazy deaths that the six entry in the iconic horror franchise brings to the death. While Bloodlines flirts with the idea of multiple characters (all within the same family) cheating death itself, as one would expect, it never works out, and everyone dies in spectacular, gory fashion by the time the credits roll.
The complete list of the talented folk who The Direct spoke with includes Brec Bassinger (Iris Campbell), Kaitlyn Santa Juana (Stefani Reyes), Teo Briones (Charlie Reyes), Rya Kihlstedt (Darlene Reyes), Richard Harmon (Erik Campbell), Owen Patrick Joyner (Bobby Campbell) Anna Lore (Julia Campbell), Adam Stein (co-director), Zach Lipovsky (co-director), and Craig Perry (franchise producer).
Star Brec Bassinger Opens Up About the Crazy Death Scenes In Her Big Opening
Experiencing Death In a Safe Environment Was a Strange Thing.
Brec Bassinger plays Iris Campbell in the opening scene of Final Destinations: Bloodlines in the 1950s, as she goes on a date to a newly opened Sky View Restaurant that will change her life forever, just not in the way she might expect.
In classic Final Destination fashion, Iris experiences a violent premonition that sees everyone in the restaurant die after multiple catastrophic failures due to a misplaced penny. This includes multiple people burning alive, someone being split in half by an elevator, another getting crushed by a piano, Iris herself degloving her finger and falling to her death, and so much more.
- The Direct: "What was just the most surprising part of pulling off either your death scene or any of the dozens that your character witnesses and in those moments?"
Brec Bassinger: Probably just people actually being set on fire. Like, I didn't know the science behind that, but one of the actors, Dustin, he was the guy who was set on fire in the first movie. And so getting to experience that and like truly running alongside someone who, what it appears to be, like dying from being caught on fire, crazy and very shocking. I don't think I ever thought I would experience that in, like, a, technically, like a safe space.
There's a part for me, the stunt actor who goes through the glass once the building is broken, the piano falls, she has to flip down the tilted to fall on the glass. And every single time she would actually be flipping down the tilted stage and just experiencing that was also just like, are you okay? Every time she's like, yeah! And would just get up and do it again. I'm like, You are built differently.
Teo Briones, Kaitlyn Santa Juna, and Rya Kihlstedt on Their Shocking Deaths
The Final Three Deaths Were Some of the Most Shocking
Kaitlyn Santa Juana (Stefani Reyes), Teo Briones (Charlie Reyes), and Rya Kihlstedt (Darlene Reyes)'s characters are the last three on the board towards the end of the movie.
The first to bite the dust is Darlene, who is suddenly crushed by a wooden telephone pole after surviving a fiery car crash. Then, it's Stegani and Charlie's time.
While the brother and sister think that they beat Death itself, it turns out that they missed the mark, and instead get one of the biggest set pieces of the franchise. Just before heading out to Charlie's Prom, a train derails, plowing through an entire neighborhood. Funnily enough, the siblings outrun it all, only to get crushed by falling full-sized logs that fly out from over the wreckage as it all comes to a stop.
On their big death, Teo Briones admitted that they got a little "beat up" filming the monumental sequence:
Teo Briones: We got beat up because we were, on our deaths, we had to run full speed and then crash down onto mats that weren't that thick.
Kaitlyn Santa Juana: I never asked you this, was your body wrecked for like, a week after that?
Briones: I was fine. I just cut my face on the actual mat.
Juana: My knees were busted. They're still bruised to this day (laughs).
As for Rya Kihlstedt, her character actually had an entirely different death sequence than what audiences saw in the final film.
In the movie, she is crushed by a wooden pole after surviving a near-death experience. However, originally, she was going to get stuck in the turning doors at the hospital (a moment that can still be glimpsed in the trailers for Bloodline) as the lettering on the side of the hospital fell from above and crushed her.
Rya Kihlstedt: We filmed an entire death, and then I came back months later and filmed a completely separate death, which was totally different. I mean, my first death was, you know, bloodied and by the letter L (from the Hospital sign), and the second, I was surprised when I saw it. It's so fast and so shocking. And I knew, I know it was coming, I did it. But still, it happens, and you're like, what?
