Interview: Richard Harmon on Final Destination Bloodlines

In the grand pantheon of horror film franchises, each equipped with their own, respective flavors of monsters and Final Girls and cruel twists of fate, perhaps the most polarizing and painful is the Final Destination series. Beginning in the year 2000 with a group of students who narrowly avoid a devastating plane crash, the Final Destination films always follow a handful of hopeful youths who miraculously escape their deadly fates, but are then stalked by Death itself, who is determined to kill them in some uniquely nightmarish way. It’s a mythos that author Eugenie Brinkema has described as “bitter, paranoid, and sad… and displays the inability of characters to feel pleasure”, which is a fair assessment. Any fun that’s being had in these films is rarely happening on screen.

One of the trademarks of the Final Destination films, after all, is their mean-spirited style of killing, which can feel both brutal and diabolically hilarious. A woman in Final Destination 2 survives a car crash only to have her head impaled by PVC pipe debris when a rescue worker accidentally deploys her airbag. A man in Final Destination 5 falls off a massage bed onto acupuncture needles and an emblazed pool of sterilizing alcohol, but he survives all of this just so he can be bludgeoned by a falling Buddha statue. The absurdity of Death’s cruel antics are limitless in this series, but its latest installment dares to add another layer of anxiety and misery. 

Final Destination Bloodlines follows the Campbell family, as one family member, Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), is plagued by the same premonition that once haunted her grandmother. As usual, our protagonist is desperate to stop these visions from coming to fruition, and as usual, they struggle to be taken seriously. But by focusing on a close-knit family this time, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein craft a Final Destination film with much higher stakes and much more heart. This film has all of the cartoonish carnage that Final Destination fans are accustomed to, but the family at the center of this story keeps it grounded with their palpable collective distress. 

After viewing this groan- and grin-inducing film, I sat down with my old friend and one of the stars of Final Destination Bloodlines, Richard Harmon, to discuss how the family dynamic complicates an otherwise simple premise, how he pulled off each impossible stunt, and his experience working alongside the late, great Tony Todd.

HFC: I just saw Final Destination Bloodlines, and it was so phenomenal and fun! And I was like, well, the cherry on top would be if I get to speak to Richard about it, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up.

RH: Oh, but I’m so happy to. And, you know, the funny thing is, I realized, why does Hyperreal sound so familiar to me? I follow you guys on Instagram! I really enjoy what you do. I want to go down to Austin and check that out. It seems like such a cool vibe.

Come on down, it is a cool vibe!  Richard, your illustrious tenure in horror includes Trick ‘r Treat, The 100, Darkness Falls, Margaux, Lowlifes, and my personal favorite, Grave Encounters 2. You fit so well into horror. I wonder what draws you to this genre, and what, if any, horror icons you draw inspiration from? Or are you even a horror movie fan?

You know that I'm a massive horror movie fan. I think that's what draws me to it, and specifically for Final Destination, I was such a fan of the franchise since I was a little kid. You know, I probably shouldn't have been, but my parents didn't know. But I think that's why, when I got the role, I sort of just played the role that I would have liked to see in Final Destination. He should be funny, he should be heartfelt, but also, yeah, he's a bit of a goof. I mean, it's Final Destination. We're making light of death to the point where you're, as an audience member, rooting for death, which is not something we do in our day-to-day lives. Which I think is quite kind of, you know, refreshing. 

Some actors get pigeonholed and typecast into certain roles, some make really active choices in the types of characters they play. And I personally have witnessed you embody several superb pieces of shit, including Erik, sometimes in Bloodlines. Do you enjoy playing the guy we love to hate? 

God, I mean, yeah. I don't know what it is. I think it's partly my face. I think I've said this a few times, it's the old Jessica Rabbit quote, you know, “I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way.” It's just the way that I look. But, yeah, someone's got to play the asshole. And gladly, I can do that.

At my screening, you got the most laughs of any character. I'm curious if you got to add any of your own wit into this role, or if it was all predestined for you.

