‘Final Destination Bloodlines' Directors On Elevating Franchise, Tony Todd And More

Forbes

14-05-2025

Brec Bassinger in "Final Destination Bloodlines."
Warner Bros. Pictures
Given the Rube Goldberg/Mouse Trap-like machinations of the first Final Destination Bloodlines trailer, it was clear that directors Zach Liposky and Adam Stein had a whole new game in mind for the latest chapter of the famed 25-year-old horror film franchise.
And yet, while the directing team was having fun toying around, so to speak, with their prospective audiences, they were adamant about not losing the horrific edge that defined the previous films that went along with the new film's playfulness and humor.
'We love creating that experience of people sort of watching the movie through their fingers in terror, but with a huge smile on their face and there are a lot of moments that we kind of designed to be really fun,' Lipovsky, joined by Stein, told me in a recent Zoom conversation.
'The really unique thing about the Final Destination franchise is, yes, there's a lot of disaster and there are people dying,' Lipovsky added. 'Death is coming for all of these people that you love, but at the same time, there was a lot of fun and cleverness and a kind of depth to it. We worked really hard to design all these Rube Goldbergs to come after everyone.'
Playing in Thursday previews and opening in theaters everywhere on Friday, Final Destination Bloodlines stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana as Stefanie, a college student traumatized by recurring dreams of the deadly collapse of the Skyview, a Seattle Space Needle-like tower in 1968 topped off with a fancy restaurant and lounge with a clear glass floor that shows the ground far below.
As it turns out, Stefanie is the granddaughter of Iris (Brec Bassinger) — the woman she follows in the nightmare — who, in reality, had a premonition about the disaster and prevented the deaths.
But death in the Final Destination movies makes good with those who cheat it, and in the case of Final Destination Bloodlines, it comes for not only every person who survived the Skyview disaster, but all the relatives in their bloodlines in the coming decades — unless Stefanie can find a way to break the cycle.
As such, the biggest departure from the previous Final Destination movies is how death goes after families, and the faceless entity without a physical presence is as malevolent as ever.
'We had such a great time, definitely taking things to the next level,' Stein said. 'The fun opportunity of Final Destination is a horror movie where there's no villain. There's no guy with a mask hunting for people. It's all this disembodied force of death that comes for the characters in unexpected ways with those Rube Goldberg mousetraps that unfold like a domino effect.'
In a unique way, Stein added, it was the movie camera that was the de facto villain in Final Destination Bloodlines.
'If you think about it, it's really the filmmaking that's coming for them with these close-up shots of objects touching other objects and becoming alive with death's presence,' Stein observed. 'We had such a fun time, figuring out how to do that in a way that also felt plausible.'
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein's collaborative partnership is that the two directors met as competitors on filmmaking icon Steven Spielberg's 2007 reality competition show On the Lot.
Produced by Spielberg, Survivor creator Mark Burnett and prolific reality show producer David R. Goffin, the FOX show followed 16 filmmakers vying for a $1 million development deal at DreamWorks.
However, On the Lot, as Lipovsky revealed, didn't yield the fierce sort of competitiveness that viewers see in other reality series. Instead, Lipovsky said, the filmmakers competing on the show had a common bond that fused them together instead of breaking them apart — a crucial element that led to his eventual partnership with Stein.
'The movie industry is kind of known as a cutthroat world, but I think that that's more on the business side than on the filmmaker side,' Lipovsky said.
Scene from "Final Destination Bloodlines."
Warner Bros. Pictures
As such, Lipovsky believes, that's why On the Lot only lasted one season.
'The show was unpopular because you put filmmakers in a room and you're hoping they're all going to start yelling at each other and become good reality television,' Lipovsky explained. 'Instead, we all started nerding out about movies, supporting each other, encouraging each other and giving each other ideas — and that doesn't make for great reality television. We created a lot of lifelong friends through that series, though.'
Lipovsky and Stein didn't start working with each other right away, but remained close friends who encouraged each other 'through all the ups and downs of trying to get movies made.'