When asked if they tend to have any additional say in adding elements to their big death scenes, Kihlstedt admitted that it's usually pretty "scripted" since everything is "pretty technical:"
Kihlstedt: It was as scripted. It's pretty technical. When you get to the desk, they have it so worked out, and they understand, like they've thought through the edit, so they know exactly what cuts they need to make it work. So, when we get to that, our job is to hit the mark, say the word, the half word, the whatever, so that they can cut the whole thing together and act while we're doing.
Richard Harmon, Anna Lore, and Owen Patrick Joyner Reveal the Most Surprising Elements of Their Death Scenes
Some of Those Crazy Effects Were Achieved In Unique Ways
Richard Harmon's Erik gets one of the craziest deaths in the entire movie, but only after getting two different fakeout scenes before it. Despite not being a true target of Death, Erik is eventually killed by getting literally folded into the MRI machine.
When asked what was the most surprising or unique part of bringing his death scene to life, Harmon revealed that the "legs in [his] death scene [were] not [his] own legs:"
Richard Harmon: That my legs in my death scene are not my own legs. They're my stunt doubles' legs. His upper body was in the MRI machine. My lower body was in the MRI machine, and they sewed my shirt to his pants. When I lean back, he lifted his legs up, and that's how he folded me.
Owen Patrick Joyner's Bobby also bites the scene in the same scene with Erik, but not due to his deadly allergic reaction to nuts. Instead, a metal spring from the broken vending machine across the hall flies into the MRI machine, and right through his eye socket.
Joyner admitted that being in "prosthetics for four days" was quite the experience:
Owen Patrick Joyner: I think just like having to be in like, prosthetics for four days, you know? And I didn't know that the, what's it called spirit gum. I didn't know that it hurts so bad when it goes in your eyes. So that's kind of the most sort of, like, unique kind of thing for me.
Anna Lore's Julia died earlier in the movie, having gotten smashed in the face with a rogue soccer ball, being knocked into an empty trash can, and then getting emptied into a garbage truck, where she is crushed.
Lore explained that it was quite strange to see the special effects team fiddling with a fully recreated version of her own head that was meant to explode:
Anna Lore: Probably seeing, like, a special effects person trying—I had a fake head, and at one point they had to fix some tubing somewhere in the head to, like, make the goo squish out of it, or something. So they had these, like pliers, like down my mouth, and I was just watching on the monitor... ... Just watching them with the pliers in my mouth like that was that was pretty [crazy]...
Final Destination Producer Craig Perry on His Favorite Death Setup
"The Tattoo Parlor Is the Synthesis of What Makes 'Final Destination' Great."
- The Direct: "Out of all the deaths in the film, which one surprised you the most, just in how you were able to pull it off? And which one are you the proudest of?"
Craig Perry: I think they're both the same one: the tattoo parlor is the synthesis of what makes 'Final Destination' great. It's one character in a defined location. The audience is aware that death is present in the room, but the character isn't quite aware of that, so you're leaning in to watch and you're hoping this character that you like.
And then Richard Harman, who plays the role of Eric, is so great, not only at that role, but at the physicality of that role. He was so committed, he became like the Buster Keaton of horror as he's doing all of these sorts of balancing tricks to sort of circumnavigate Death's plan. But it keeps topping and topping and topping and topic itself, plus it leads into a very fun sort of twist and reverse as to the fate of that character that I don't think we've done the franchise before.
And it really does pay dividends as you're watching with the big gasp. So that, to me, is a critical final estimation sequence, because it really encapsulates everything that makes the franchise great.
The Directors Break Down That Challenging, Gruesome Elevator Death
"We Wanted to Do It Practically."
- The Direct: "Everyone dies, but out of all of those deaths, what do you think was the hardest one to pull off, and the most unique to be able to piece together?"
Director 1: They were all extremely challenging. I think one of the most challenging to achieve was actually cutting the maître d' in half in an elevator that took an incredible amount of people because we wanted to do it practically.
So, we had to build an exact duplicate of that actor, and then build it onto a set with an elevator, so that you can get the passes of how the elevator moves, and split the body in half in an exactly certain way, and spill its guts and brains in a very specific way, and paint out all the puppeteers that were involved, and that took the team an extremely long time to get right.
All of The Direct's spoiler-filled interviews for Final Destination: Bloodlines can be seen below:
Final Destination: Bloodlines is now playing in theaters.
Check out The Direct's other interviews with the talented people behind Bloodlines:
Final Destination: Bloodlines Cast Share Their Most Irrational Fears (Exclusive)
Final Destination Producer Confirms If Future Sequels Will Give Death a Body