A lot of it was ad libs. And our directors, Adam [Stein] and Zach [Lipovsky], gave us a couple of takes because we had so much time on this movie. It was a bigger budget movie than I'm used to doing. You know, usually in movies that I'm doing, it's like, we shoot seven pages a day. And this one we were shooting, like one and a half. Which was insane to have that much time to do a scene.  But we had so much time that we would do a couple of takes as scripted, and then we would do fully improvised takes where you can just do whatever the heck you want.

Part of what is so interesting about Bloodlines is that it's a very different cast of characters than we're used to. It's not a group of friends, it's a family. And I feel like this added another layer of anxiety, but also potentially, poignancy. Do you feel that this element enriched the story, and the spectrum of emotions you got to play with as an actor?

Yeah. I mean, I think it is very different being able to, not revel, but like, soak in the death of a family member. Because sometimes in the other movies it's just like, “Oh no, the random, racist asshole just got blown in half.” And you're like, “Forgive me if I don't shed a tear.” This has a family that loves each other. With my dad's character, Alex Zahara played him so perfectly. Even though he's only in it for those couple of scenes, he's so genuine and lovely with that little speech that he gives to the family. It's like, “You can't choose your family. Just gotta love the one you got.” I thought that was so nice. And to feel the loss of someone like that is different, because he's not an asshole. He's just a nice guy that we all love. And then you know, to be losing your siblings and your cousins. I think it definitely gave us more to kind of soak into. But as always in a Final Destination movie, you don’t have too much time to cry over them all. 

Absolutely. Now, without spoiling too much, I'd love to talk about the scene that is featured heavily in the trailer, where you're in the tattoo shop. It's one of the more impressive Rube-Goldbergs-of-death I've seen executed in this series. Could you walk us through some of the technical setup and stunt work that went into you dangling by your nose? 

Yeah, that was incredible. The scene itself is six minutes in the movie, and we took five days to film that one scene. It was a five-day shoot of just me. Two days on main unit, three days on second unit. I feel like Final Destination is the ultimate insert movie. The inserts in Final Destination, that's Death. That's the Death POV you're seeing, like the little screws coming undone, and then this, and then this, and this and this and this. That Rube Goldberg in the tattoo parlor, where the thing bouncing off of the stereo causes a chain reaction, they actually did that. They set it up to work. It took about 20 takes, and it was me in the background like, “Come on, keep going keep going keep going.” And then something would always go wrong. And then I remember the time that I heard the glass break, and I was like, “Oh my god, we did it.” And I was like, “Now don't fuck it up, Richard.” And I didn't! Like, all I need to do is get up and walk over there. That's all I have to do. And I didn't fuck it up!

It’s wild to watch it play out. I wouldn't have guessed it was so practical!

It was completely. They didn’t have strings or anything. And then the attachment to my nose piercing, I was on wires, but the wires went up through the chain that's attached to my nose, so you could hide the wires behind it. And they could have tracks for the wires all across the ceiling, that I could go pretty much wherever I wanted to. And they would be able to hold me and keep me going, which was insane. And then they just were like, “Yeah, keep going up and up and up, go across to the chair, do the spread out thing, launch yourself over. And we’ll just grab you with the wires wherever you go. Because if you're just leaning into the wires, that's going to look like you have wires on. So pretty much just try to legitimately do it. And if you start falling, we will have you.” So it was just a ton of fun. It was like playing, you know, the floor is lava when you're a kid. 

That’s incredible! And no stunt actor necessary?

No, we did. I had an incredible stunt double, Colton, and literally at one point, I was watching playback, and I thought it was me doing it. And I was like, “I don't remember holding my hand like that.” And they're like, “That's Colton.” And it was a full body shot. He was the best double for me I've ever seen. But yeah, we both did it fully. The only thing that you see in the movie that isn't me, is the swinging across and hitting the floor. Everything other than that was me. 

It’s really an impressive feat. As a fan of the series, is there a set piece or a death in the franchise that you wish you could’ve been a part of?

