Interview: ‘Final Destination’ Creator Jeffrey Reddick Talks ‘Don’t Look Back’

October 14, 2020

Jeffrey Reddick made a name for himself in the horror genre by writing Final Destination, which would go on to become one of the biggest horror franchises of the last two decades. Horror Geek Life gets a chance to sit down with Jeffrey to talk the Final Destination series, his writing, and his directorial debut for the upcoming film, Don’t Look Back.

Horror Geek Life: Let’s start out with the first feature film that you wrote, Final Destination. The film that went on to spawn one of the most successful horror franchises in the last 20 years. Where did that story come from, and did you ever foresee it becoming such a big hit, with such a massive following?

Jeffrey Reddick: The original idea came from a story that I read when I was flying home to Kentucky. I think it was in People Magazine, but I’ve never confirmed that. A woman was on vacation, and her mother told her to take a different flight home the next day, because she’s like, “I have a bad feeling about the flight that you’re booked on.” The woman changed her flight, and the story was like, “Woman Cheats Death,” because the plane crashed. That put the idea in my head, but I didn’t have a story for it yet. It was just kind of in the back of my head. I developed it when I wanted to get an agent. I wrote a spec script for an X-Files episode, like a pretend one, you know, if I was writing an X-Files episode, this is what it would be. I used that idea as the concept — I worked at New Line Cinema at the time — and my friends there that read the script and were like, “Don’t use this idea for TV, this is a feature idea.” Then we went through the process and the rest is kind of history.

As far as did I expect it? I worked at New Line Cinema for 11 years and I grew up in the studio system, so obviously, you know that the studio wants franchises. They want things that can have sequels, so I always wrote it with a sequel in mind, but I certainly did not expect it to become kind of the cultural phenomenon that it is. It’s a real blessing. It’s just really awesome. I always thought it would have sequels, but people talk about “Final Destination moments” now, and it’s crazy. I don’t think you can ever think that.

HGL: Definitely! In the last 20 years, Final Destination and Saw have been THE franchises. The series really came into its own. Speaking of the sequel, you wrote that as well, right?

JR: Yeah, I wrote the story for that, and Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber wrote the screenplay. I think the second one is my favorite, because I’m a horror geek at heart. I know things get changed, but with the sequel, I wanted to do a couple of things. My favorite sequels are the ones that bring somebody back from the original and I wanted to expand the mythology, so I wasn’t just kind of re-telling the same story. I wanted to reconnect everybody in the new movie. But, I also wanted to set up a group of pretty teenagers that you think are going to be the leads, and kill them all off except for A.J. Cook. I got to do all the fun stuff that I like in a sequel on that one.

HGL: How does it feel to be responsible for making an entire generation of horror fans afraid to drive behind logging trucks?

JR: I love it, but I look at it as I’ve probably saved a lot of lives. That’s how I try to look at it. I have to give a shout out again, because that was another Kentucky moment, because my original idea for that was going to be kids going to Spring Break, and they stop at a hotel and there’s a fire. Craig Perry, who’s kind of the producer and godfather of this franchise, was like, “I think we just need something better. Something that will catch people more.” I was driving home to visit my mom, and I got behind a log truck, and I pulled over because I always do, because I hate those things. I pulled off the road and I called Craig and I yelled “whynotafuckinglogtruckonthefreeway?” and he was like “What? I can’t understand you!” I said, “What about a log truck on the freeway, and the chain breaks?” And he’s like, “That’s it! That’s the opening.”

HGL: Would you say that’s your favorite scene from the series?

JR: Yeah, that’s my favorite opening from the series. It’s one of my favorite movie openings, I will say. It’s weird saying that about your own thing, because you don’t want to sound like a douchebag, but also that scene would not have been what it was if David Ellis hadn’t directed it.

HGL: It’s okay to appreciate your own work and feel passionate about it. It’s awesome. Any time you bring up the Final Destination series, that is the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind, so it’s really amazing on an epic level.

JR: Like I said, David Ellis directed that scene so beautifully because he’d worked in stunt work before, so he knew how to really do a scene like that. It just turned out so good. Sometimes when I’m feeling meh…like I’m bummed, I’ll watch part two. It’s crazy, I know, but it’s so much fun.

