How Final Destination Filmmakers Choose Which Normal Thing To 'Ruin' For Horror Fans [Exclusive]

Planes, tanning beds, speeding buses, escalators, elevators, fire escapes, air bags, pool drains, gymnastics, acupuncture, nail guns, plates of glass, weight machines, trains, corrective laser eye surgery, driving over bridges, and, of course, driving behind logging trucks are all things that have been ruined for someone courtesy of the first five "Final Destination" movies. Now, the sixth installment, "Final Destination Bloodlines," is ready to terrorize a new generation by awakening new anxieties within us all that we never knew we had.

But how do the twisted minds behind these movies decide what everyday occurrence is going to be irreversibly associated with freak accidents and irrational paranoia? As "Bloodlines" co-director Zach Lipovsky tells me, "It takes many years, and it's an incredible iterative process." Part of that process is a legitimate roundtable with the writers, where they sit back and brainstorm, "What are the things that we can ruin for people? What are the very everyday experiences that we can just completely dement, so that anytime you see that in the rest of your life, you think of 'Final Destination?'" Once they've gotten the idea, they get to work figuring out how to legitimately bring it to life.

"Another big part of it is trying to make it not predictable," Lipovsky tells me. "That's really tricky to do, because as soon as you show the audience one thing, you have to still make sure that there's another way that it's all going to come together." It's why something like the tanning bed kill in "Final Destination 3" works as well as it does, because the audience knows Ashley and Ashlyn are going to fry, but why they can't escape is only known as it plays out.

In fact, the "Bloodlines" creative team looked to what worked in previous entries when crafting the kills for the sixth movie.

Two kills in particular were massive inspirations on "Final Destination Bloodlines." The gymnastics death in "Final Destination 5," was a key inspiration for the big barbecue scene first teased in the trailers for "Bloodlines" because according to Lipovsky, much like the screw on the balance beam, "we loved how there's this tiny little object that's creating so much tension, that the whole audience is focusing on, but it also can't just be that someone swallows that piece of glass." Another death that resonated is Evan Lewis' death in "Final Destination 2." While fans will remember the fire escape ladder dropping down and impaling him through the eye, the crux of the kill is his own disrespect for his surroundings — slipping on the old spaghetti he chucked out of his apartment window before the carnage kicked in.

"There's this spaghetti that gets thrown out a window. What an a-hole, that he does that, right? But then, all these other things happen. You forget about the spaghetti. And then, it comes back to kind of kill him in a way that he deserves. And that played into another big set piece that we have later in the movie. And so, a big part of it was just breaking down all the set pieces that have come before, what worked about them, what didn't."

Co-director Adam B. Stein noted that Lipovsky even put together a massive spreadsheet with details breaking down every kill in the franchise. Not for nothing, but if he ever decided to make that available for purchase, I'd be the first in line. "It has to be something that is very relatable, and it has to be something that could also be physically possible," Lipovsky said. "It's very hard to find the things that overlap in that space, but it's very delightful when you find them. And then, you kind of think about, how can we make it as horrible as humanly possible, so that anytime anyone experiences that again, they think of our movie?"

Regardless of the research done by the directors or the cast's experiences acting in the films and knowing it's all fake, everyone on Team "Final Destination Bloodlines" that I spoke with during the press junket admitted to having some irrational fears. "I can't wear my wedding ring anymore," Stein confessed. "I've switched to a silicone band, because when I wear my real wedding ring, I get freaked out now. And there was one time I was out to dinner with my wife, and my fingers started to swell up and I started to panic, and now I wear a silicone band."

Star Kaitlyn Santa Juana said she's afraid of hot hair tools. "I've burned myself so many times I'm surprised I've made it out." Co-stars Teo Briones and Rya Kihlstedt have fears inspired by the movies, including garbage disposals, pool drains, and, of course, the logging truck. Actor Owen Patrick Joyner confessed to being afraid of forgetting to turn off a car and it blowing up at the gas station, a legitimate concern that has plagued anyone who has grown up in a cold climate with the "static shock starts a fire at the gas pump" knowledge.

As far as the most irrational? That crown goes to actor Richard Harmon, who is responsible for a swath of people flipping up their septum piercings. "Since I was a kid, and I still fear it, is jumping off the diving board into a swimming pool that I see that there's no shark in there, when I hit the water, there will all of a sudden be a shark when I open my eyes and it'll eat me," he explained. "And I figured out how. It's like maybe how a billionaire gets his or her kicks would be to have another bigger pool around the pool, the pool has a little open door and as you're in the air, they open the door, and then the shark comes from the bigger outside pool into the pool, eats you."

If you're in the market to develop your own new irrational fear, "Final Destination Bloodlines" is in theaters everywhere.