Posted in: Horror, Movies, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros | Tagged: final destination, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Final Destination: Bloodlines Editor on Honoring Legacy, Family Theme

Editor Sabrina Pitre (Freaks) spoke to Bleeding Cool about reuniting with directors Lipovsky & Stein for Final Destination: Bloodlines.

When Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky signed to direct Warner Bros/New Line's Final Destination: Bloodlines, they knew they had to get one of their more frequent collaborators on board with Sabrina Pitre, who's worked with them on Well Go USA's Freaks (2018), and also had memorable work on the Netflix anthology series Love, Death & Robots, the RLJE/Shudder horror hit Clown in a Cornfield. The editor spoke to Bleeding Cool about how she is a fan of the Final Destination franchise herself, dating back to the 2000 original, her familiarity with Stein and Lipovsky, shifting focus of the film from a group of friends to family, and if she has a unique approach to horror. The film follows Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) as she tries to save her family from a gruesome curse and fate as Death comes collecting.

Final Destination: Bloodlines Editor on Expanding Her Horror to the Franchise

Bleeding Cool: How did you get involved with 'Final Destination: Bloodlines?'

I have worked with Adam and Zach, the directors, on three previous projects. When they got this one, they brought me on board, and I was on board for the ride [laughs], which was great. I had to do a few meetings with the producers and somebody from the studio to vet me, but otherwise, the guys vouched for me and got me on the project. I don't think I would have been attached otherwise.

Did you follow the franchise beforehand, or are you coming in fresh?

Oh yeah, I grew up with those movies for sure. I saw the first one in theaters, and it was one of those things that influence you as you grow up and give you all kinds of anxieties about everything, like drugs, and random household events that could kill you, so I was very much aware of them. I was also a big Devon Sawa fan, so I was pretty excited to be part of the franchise.

What are the biggest challenges in a franchise, and given the previous entries, was there a chip on your shoulder to go above and beyond, compared to other projects?

The biggest thing was to try to honor the previous films and advance them in a way that adds to the canon and gives the fans something new. I feel we accomplished that. Even from the story perspective, we approached it with a family perspective and followed the family instead of what was before, which were groups of friends and other random people who were part of an event. I thought following a family gave it much more heart, and we invested in it.
My approach was "character and story are king." If you could lock that in, I think people and everything else would fall into place. The set pieces and all that are important pieces, of course, but as long as we got the story element right and the family dynamic working, we were going to keep audiences hooked.

How would you describe Zach and Adam in their creative process?

That's a big question, because they are so generous. For one thing, they love to hear feedback from everybody. If anybody's got an opinion about something, they want to hear it. They usually take the opportunity to decide what they'll keep or what they do, but they're open to any idea, so I find they invite a very creative process. One where you can explore, experiment with things, and try stuff out that you don't think works. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. It's more about the playfulness that they have about them, a willingness to explore and to try things that might surprise us. They are encouraging and supportive. Honestly, I couldn't ask for two better directors to work with.

When you work in horror, is there a unique approach you take compared to your other genre work?

I'm a big horror fan myself, so I watch a ton of horror movies. What I'm chasing in my edits is that same tension and dread that other editors have managed to pull off in their films I've seen. I find when I'm editing dailies and putting scenes together, I'm looking for that feeling, trying to work purely on instinct, and how I'm reacting to the footage. If I'm getting an initial reaction, I'm on the right track. That's essentially how I build my horror.

Final Destination: Bloodlines, which stars Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, and Tony Todd, is currently in theaters.

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