Final Destination creator reveals original plot was so dark he was forced to change it
Topics: Film and TV, US News, Entertainment
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: New Line Cinema
Topics: Film and TV, US News, Entertainment
Somehow, the Final Destination franchise could have got off to an even darker start according to the creator.
If you remember Final Destination and its many sequels, you would hardly consider them ‘feel good films’.
In fact, they were a pretty macabre experience, just awfully fascinating and entertaining at the same time.
Essentially, the films in the franchise would all follow a similar plot, a group of teenagers managed to escape a terrible incident that results in multiple people’s death.
Advert
They would escape it by the skin of their teeth as a member of the group would have a vision of the impending tragedy and force their friends to leave, ultimately saving their lives.
Over the coming weeks and months those that escaped death would end up dead in creative and convoluted ways, as if the grim reaper was correcting his mistake of missing those lucky teens.
The first film, Final Destination, released in 2000 and very much kept to this premise, with a pretty gruesome ending.
It was very much well liked by horror film fans who couldn’t keep there eyes of it, the same way you do when there is a horrific car crash on the side of the road.
But according to the franchises’ creator, Jeffrey Reddick, the first film was going to be even darker than this.
He said in his original script, death, was more of a concept rather than a force we see acting in the universe.
Speaking to the Daily Star, he said: "The original treatment that I sold to New Line, we had a hard time selling it, because they were like, ‘We don’t understand how death can be a killer’.
“Finally, before they bought it, they made us put an angel of death in there to give it a personification. But when I wrote the script it was very much influenced by Nightmare on Elm Street – so death, since it messed up the first time, couldn’t just kill the people.
"It basically played on their survivor’s guilt or a secret they had, and they would find themselves living in a fantasy-horror place, and death would basically use that to drive them to commit suicide. That was very dark."
Well, that is dark indeed.
The Final Destination franchise is set to return in 2025 after a long hiatus as the last film was released in 2011.
Only time will tell if people are just as morbidly curious about the many ways ‘Death’ will get back at those he missed the first time around.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741