MANILA, PHILIPPINES – What happens when Death circles back to where it all began? In Final Destination: Bloodlines, the horror franchise’s newest (and bloodiest) chapter, it’s up to a full-on multigenerational household to face fate head-on. But behind the screams and suspense, two rising stars with Filipino roots are making waves: Kaitlyn Santa Juana and Teo Briones.
This time around, the deadly premonition is out. In its place? A recurring nightmare that’s been haunting college student Stefanie played by Broadway breakout and The Flash alum Kaitlyn Santa Juana. Canadian-born with Filipino heritage, Santa Juana delivers a gripping performance as a bookish achiever-turned-action heroine who’s not just fighting fate, she’s decoding it.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Teo Briones, who plays Stefanie’s brother Charlie, is no stranger to the genre having starred in the Chucky series and growing up in a family of performers (his dad is veteran actor JonJon Briones, and sister Isa Briones stars in The Pitt). And yes, he’s a legit fan of the Final Destination franchise.
“The cast in this film is really unique,” says co-director Zach Lipovsky. “In this film, we have an entire family. We have a character who’s 16, all the way to a character who’s in her late 70s. And together as a group, they have to survive Death coming after them. What’s really cool is seeing the dynamics of all those different age groups, all marked for death, all working together.”
In her early meetings with the filmmakers, Santa Juana says, “I mapped her out and, maybe this is a personal thing for me but, I think Stefani is three different people over the course of the movie. She’s kind of a detective in the beginning, trying to find answers to why she’s having the dream and why it keeps happening. And once she finds out, she becomes the protector of her family. And towards the end, she becomes a survivor of everything that she and her family have gone through.”
Briones is a huge fan of the franchise. “‘Final Destination 3’ is one of my favorite horror movies of all time,” he says. Devon Sawa, the star of the first movie, played Briones’s father in the first season of the “Chucky” TV series, which Briones was a part of. “Devon was the first person I texted when I got the part!” Briones says.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated R-16 without cuts, “Final Destination Bloodlines” takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice. Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie (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. The newest chapter in the bloody successful horror franchise is directed by Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky.
