Craig Perry Talks FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES, Tony Todd's Legacy & the Future of the Franchise
- creepykingdom
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES, the newest chapter in New Line Cinema’s successful franchise, we are taken back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice. Plagued by a violent, recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.
For the release of FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew had the opportunity to chat with producer Craig Perry (Final Destination franchise, American Pie franchise). During their chat, they discussed everything from the film’s emotional tribute to Tony Todd to the challenges of reviving a legacy franchise for a new generation.
Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Craig. With Final Destination being such a staple in horror for over two decades, what was it like returning to the franchise after so many years?
Craig Perry: There are a lot of reasons why it took that long. Some of them are just logistical, like COVID, the actors' strike, and the writers' strike; there are a lot of elements that weigh into it. It felt good because with time comes perspective, and with perspective comes a better understanding of how these things really work when you’re making one every two or three years. Maintaining a level of quality can be challenging because these are all-encompassing movies. There’s so much that goes into them.
We started developing it in 2017, that’s when we said, 'Okay, let’s try to do another one.' We commissioned a first draft from a different idea that took place in the world of emergency first responders because we figured who better to deal with life and death than the people actually administering to life and death every day, multiple times a day. What if you had the opportunity to take that person who you knew killed six people, and maybe you could save them, or maybe they could die, and what ripple effect does that have on death’s plan? It was sort of like a Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead meets Final Destination, but we couldn’t stick the landing in the third act. We just couldn’t quite crack how to make that work.
Then, there was a regime change at the studio, and they said they didn’t want to pursue the idea because it was only a B-movie at that point, and they needed to improve, which I totally understand. Then MAX was an opportunity, and we thought, let’s make it for MAX because we need to feed the beast of this new streaming monstrosity. There are many factors that contribute to it.
Once we got a draft in place, John Watts came to us with a really interesting idea about setting it through a family, which immediately gives it empathy, and you can project your own family relationships onto the family. That shorthand made it both easy to get through some exposition because you’re bringing your own stuff to the table, and it allowed for you to just say, well, what are they fighting for? Oh, they’re fighting for each other. They aren’t doing it selfishly, and suddenly the emotional connection just went through the roof. It still provides us with a lineage, just what’s the order? There’s your standard Final Destination stuff, but it’s an order that has consequences. It’s an order that has meaning.
FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES was a great addition to the lexicon of the franchise. We prepped for 14 weeks and then shut down because the actors went on strike. Then we had to go back and ramp back up before shooting it. These things take time. However, we benefited in that it gave us, as I mentioned earlier, perspective. When you prep something and then shut down, you can take all the information you learned from the prep and rewrite the script to really take advantage of the locations you’ll have and reverse-engineer things. That was hugely, unexpectedly beneficial.
During that time, social media reared its warty, ugly head. But what that means is that everybody has something in their pocket that can capture their own Final Destination moment, their own close call, their own moment of deja vu, and they hashtag it and throw it up online, so we never left the conversation, even though there was no movie in the marketplace. We never left. We were there, and suddenly we became that meme. We become everybody saying, Oh, I’m behind a log truck.
Once we realize there’s a whole generation of people, like you and me, who are old enough to have been experiencing it from the get-go, but there’s a whole younger generation who’s never seen them in theaters, but they know what it is. They know what it signifies. They know what it stands for. And whether or not they’ve sought out the original movies on streaming services, we’re at a point where this younger generation, who may or may not have seen it in theaters, can say this one is for me; now I get to see it in theaters. We weirdly have this not wide but narrow four-quadrant movie of people who beget people, who beget children, who are now ready to go see it and make it their own.
When BLOODLINES was created, was it always meant to be a standalone film, or do you plan to continue the story?
Craig Perry: The marketplace is dictating that we’re probably going to do another one, and I’m pretty grateful for that. I think we wanted it to be a standalone in this respect. We didn’t want people to feel like they had to do homework before seeing the movie. That’s really what the operating principle was: how can we tell the story that opens with what seems like a totally separate movie, and then it becomes a Final Destination movie? Then we flash to the contemporary present day, which exists within its little ecosystem, a narrative that unfolds and makes sense. Everything is looped together based on what happens at Skyview, and the narrative circulation of events keeps it as its own story. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not referencing the other movies if you’ve seen them.
When you meet Tony Todd’s character, Bludworth, he’s organic to the story, but then you realize how he fits into the opening. That doesn’t necessarily mean we have to have seen other movies to know that. It just loops back to the beginning. That was a very conscious and strategic move, as we wanted to invite everyone to the FD family. We didn’t want them to feel like they had to be indoctrinated and go through a series of principles to get there.
Speaking of Tony Todd, what was it like working with him on this film, considering it was one of his last roles?
Craig Perry: I’ve known Tony for 25 years, since the first Final Destination movie. Tony was a lovely guy, a consummate professional, and he loved what he did. He also loved sharing that passion with all the other actors.
One of the things that we realized early on was that he was quite ill. We knew it, he knew it, so our goal was to make the experience of doing this, which he knew to be his last movie, the most creatively fun, the most dynamic, the most warm and welcoming thing that could be for him as an experience. But what we didn’t expect was when he showed up, because, look, his persona is that of Tony Todd, but he was absolutely delightful. He was filled with as much energy as he could muster, but it was all positive. He would love meeting the younger actors. The first thing he did [on set] was he said, “Where’s mini-me? I want to go meet myself as a young kid.” We have lovely pictures of him with his younger actor and with his mom, and like all that stuff. He was so excited to be there. We had other actors who were not working that day who still came and hung out on set, all just to be around Tony. He had such charisma and energy. When he showed up on set, you think, 'Is it going to be him sucking all the energy in?' No, he refracted it back out in ways that nobody was anticipating.
When co-directors Zach and Adam realized that the script was serving a purpose but that what Tony said during his scene at the doorway could be tailored to whatever he wanted, they gave him the liberty and said, 'Just think about what you want to say.' So he did that take, and it was absolute crickets on the set. We’d spent most of the day with him, and for it to be his exit stage left, it was really meaningful. I’m so glad we were able to give Tony the opportunity to be his authentic self for just a moment and communicate with all the fans who had given him so much that he could give something back to them.
If you could pick your favorite death scene from across the entire franchise, including BLOODLINES, which would it be?
Craig Perry: It’s two-fold. I think my favorite is the gymnastic sequence in Final Destination 5, as I believe it’s a masterclass in generating unbelievable tension from the smallest of items. The context is what gives it its cringeworthy factor. I think ultimately the kill too, by having it take place in a wide [shot] just amplifies how distressing and disturbing it is to see that unfold, no pun intended.
I also do like the tattoo parlor in BLOODLINES because I do feel like there’s a physicality and choreography that went into it. I like to say that Richard Harmon is the Buster Keaton of horror because he’s playing it deadly straight, but it’s also kind of funny at the same time, and it also keeps spiraling out of control. A lot of thought goes into escalating sequences like that, with various departments weighing in. You’re talking about an entire scene that takes place in a six-square-foot diameter, laterally stacked up. How do you pull that off in a way that is both fun and safe, allowing the actor to be as involved as possible? Richard did everything but the actual swing and fall into the fire; everything else was Richard doing.
Lastly, why do you think these movies tap into everyday anxieties so much?
Craig Perry: As we come up with sequences that tap into existing anxieties, we are just reflecting the things that people are inherently concerned, unnerved, or freaked out about. Even if it’s not verbalized in a massive way, it’s there. It’s a universal thing, but let’s amplify it. Magnify it. Put it through a Final Destination lens, and it will be unbearable.
FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES is now in theaters.