HGL: We love the kill from that film where the plate of glass falls on the teen.

JR: I know! It smashes that poor kid. It was funny, because I had originally written it to where the glass falls straight and slams into him, and the kid peels forward and backward, but I actually like the smashing better. The other one would have been too disgusting. Poor kid. He just wanted to play with the pigeons.

HGL: We heard you had a great story about writing a Nightmare on Elm Street script when you were young. Care to share that with us?

JR: Sure! I was 14, and me and my friend Tony watched Nightmare on Elm Street at a drive-in. We couldn’t afford the drive-in, so we actually sat on his dad’s pickup truck and turned on the CB because we could see the movie screen. That movie scared the crap out of me. That movie made me fall in love with horror movies. I liked them before that, but that movie made me fall in love. So I went home, and I didn’t know anything about the movie business, I was a fucking 14-year-old hillbilly. I get home, and I bang out a story idea for a prequel, Freddy’s history. I called information and got the address for Bob Shaye, who is the president at New Line Cinema, and I mailed it to him. He sent it back to me and said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t take unsolicited material.” I was only 14, so I didn’t know what that meant, and I had to look it up. I wrote him back, and I sent it again and I was like, “Look, sir, I have spent three dollars on your movies, and I think you can take five minutes to read my story.” And he read it. Him and his assistant, Joy Mann, who isn’t with us any longer, but she was such an amazing woman, they would send me scripts and movie posters. Again, I was this kid in Kentucky and I’m getting movie posters and scripts. They really inspired me to kind of dream big, and I give them so much credit.

When I went to New York when I was 19, I ended up working at New Line Cinema. I got an internship and then stayed there 11 years. I love that story, because it just shows you that you never know. That would never happen today because of the technology, but I didn’t have any master plan when I was 14, I just knew that I loved this movie, wanted to tell a story, and wanted this guy to read it, and he got back to me. If he hadn’t gotten back to me, who knows. I would have still pursued my dreams, but I certainly would not have gotten the fire under me that I got from them.

HGL: It’s kind of interesting that you resonated with Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s sort of this monster that’s invisible to everyone it’s not attacking. In your film Dead Awake, a monster attacks it’s victims through sleep paralysis. Was the Night Hag from that film kind of your take on Freddy?

JR: It’s interesting because when I wrote Dead Awake, we didn’t have the Night Hag in it, because I knew we were going to get comparisons to Nightmare on Elm Street. I threw the bathtub scene in there as a nod, because everyone falls asleep in the bathtub. You can’t have a falling asleep movie without a bed and a bathtub. When I wrote the script, you never saw the Night Hag. It was just the force that could morph into different shapes. It was almost like this shadowy darkness that you saw. We ended up doing it with an independent company and so we ended up having to do the Night Hag that you saw. I probably would have written it differently if I knew we were going that route. The thing about Freddy is that you don’t really see him much until later in the movie, so if I had known we were going to see the Night Hag, I would have written her differently, just to not show her so much. It’s creepy the first time but gets less creepy by the fifth or sixth time you see her. It was my way to sort of dabble in the Nightmare world, for sure.

HGL: What advice would you give to up-and-coming horror script writers as far as getting into the groove of writing for a movie, and having to make changes to their scripts for the movie itself?

JR: I have so much advice. I feel like Old Man River. One of my things is that you only get better if you know how to take constructive criticism. A lot of times people ask you for your opinion, but they don’t really want it, they just want you to say their stuff is great. That is one of the problems I see with a lot of first-time writers. They think their script is the best thing ever, and they put so much of their heart and soul into it, that if it gets rejected then they get devastated. You have to realize, like anything, the more you do it, the better you get. I look back at my first script that I sent to New Line Cinema, and luckily the lady that worked there told me, “It got really good coverage, but it’s not what we’re looking for.” I just kept writing, and when I started working at New Line, I found the coverage and it was awful. It was like, “This kid is obviously in middle school,” and I was like, “I was in high school, dammit!” While it’s cute, someone so young trying to write a script, this wouldn’t even pass muster for an after-school special. It was really hard. But, I’m glad she didn’t tell me that because I would have thought I was an awful writer, and I would not have written. My scripts get better the more that I write them. You have to keep writing. You also have to learn who is good at giving you constructive criticism versus people that just give you criticism. There are some people that just want to criticize and that’s unhelpful.

