LOS ANGELES, May 16 (UPI) -- Final Destination: Bloodlines, in theaters Friday, taxed its cast with its elaborate chain reaction scenes. Whether their characters live or die, the stars were all involved with specific sequences of events that required minute details to connect perfectly.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, actors Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Rya Kihlstedt, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Anna Lore and Owen Patrick Joyner described their intricate work on the horror sequel.
Santa Juana stars as Stefani, a college student who begins dreaming about her grandmother Iris' (Brec Bassinger) premonition of a deadly accident. Since Iris cheated Death decades ago, her whole family is now vulnerable to Death conspiring to take her and the younger generations who were never supposed to be born.
"It takes time," Santa Juana said of the scenes. "Hitting those marks in terms of physicality was so specific, more specific than you'd even realize."
One such elaborate sequence takes place in a tattoo parlor, where Stefani's cousin Erik (Harmon) gets his nose ring caught on a chain hanging from a ceiling fan.
"That scene took us five days to shoot," Harmon said. "I got to be on wires. I got to be straddling. There was real fire underneath me. It was incredible. I had so much fun on that scene."
Lore, who plays Erik's sister, Julia, said even the simplest scenes proved deceptively complicated.
"I had to run in a semicircle one day, point A to point B and I could not do it," Lore said. "To be fair, I had to put earbuds in at the same time that kept falling out of my ears."
To protect the actors from bodily injury, they often wore prosthetics that could be cut or mutilated should the scene call for it. Joyner, who portrays Erik and Julia's brother, Bobby, said those appliances complicated already complex scenes.
"You can't see," Joyner said. "You have your arms up. I think that makes it tougher."
Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein had to come up with ways to orchestrate those scenes. Lipovsky said many of the scripted deaths did not work practically and had to be revised in collaboration with the crew.
"We surround ourselves with a crew of people who are trying to figure out the physics of how to make all these things actually happen," Lipovsky said. "You can come up with all sorts of crazy things in your head but then you actually get the actual lawnmower and the rake and the fire extinguisher and you try and get them to do the things they're supposed to do in the script."
Stein said the one cooperative element was a Jenga tower at a family barbecue. Its toppling sets off a more elaborate sequence.
"The Jenga tower knocking over the cup, bam, what a performer," Stein said.
Many of those accidents intentionally misdirect the audience as to what the deadliest element of the scene is. At that barbecue, a piece of broken glass keeps turning up in unexpected places.
"There's a very small object that gives you a cringe feeling that then comes into play in a way you don't expect," Stein said.
The directors also filled Bloodlines, the sixth film in the series, with Easter eggs referencing previous entries in the franchise and encouraged crew members to add Easter eggs without notifying them.
"One of our favorite ones is one of the characters is torn apart in the exact pattern of the Final Destination 5 poster," Stein said. "If you look at the Final Destination 5 poster, you'll see a skull with metal piercing it. Every piece of metal is in the exact right place for a certain kill in the movie."
Focusing on one family is a new element in the film series. The cast agreed that aspect sets Bloodlines apart from the previous five movies.
"I think audiences care so much more," Briones, who plays Stefani's brother Charlie, said. "I think for the first time maybe, they are actually rooting for the main characters instead of Death."
As Charlie and Stefani's estranged mother, Darlene, Kihlstedt agreed.
"The stakes are higher," she said.
The family atmosphere added relatable scenarios to the Final Destination formula, Joyner said.
"Most people have a family so it's an easy thing to tap into," Joyner said. "Everyone's been at a family barbecue usually or a family get-together."
Furthermore, Lorre felt showing family members grieving lost loved ones made this a more emotional Final Destination movie.
"I think it adds so much heart to the film," she said.
Still, the Final Destination movies are celebrations of macabre carnage. Lipovsky said the filmmakers and audiences are all in on the joke.
"I think Final Destination movies are meant to be fun," Lipovsky said. "Everyone's laughing and screaming and covering their eyes and their nose and every other different part of their body. There's just something delightful about that that you can go to the theater and have this communal experience."