From the very beginning, though, the two directors discovered what became the key to their collective success.
'Most people don't expect that you'll meet your lifelong best friend on a reality show, but I think one of the keys to our partnership is a lack of ego,' Stein said. 'I think that's where a lot of people in Hollywood trip over themselves. It becomes about their ego instead of about the work."
Eighteen years beyond their experience of On the Lot, the duo hopes that Final Destination Bloodlines somehow ends up in Spielberg's orbit, considering how his show brought the filmmakers together.
'We're definitely hoping Spielberg sees the movie. We think he'll find it fun,' Stein enthused. 'And of course we would love to work with him since he's always been such an inspiration.'
While Lipovsky and Stein worked on smaller projects together in the ensuing years, their paths converged on the 2018 indie psychological horror sensation Freaks, starring Emile Hirsch, Lexy Kolker, Grace Park and Bruce Dern.
'Freaks changed our lives in a bunch of ways,' Lipovsky said. 'The main reason we made that movie was because the type of work we were getting — which was still really great because as a filmmaker you're getting paid to make stuff — just wasn't exactly the type of thing we wanted to be doing.'
What he and Stein wanted to do, Lipovsky said, was to show the world that they were making the sort of movie that they love.
'We love stuff that makes you laugh and scream and puts you on the edge of your seat, but also that your heart feels like it is bursting out of your chest, Lipovsky said. 'We love all those different emotions in an R-rated thriller.'
Brec Bassinger in "Final Destination Bloodlines."
Warner Bros. Pictures
While Lipovsky said Freaks was a very low-budget movie, he said he and Stein were lucky enough for it to find an audience and have it do very well. Even better, the director added, 'It got noticed by different people who make movies in Hollywood, and one of those groups of people was New Line, which is the studio that makes the Final Destination movies.'
Nailing the job of directing the new Final Destination movie wasn't going to come easy, though, as the team of Lipovsky and Stein had to compete with about 200 other filmmakers to win the directing gig.
The clincher came in a Zoom meeting with studio executives where the filmmakers, a la Final Destination-style, covertly staged a fake death scene.
Unfortunately, the live Zoom meeting was just that and was not meant to be archived.
'They didn't record the Zoom and they've been kicking themselves ever since,' Stein said with a laugh.
While Final Destination Bloodlines has Easter eggs from the previous films in the Final Destination franchise, there's no question that Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein's new chapter has its own story and own identity.
There is one common denominator, however, as legendary actor Tony Todd reprises his mysterious character William John Bludworth, who has been a fixture in the Final Destination franchise from the very beginning. Not only does Todd appear in a pivotal scene, but Bludworth's story, which won't be spoiled here, comes full circle.
Todd, sadly, died in November of 2024 at age 69.
'He was very physically weak and ill. You could kind of see it just in how different he looks from how he used to look,' Stein recalled. 'So, we felt very emotional the day he arrived on set.
'What was interesting, though, was that he was very joyful. He was so excited to be there,' Stein added. 'He was sick, and he'd been in and out of doctors and all that stuff. But this was like a true highlight for him, and you could see just in the way that he interacted with the crew and the other actors. He felt so joyful to be there, which puts in context his final words on screen. He was living by the motto he said at the door, which is, 'Life is precious. Enjoy every single moment,' and that's what he was doing when he was on set for those scenes.'
What makes Todd's appearance even more poignant in Final Destination Bloodlines was that that the horror film icon's dialogue was not scripted.
'We knew that this would probably be his last Final Destination movie because the movies take years to make, but we didn't realize it would be his last film,' Stein recalled. 'So, it was really important for the whole team to give that closure to the character and we came up with that idea to allow him to sort of speak from the heart.
'We basically said, 'Tony. What has all this been about? This stuff about death coming for you, and what do you want to leave the fans with as a final moment with Bludworth?' Stein added. 'And that's what he said at the door.'
Rated R, Final Destination Bloodlines plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters everywhere on Friday.