Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with Final Destination Bloodlines producer Craig Perry.

Perry shares insights on past kills in the Final Destination franchise, including which was the most ambitious to film.

He also discusses working with directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky, why it took 14 years to make Bloodlines, and the possibility of more.

Producer Craig Perry has been involved with the Final Destination franchise since the first film changed horror forever in 2000, a quarter of a century ago. Finally, 14 years since the last installment, Perry has returned for Final Destination Bloodlines, with a fresh take from the Freaks directing duo, Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky.
Bloodlines takes fans back to the ’60s, when a young Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) has a premonition that changes the course of Death’s Design for decades. In the present day, Iris’ family will have to reckon with the consequences of her intervention. The movie also stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Anna Lore, Richard Harmon, Rya Kihlstedt, Teo Briones, and brings back the late horror legend Tony Todd.
In this interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Perry revisits a few of his favorite kill scenes, reveals which sequence across the entire franchise still haunts him to this day, and weighs in on why Final Destination can live on forever. He also explains why one of the characters was changed entirely from script to the screen, why Todd went off-script for a particular scene in the movie, and why he believed the franchise was best served in the hands of Stein and Lipovsky.
This ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Sequence Gives Major Gymnastics Kill Vibes

No one has recovered from that scene.

Image via Warner Bros.

PERRI NEMIROFF: Is there a past Final Destination kill scene that still makes you go, “My god, I cannot believe we actually pulled that off?”
CRAIG PERRY: Oddly enough, I think it’s Little Timmy getting squished by the glass in FD2. Originally, that character was supposed to be eight years old, and the studio was like, “That’s a little young for what’s going to happen to him.” So, we aged him up a little bit. But I think that doesn’t detract from the sheer, no pun intended, impact of his death.
It’s so good. I was just talking about that one earlier. I have a big fear of the dentist, so to put me on edge in that respect and then have that be the way he goes is so effective.
Of all the past kills, which would you say is the most ambitious of the bunch, production-wise, and how does that compare to the most ambitious in Bloodlines?
PERRY: Well, divorcing from the opening set pieces, which just by nature are so ambitious, shooting the gymnastic sequence in [Final Destination] 5 was really challenging, not just because of the amount of footage and angles we needed to get, but the fact that we had to have our lead actress train for five months to be in shape to do all of the gymnastics herself. So, there were a lot of moving parts in that sequence.
I think the comparative one is in the tattoo parlor, because that’s also very physical, and our lead actor, Richard Harmon, really did a great job. He’s like the Buster Keaton of horror, if you will. There were a lot of special effects and stunts, and integration with production design. Because it was about a balancing act, same thing: there’s a lot of very careful choreography that has to go into it to make sure that it’s both safe and effective. So, those two, I think, are really two sides of the same coin. Perhaps a penny. [Laughs]

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Tony Todd Goes Off-Script in ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’

“It’s both emotional but also feels so authentic.”

Image via Warner Bros.

Because you just brought up some cast, I’ll jump there next. One of the things that I’ve always appreciated about these movies is how quickly I get attached to each ensemble. I know each movie demands a different type of ensemble, but I was wondering, during the casting process, do you see any shared traits among the actors that you cast, something you see in them that signals to you, “We will ultimately achieve that intended effect?”
PERRY: When we cast, we got great casting with this one. Our cast is lovely. They bonded. They have great chemistry. One of the things we were looking for was people who would not only feel like they came from the same gene pool, but when we started doing chemistry reads and seeing how people interacted with each other, just that they felt like they could be a family. And one of the benefits we had was we were given rehearsal. By having rehearsal time, not only do you get to really workshop the script to make it the best it can be, it gives the actors the opportunity to really bond together. Part of this process was sharing family stories, because that’s what this movie’s about. Bloodlines is about a family, and the more they shared, the more they found common ground, and they really carried that connection with them onto the screen, which is why I think Final Destination Bloodlines is so effective in representing how the family operates.
Building on that a little, when you have rehearsal and you place that heavy emphasis on their chemistry together, can you tell me something that is in the final film that only came from that, that wasn’t on the page to begin with, but it’s something that came to life because of what the actors brought to it, either themselves or with each other?
PERRY: There are a lot of moments that you find are more real when they come from the actors and the characters they’re embodying. There’s one moment when Aunt Brenda, April Telek, she’s the one who came up with the appropriate way to say, “Well, whatever you do, don’t look here.” Because, as a mom and as somebody who has certainly shared a lot of living, she understood how to send signals without actually sending the signal. So, that made it into the movie.
Interestingly, something that didn’t make it into the movie was the way Tony Todd’s scene was originally buttoned. It was scripted, but Zach [Lipovsky] and Adam [Stein] had a very good idea, and said, “Tony, please tell the audience and tell the fans how you would want them to feel. What would you like to say to them at this moment?” So, everything in the last sort of two or three beats in that scene is all Tony talking from the heart, which is why it’s both emotional but also feels so authentic.
Why Did ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Take 14 Years to Make?

“Now, I think people are ready to have their own Final Destination moment.”