I mean, without giving anything away for ours, I'm pretty happy with my stamp that I got to leave on the franchise. 

I was gonna say, you had the best death, hands down.

I think I might have the best death in the franchise. 

To me, I think you do! These films have been around for over 20 years, but there was a good chunk of time between Final Destination 5 and Final Destination Bloodlines. In addition to the loyal fans of this series, I imagine there will be a lot of newer, younger audiences seeing this movie. How does it feel to traumatize a whole new generation of viewers?

It’s the best. I mean, I turned out alright. I was a kid when I saw it. I've been telling everyone, bring the kids, bring the whole family to this movie. I think it's good for everyone. 

And it's definitely something you have to see in theaters.

Yes, with a crowd, like, whooping and hollering. 

What I love about these films is just the never-ending supply of imagination and creativity that's within them. There's no masked killer with a knife to avoid, Final Destination has instead made me dread logging trucks, tanning beds, escalators, and now, I guess, a penny. Why do you think that these premises are so effectively frightening?

They just do such a good job pulling them off, and usually whatever happens is so grotesque. Like the gymnast death in the fifth one… you just don't ever want to see a person's body move in that way. And like, that could happen. So sorry, gymnasts, but that's inevitable. A bad dismount. 

And I don’t necessarily think they’re scary, I find them to be properly disturbing. I generally will have a smile on my face when it happens. That's kind of what's so effective about it is, I don’t even know if it's meant to be scary. It's just off-putting yet fun. And they might say the opposite of that. Like, if you ask Greg, he’d be like “No, Richard, it's definitely meant to be scary.” 

I think it's both/and! When I was growing up, part of the fun of these movies was talking to my friends after, like, “Did you hear about the rollercoaster one?” And then it's just creating a new set of fears.

That'll always be a reality after you see what's possible. Most of these things are like, the chances of them happening are slim to none, but they're not zero. These things could happen. But I find them just hilarious and so entertaining to watch. Like, I watched Rosemary's Baby last night. That's scary. Because it's just so sadistic. There's nothing fun about that. That's horrible. But this is just good fun. This is fun for the whole family.

I was so happy to see Tony Todd on screen, and I would love to know what it was like to work with this horror icon.

Well, that was incredible. He was the most welcoming person, and like, we only had him for a day, probably, like a month into filming. But I feel like all of us were well aware that while we were the leads of the movie, it wasn't our set. It was Tony's set. And it felt like that as soon as he walked in, we were like, “Yeah, the owner of the house just walked in.” He was so welcoming to let us into that house. And all he ever wanted to ask was if we were having fun. He was like, “Enjoy yourselves. This is the best. You don't realize it now, but this is the best.” 

And that whole ending bit when he left the room, that wasn't scripted. The directors just said, “Say goodbye to the audience in whatever way you'd like.” And then he just came up with that, “Life is precious,” and you knew that that was coming from Tony, that wasn't coming from [his character].

That was such a truly touching moment. I certainly didn't expect to cry while watching this movie.

I almost cried standing opposite him when he did that. Like, that's a man who's saying goodbye to not just the audience, but everything. And he did so, so gracefully. He was with us, he was having a good time. And it was clear how much pain he was in, but he was smiling. All he ever did was smile the whole day.

My last question is, what’s a dream role, a dream director, or a dream franchise you would like to drop into if you had the chance?

Dream role, Ebenezer Scrooge. But I think Alistair Sim gave the best performance that any actor has ever given when he played Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 version [of A Christmas Carol]. Director, I would love to work with Paolo Sorrentino, I think he's the best going right now. And then franchise, let's keep it horror. I mean, if there was ever room for me in an Evil Dead movie, I would love that.

I think you'd fit perfectly! I just want to thank you so much, again, Richard. I was a fan of yours before I met you, and then I became an even bigger fan once I got to know you, and I hope everyone I know goes to see Final Destination Bloodlines! It’s the perfect summer horror experience. 

Thank you, Lili. It was so good to see you!

Final Destination Bloodlines is now playing in theaters.