HGL: That’s an important distinction, for sure.

JR: Also, the best advice I can give somebody is to pick a genre you like writing in, because it’s such a business, that people have to pigeonhole you because there are so many writers in Hollywood. They don’t think of a writer as, “Oh, that’s Jeffrey Reddick, he can write comedy, drama, thrillers, horror…” It’s just too much. They need to be able to get their head around a writer. I always tell people to pick a genre that if you had to write one type of movie for ten years, what would you be happy writing? Also, find the scripts online, look at movies that you love in that genre, and read the scripts! You get a lot of inspiration from reading how other people write stuff. Studying, always knowing that you’re going to keep growing, and knowing that your first couple of scripts are going to suck. You have to get the craft down, and then know the craft, but not have it be so crafty that it doesn’t have any personality. You end up finding your style by continuing to write.

HGL: Which one of your scripts made the best movie, in your opinion?

JR: That’s a tough one, like asking which one of your children is your favorite. I really enjoy Final Destination 2 a lot, but there’s a soft spot in my heart for Tamara. That movie, we were supposed to it with a much bigger budget. There were a lot of things we had to cut out and water down because we shot it indie. I just have fun watching that movie. That was a movie I wrote for fun. A lot of the other movies were pressure. Obviously Final Destination was special and impactful, but as far as my guilty pleasure, Tamara was one of my favorites. I know the issues with it because again, a lot of that was budget constraints and plot points we had to cut out. I had a wonderful time visiting the set on that one. I mean, I had a great time on all sets I visited, but just that movie itself is kind of like my homage to Carrie. Jenna Dewan is amazing in it. I just adore her. I’m friends with the cast and they were all amazing. I’ve been really blessed to have a really good cast and crew on all the films that I’ve worked on. I haven’t had a bad experience with any of them.

HGL: Looking at these movies, like Final Destination, Tamara, and your new one, Don’t Look Back, different takes on death seem to be the running theme in all of them. Is death something that you’ve always kind of had a fascination with?

JR: You know it’s funny, because people will always point out stuff to me that isn’t apparent to me at the time. It’s not that I’m fascinated with death…well, I shouldn’t say that. When I was young, I used to read a lot of Greek and Roman mythology. I guess I’ve always been fascinated with supernatural stuff and what lies beyond once we pass on from this Earth. I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to die young. My mom lived to be 97 and I want to live to be at least 97. The supernatural and fantasy stuff have always sparked my imagination for some reason. I think it’s because it’s escapism. I remember when the ads were out for Nightmare on Elm Street, it was like “a new masterpiece in fantasy horror” and I’d never heard of that before. I think that’s what fascinates me. Scary stuff with the fantasy part of it.

HGL: We got a chance to check out your new film and directorial debut, Don’t Look Back. It’s pretty spooky and extremely relevant stuff, considering the shape of country right now, and seemingly like we’re seeing people film other people’s deaths on the daily basis. Can you give us some background on how you thought of this story?

JR: Yeah, there was a case on this woman named Kitty Genovese, back in New York in the 1960’s. She was assaulted and murdered in her courtyard. It’s a horrible story. At the time, when the story came out, all we heard through history is that 30 or 40 people stood in their apartments and didn’t help her. It was almost an urban legend that I’d heard growing up. It always bothered me and stuck with me. The weird thing is when I was coming back from location scouting from Don’t Look Back, there was a documentary playing on the airline about that story, about how it wasn’t true, and people had called, but this reporter wanted the juicy story, and that was the best angle to go. That really just stuck in my head. As I’m growing older, people ask me what I’m afraid of. That usually comes up a lot of times in interviews. My answers are always honest. I’m not afraid of anything supernatural or like a serial killer or anything. I’m really afraid of how easily people are turned against each other. You know, like how racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia…it’s so easy to turn people against each other and that frightens me. I have people that I love that are extremely racist, and they don’t even realize it. They say things like, “Well you’re not like those other Blacks.” So, that’s something that scares me. As the human race, we’re so quick to turn on each other, and destroy one another, and not help other people.

