Anna Lore promises that Final Destination: Bloodlines delivers all the bloody good “fun” fans crave from the iconic franchise — with a twist that will also leave them feeling more attached to the characters than ever before.
“[People] can expect everything that they love from the old films and also, there’s heart to this movie,” Lore, 32, exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping ahead of the film’s Friday, May 16, release. “Like, when I watched it for the first time, I got quite emotional and I was like, ‘Is this just because I love these actors so much?’ But I think the amount that you care about the family kind of adds a little bit of a twist to this movie.”
Lore noted that there will be certain scenes “where you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t want these people to die,’” — but those heartwarming feelings won’t overstay their welcome. “The way they die is so fun that you can’t help sort of rooting for it to happen,” she said.
Bloodlines takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice — but adds a familiar twist. Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefani (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. Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Rya Kihlstedt, Brec Bassinger and Tony Todd also star alonside Lore, who plays Stefani’s blunt and sassy cousin Julia Campbell.
Part of Final Destination’s magic has always been its ability to blend the horror and comedy genres, and that “balance” is more prominent than ever in Bloodlines. The deaths, which have always been notably unhinged, are also amped up to an entirely new off-the-wall level.
“It’s a balance to not have the film be too heavy, to have it still be fun and have people enjoy it,” Lore explained. “I can’t believe how well they walked that line. [And] I think the thing about Final Destination deaths is you’re always like, ‘They’re not gonna do that.’ And then … they do that.”
Lore immediately knew she was in good hands when she read the script from Guy Busick, Lori Evans and Jon Watts, even though she hadn’t seen any of the previous films before landing the role. Despite becoming somewhat of a Scream Queen through her career — she’s appeared in films like They/Them and the upcoming Black Phone 2 — Lore confessed she’s not much of a horror fan herself. Her boyfriend, however, is a different story.
“My boyfriend — who introduced me to, like, every horror thing that I know — I think when I auditioned, he changed my name in his phone to ‘Anna Final Destination,’” she recalled with a laugh. “He was just, like, so excited for me. Just even that I, like, had my hat in the ring. He was so thrilled.”
Once on set, Lore was in awe of directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who the actress said gave her the opportunity to try something “different” every take.
“The directors were super open to play,” she explained. “They said to us at one point, ‘Do not be afraid to make mistakes. We will make mistakes here. Don’t be scared, there’s no bad choices.’ And that as an actor is, like — I’ve never heard that in my life.”
Once the “pressure” was off to nail every scene, Lore was able to lean into the “creative environment” of the set, something she thinks helps the film feel more authentic.
Not every part of the job is easy, though. Lore admitted that reading a horror script is always her biggest challenge, as she has to imagine various brutal ways in which she might die.
“Like, what would it feel like? How scared would you be? What and how much pain would you be in?” she explained.
One major lesson learned? Stay away from Google. “One time I was like, ‘I’m gonna look up images from one of my deaths in a different film, and look up some images to see if I can get some details on what it would really be like to die this way.’ And that was the first and last time I ever [did that],” she recalled with a laugh. “I’m way too sensitive.”
The gruesome details, she noted, are best left to the professionals.
“The special effects people, I mean, they’re Googling, like, ‘What does [being] electrocuted to death look like?’ I cannot go into that territory,” she told Us. “Now [for me] it’s just completely make-believe.”
But how does someone so squeamish find themselves at the top of the casting list for iconic horror franchises like Final Destination and Black Phone 2? One, be great at your craft. Two, know how to scream bloody murder.
“Once you have a great scream out there, it’s like, ‘We need that scream in our movie!’” Lore quipped. “So I think it’s more [that] it’s calling me to it. More than even just drawing me to it. But I don’t know where I go from here. [Final Destination] is one the biggest horror franchises of all time! This is horror royalty now.”
Final Destination: Bloodlines is in theaters now.