I saw you 14 years ago. I’ve been waiting 14 years for a new installment of one of my favorite film franchises of all time. What took so long, and can you walk me through some of the hurdles you had to overcome in order to get a green light on this movie?
PERRY: Let’s work backwards. COVID, that’s almost two and a half to three years gone right there. Then you have the actors’ strike, so that’s almost a year, probably, that has to go away because they have to wrap up. So, off the bat, you’re now to 10 years, right? And then we had to get the script ready and written, and that was about a two-year process for that. So, actually, we were ready to try again about six years after the fact, but circumstance and things just kind of got in the way.
But I think, in many ways, it did two things. It gave us the opportunity to really workshop the material, which I think is why Final Destination Bloodlines is working as well as it is, and it also, I think, allowed the fans to really build up a hunger for, and more than anything, Final Destination has become sort of like a hashtag. When you have a close call, you can say, “Oh, that was a Final Destination moment!” So, social media has kept us top of mind for the entire run of those 14 years, and now, I think people are ready to have their own Final Destination moment by going to see Final Destination Bloodlines in theaters.
What would you say is the biggest difference between draft one of the screenplay and the finished film everyone is going to see?
PERRY: There are so many, but let’s just say that Darlene was once Dale.
That’s such a big difference because you were talking about the matriarchal aspect.
PERRY: It’s a choice that we made early on. It was like, “We are making an error here. We need to course correct and really lean into the very thing that has been the emotional throughline of the movie.” That’s what development is all about: to understand and get the nuances that you would want the audience to feel into the script. That was a casting decision that was very easy to make. It’s so funny, once you say, “Well, what if we made it a woman?” Everything fell into place. All the other weird things that weren’t quite working suddenly just resolved themselves because we had a trunk that we could hang things on.

Another thing that came to mind, because you brought up the hashtag of it all, is there any particular Final Destination death that sticks with you the most? When you’re out and about in the world, is there any particular thing you look at that brings you right back to something in one of these movies?
PERRY: Well, independent of the ubiquitous log truck, which everybody knows, I still have issues with the gymnastic sequence and the screw on the balance beam. Any time there’s something on the floor, a glass breaks, I immediately go into panic mode, and a threat matrix builds out in my brain as I look at the possible ways that me stepping on that one thing is going to cause all these other things to conspire to take me out. So, my life is a Final Destination movie. That’s why my hair is gray.
Every single time I’m walking in New York City and I see a fire escape ladder, I just take a moment to look up.
PERRY: Well, you look down to see if there’s any spaghetti, and then you look up. [Laughs]

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Another thing that I really wanted to ask you about is how close did you come to moving forward with Dark Ages?
PERRY: Oh, gosh, not close at all. I personally think it’s a very interesting idea. And I think what’s interesting is that Final Destination Bloodlines, by virtue of starting in the past and coming to the present, shows that there’s this larger sort of satellite view. You can look at the world through a Final Destination lens, and time becomes something that impacts things. There’s a ripple effect going through time. So, maybe the future can hold different iterations or permutations of that kind of idea.
The ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Directors Lost Their Heads in Their Pitch Meeting

‘Freaks’ Directors Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky proved their dedication to the franchise.

Image via Warner Bros.

I obviously have to ask you about picking Zach and Adam to direct this because, admittedly, when you have a favorite film franchise, you get nervous every single time you hear one is a go.
PERRY: You should. I get nervous.
The second their names were announced, I was like, “Oh, I can rest easy. I have all the faith in the world.” What is the first thing you saw in the two of them that signaled to you, “These are the right guys to hand this franchise over to?”
PERRY: It was a two-step process. The first step was watching Freaks. I realized for a very limited time and budget, they had great texture and performance, and this was a fully realized vision of what that world and what that story was. So, that made me feel very confident that they would be somebody to approach.
When we did, they came up with, as I’m sure you’ve heard, their pitch was not only an incredible pitch, just in terms of its presentation, they really analyzed the franchise, got why it worked, and were able to present a very reasoned methodology as to why they’re the right people. But then they did something extra special. At the end of that presentation, which they would have gotten the job just by that, we came out of the Zoom meeting, and they were in control, and the fireplace in the back, the fire leapt out, and it was actually catching the mantle on fire, and everyone’s muted. We’re going like this, “Stop, stop, stop!” Finally, they go back, they realize, and they put out the fire. Zach and Adam sit back down. “Whoa! That was crazy.” Crack. Adam looks up, and the ceiling fan falls and beheads him, squirting blood everywhere. They both fall out of frame. They had done this entire pre-filmed, pre-visualized, with them executing their own visual effects, kill. They demonstrated that they have the capacity to understand how to execute a Final Destination kill in their actual pitch. That was the icing on the cake.
Will There Be More Final Destination?

“Final Destination as a brand, as a piece of IP, and as a conceit will go on forever.”

Image by Jefferson Chacon

I did want to make sure to end on this question, because I’ve answered this question personally many times, but it’s different when the producer of the franchise answers it. Do you think there are any limits with the Final Destination franchise? Can it continue on and on and on?
PERRY: I think the magic of Final Destination is that it’s about the idea. The idea of whether or not fate/destiny plays into your life is something that not just everybody has a personal relationship with; every culture, every country, everybody all over the world has some relationship with that. So, I think Final Destination as a brand, as a piece of IP, and as a conceit will go on forever, whether I’m here or not.
Limitless potential. I’m a big believer in that. Congratulations!
PERRY: Thank you so much.
Final Destination Bloodlines is in theaters now.

Final Destination Bloodlines

Release Date

May 16, 2025

Runtime

109 Minutes

Director

Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein

Writers

Lori Evans Taylor, Guy Busick, Jeffrey Reddick, Jon Watts

Producers

Craig Perry, Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle

Kaitlyn Santa Juana

Stephanie Lewis

Teo Briones

Charlie Lewis

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