HGL: Absolutely. It certainly doesn’t help if those messages come from the top-down.

JR: It doesn’t. Who am I kidding? I try and fail miserably to stay non-political, but that’s what frustrates me the most about where we are today. It comes from the top, and now we’ve come to a place where like, “Now that’s just where the top is.” It’s like, “So what if he’s rude and doesn’t care about people’s feelings?” you know? It’s beyond that. It’s divisiveness and it’s gotten worse. That’s why with the movie, it’s always been relevant, but with the advent of cellphones and especially within the last four years, if people see something, their first instinct is, let me record this, and it should be, let me call the police and then if I have to record it, I record it. That’s just a theme I’ve felt has gotten more and more relevant, and when I set out to do this movie, I knew I could do a supernatural version, I knew I could do slasher version, but what I wanted to do, was try something different where you don’t know if the killer is supernatural, or real, or in her head. It made it challenging, because I couldn’t have your traditional set pieces where a killer is chasing someone around or a supernatural monster ripping people apart. It made it a challenging film, because it doesn’t fit neatly in the horror genre. I understand that people expecting this to be Final Destination with karma are going to be disappointed because it’s not. I just really wanted to say something. I don’t want to be one of those pretentious people, but I’m an adult now, and I still enjoy writing about pretty teenagers getting killed by people in masks or by supernatural stuff, but I do like same some stuff with my films, like bullying with Tamara. I don’t want to just write a movie about killing people. That’s not fun.

HGL: People sometimes forget that movie making is art at its core and most importantly subjective to the artist. You get a lot of filmmakers that are afraid to say something with their movies, so we appreciate that. Did it feel great to finally be in the director’s chair and feel more in control of your own story?

JR: I felt more in control but it was interesting, because I’ve been on set so many times that I thought, “Okay, I’ve storyboarded the movie, I know how to deal with this stuff,” but you really don’t know until you do it. Especially on a feature. We were an indie feature, so there were certain limitations that we definitely had shooting the film. But the freedom I got was I could cast who I wanted, and I picked my battles as far as what we shot and what we didn’t. There were some places where I had to give, like location-wise, but I got to do what I wanted. It was a learning curve for me, because my personality is very much collaborative and keeping the calm. I found myself worried about a lot of stuff, like “I need to make sure when we’re dragging Kourtney on the ground, I have to make sure there’s nothing there,” and I’d go check it myself and I’d find something. Then I’d freak out like “Guys! She could have gotten this nail in her!” I found myself doing that a lot. Usually, as a director your focus is on telling people what to do, tell them what you want, and they do it, and if they can’t do it, they’ll let you know. That was my biggest challenge, getting into that mindset, and I don’t think I ever quite got into it. Even up until the last day I would go to get my own water and they’d tell me, “Let the PA get your water!” and I’d be like “Uhhhh. I like to get my own water. This feels stupid.”

HGL: Kourtney did a great job. How’d you end up picking her for the role?

JR: I got really lucky with Kourtney. I know she had a small part in It Follows and I found her website online, and she had clips of these different shorts she was in. Each clip showed a different side of her, she was really vulnerable, she was really strong, she was really sexy, she was really warm. I was like, “This is Kaitlin. I must have her as Kaitlin.” That was the great thing about working the independent production, because I got the cast I wanted. If this had been a studio film, they would have maybe cast a big star, and they would have asked me to cast a white actress. I’ve worked on several films where I’ve seen so many amazingly talented actors and actresses of every ethnicity, but every time where I’ve been on the other side of the table, when they send the casting notice out, 99% of people that they send in are white. I know that some people get their hackles about the word diversity, but it really is a systematic thing in Hollywood where the default for every role is white. That’s what they think when they read a script, white person, white person, white person. Even if you write a person of color in the script. It’s not that there’s a lack of talent out there, you just have to take the extra step to reach the wider pool of talent, because that’s just not where the casting directors dip their buckets in when you ask for leads. This was her first feature, she’s such a sweetheart, and she’s so dedicated to her craft. We had a great cast, but she had to carry the film. She was there every single day. I think she had one day off. She brought it all and I’m so proud of her, and she loves horror. She wanted to do every single one of her own stunts and we were like “you can’t…” and she was like “but I’m trained in stage combat!” And I was like, “It doesn’t matter, they’ll still sue us if you get hurt.” She loves to scream. She wants to be a scream queen. I think a lot of people are going to love her performance. She’s wonderful.

