Without giving away too many details before the movie arrives in theaters, Final Destination: Bloodlines is a sequel that answers a surprising number of big questions in the horror series’ canon. It reveals fascinating new dimensions to Death’s design and the origins of an important franchise legacy character. One thing it doesn’t do, however, is provide audiences with any clarity regarding the psychic visions that protagonists in the films famously experience, and fans shouldn’t expect any future installment to do so either.
This past weekend, I had the delightful experience of interviewing the cast and filmmakers behind the upcoming horror movie during the Los Angeles press day for Final Destination: Bloodlines, and it was while sitting down with franchise producer Craig Perry that I learned about a staunch behind-the-scenes position regarding protagonist premonitions. I asked if we may ever get to learn why characters get those horrific glimpses of the future, and he gave me a fantastic answer explaining why it will never happen. Said Perry,
No, and I'll tell you exactly why. If we answer how they happen, that means that you as an audience member may never have it. You might not have that moment. I would much rather have it be a mystery so that you never know whether you are capable or whether it may happen to you.
One of the best/freakiest aspects of the Final Destination movies is the way in which they find a way to make relatively mundane activities in life seem utterly terrifying – be it driving behind a logging truck on the highway or going to a big box hardware store. Final Destination: Bloodlines hits on that crucial aspect as well (prepare to never look at backyard barbecues or MRI machines the same way)… but for Craig Perry, that’s not enough audience immersion.
Not only is there a goal to generate extreme horror from everyday accidents, but the filmmaker emphasizes that movie-goers are also meant to wonder if they might randomly find themselves in the shoes of the main characters and put in a position to save lives before disaster strikes. Perry doesn’t have any desire to mess with that, and he put it in Star Wars terms for further clarity:
It's sort of like in midi-chlorians in Star Wars. 'Oh, I can't be a Jedi now.' Why would you not want to be a Jedi? So we want everyone to leave the theater thinking, 'What if I have a premonition tomorrow and I'm perfectly capable of it?' Because you never know when and you never know where.
I love this take. While it can be fun for franchises to address and explain big picture questions (again, Final Destination: Bloodlines actually does a great job of this), there is a touch of magic and intrigue that inevitably disappears, so it has to be done surgically. Never revealing the origins of the premonitions is a great choice in this regard.
Of course, just because there will never be an official, in-canon explanation for the visions doesn’t mean that fans won’t have their own theories. Two of those fans are Final Destination: Bloodlines directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, and they have their own pet take on the origins of the psychic incidents. Stein told me,
Our thoughts is that it might be death giving them the premonition because, you know, he gets bored, wants to give his little play things a chance, and then comes back for them later – like a cat playing with its toy.
Fans may start having new ideas of their own after this weekend and the arrival of Final Destination: Bloodlines in theaters everywhere. As expressed in my four-and-a-half star CinemaBlend review, it’s easily one of my favorites in the franchise, and audiences are going to love it.
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