HGL: With this being such a weird year as far as film releases go, people are home more. This film really has a chance to blow up. Are you ready and excited for the horror community to embrace it?

JR: I am definitely excited, and I’m nervous! Like I said, I’m a lifelong horror fan and I’m knee-deep in geekiness. My only concern is that people are going to be expecting a Final Destination movie. That’s been my concern from the beginning. They’re going to think I had the budget and the resources to that. I hate when horror movies are like, “This is not really a horror movie.” I think this one is more like a mystery suspense movie with horror in it.

HGL: As avid horror fans, we can tell you that you don’t have anything to worry about. It covers all the horror bases!

JR: I hope so. When it’s the first one your directing, you get really nervous, but I’m really excited to see the reaction…and nervous.

HGL: With the nervousness and the challenges that you saw directing, do you think your passion is heading to more directing, back to screenwriting, or both?

JR: It’s definitely both. My director friends told me that “after you direct your first film, you’ll either be like that was fun, I never want to do it again, or you’ll want to do it again.” I want to do it again. I have a couple of projects that I’ve held onto. Similar to how Good Samaritan was, you could have taken it one way or the other as far as execution. I have a couple of horror film ideas. One of them is kind of like a Stephen King novel meets Nightmare on Elm Street. I’m going to be the only person to direct that. I’ve already had everybody tell me, “We’ll buy this script, but you have to make all the characters teenagers!” and I’m like “No. No. No. No.” I’m definitely excited to find the right project to direct again.

HGL: Do you have any projects coming up that you want people to keep an eye out for?

JR: The Call, that I produced is opening in theaters. It’ll be on VOD on the 31st, and I’m really happy with that film. It’s got Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell paired up for the first time, which is super exciting and they’re amazing together. I’m also working on a couple cartoons for Netflix. They’re kind of creepy. The only one I can talk about that they’ve announced is a cartoon called Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles and that’s based on Usagi Yojimbo Japanese comic book. It’s a spinoff of that, and it’s been a lot of fun. Who’d have thought I’d be writing kid’s cartoons? I’m juggling a lot of things right now and spinning a lot of plates. A lot of things are being put on hold right now because of Covid. The business is not up and running at all. Very few things are shooting right now, so I’ve got a lot in the pipeline. I’m just going to wait and see what comes up next, but I’ll definitely let you know!

HGL: Lastly, is there anything you’d like to plug or support?

JR: My friend Brea Grant is directing a film called 12 Hour Shift. She’s amazing and was in Dead Awake. She’s a wonderful actress and a wonderful person, so talented, and produces, acts and directs. Her movie 12 Hour Shift with Angela Bettis is opening in theaters and it should be On Demand pretty soon so people should check that out because she’s just brilliant. That’s what’s jumping to the top of my head right now. If you want to keep up with me, follow me on Twitter. It’s @jeffreyareddick. I’m on Instagram, too, but if you’re on Instagram I feel like you’ve got to be doing a lot of interesting stuff or running around with your shirt off and have a great body. I’m writing most of the time, so that’s not interesting, and I haven’t been going to the gym, so I’m not taking my shirt off. I appreciate it, and I’m glad you guys enjoyed the film, it really means a lot. It’s a first film, and you want people’s honest opinions. I’ve had friends and it wasn’t their cup of tea, and I totally understand, but I’ve had a lot of people that really responded to it, so it’s really cool that fans appreciated it. Take care and stay safe. I know it’s a stressful time for everybody, so stay safe, healthy, and sane.

Horror Geek Life thanks Jeffrey Reddick for the amazing interview. Be sure to check out Jeffrey’s directorial debut, Don’t Look Back, in select theaters and On Demand October 16th, 2020.