Jeffrey Reddick, Creator of Final Destination, Gives Us the Inside Scoop.

Horror Movie Writer: Jeffrey Reddick
Latest work: Day of the Dead (remake)

Credits (partial): Final Destination (writer), Tamara (writer), Day of the Dead (writer)

Jeffrey knows what it’s like to feel like an outsider. “High school was not pleasant” said Riddick, “I grew up as one of the only non-white kids in a racist area of Eastern Kentucky.” This may explain Reddick’s affinity for the underdog. Reddick thinks that horror especially appeals to those who have felt like an outsider at some point, because the unpopular (or the virgin ala Laurie Strode ) can prevail against seemingly insurmountable odds.

The first horror movie that Jeffrey Reddick ever saw was Salem’s Lot. “My mom wouldn’t let me watch it”, remembers Reddick, “but I hid down the hall while my parents were watching. It scared the crap out of me. I slept at the foot of my mom’s bed that night, but she didn’t know it. It gave me nightmares”.

Hmmm, I thought…this sounds very similar to my own experience sneaking up in the middle of the night to watch Terror Train.

Then Reddick saw the horror movie that would change his life, A Nightmare on Elm Street. “’Nightmare’ was ground-breaking” says Reddick about the originality of the concept. “…And this was one of the first with a resourceful female lead”. “Nancy sets booby-traps and really fights back”.

A Nightmare on Elm Street had a bigger impact on the 14 year old Jeffrey Reddick than just scaring the heck out of him, however. “After I watched it I sat down and wrote a prequel. I sent it to (New Line CEO and Nightmare on Elm Street producer) Bob Shaye. He sent it back because he doesn’t accept unsolicited material”.

Reddick wouldn’t give up though.

“I sent a letter telling him that I had spent good time writing this, and good money watching “Nightmare” and so he should take the time to look at my story”. Well, he did. After that, Shaye and his assistant, Joy Mann became Jeffrey Reddick’s “pen pals”. “It was through that relationship that I got the internship with New Line”, said Reddick, where he worked for 11 years beginning his Sophomore year in college.

On Day of the Dead (remake):

“When I was approached to write the film it sounded daunting”, said Reddick.

Yeah, I bet. George A. Romero has god-like status among fans of the zombie genre. So, I asked Jeffrey Reddick, why did you decide to do it?

“Well”, he answered, “Steve Miner (Friday the 13th 1-3, Halloween H2O) was directing the Day of the Dead, that was one reason. I have a lot of respect for what he does. Also, if I didn’t write the script they were going to hire someone ‘on the quick’, and I didn’t want some hack coming in and messing it up. They needed someone who respects the genre.” “Oh,” continued Reddick, “I also knew that the original script wasn’t exactly as Romero wanted it because of budget issues, so I didn’t think it would offend him”.

I wondered how Reddick was going to approach writing a remake of such a well-loved Romero classic. “I approached it by trying to take the themes and bring something fresh to it” he answered. “Look at Dawn of the Dead. The only thing it had in common with the original was a shopping mall and zombies. Day of the Dead will be a different movie than Romero’s.”

Do tell, do tell…

“The story is under wraps and I can’t tell you anything”. Damn.

On Final Destination:

“This was the first movie that I ever sold”, said Jeffrey Reddick. “It was a tough sell”. Why, I asked? Reddick answered that it seems it was too different, too original. “They said ‘you have to have a killer, a person’”. Eventually, as we all know, Reddick won out. “Now they say ‘I want a movie like Final Destination”.

Now...I pressed, and pressed throughout the entire interview for something “exclusive” that cannot be found anywhere but Best-Horror-Movies.com. “Well”, said Reddick, “they wanted Clive Barker to direct the movie originally. He turned it down.”

I hadn’t heard that before, so I’m going to take it!

On Tamara:

“Tamara was different from the ‘studio processed’ movie”, said Reddick. (Reddick and partner David Sporn went to producers themselves and found Citilights in New York to arrange financing for Tamara). “We had a 22 day shooting schedule and it was pretty low budget”.

“Some of the character development and sex was cut, and the producers wanted thriller more than horror”.

What was cut? I had to know…

”Well,” said Reddick, there was a sub-plot where Chloe is coming out as a lesbian, and Tamara knows. This was pretty much lost and Chloe comes across as a ‘good girl’ with no secrets. There’s another scene where Tamara controls the minds of two jocks and has them make out. In the original one of the jocks has a habit of drugging girls and date-raping them, so he is raped by the other jock so he can see what it’s like to be victimized”.

As it stands, “Tamara is spooky, sexy and fun”.

Overall it sounds like Jeffrey Reddick is on his way. He's got a good track record of some credible horror flicks under his belt, and I am VERY interested to see how the Day of the Dead remake comes out. Just as soon as we at Best-Horror-Movies.com can get some more information you KNOW that we will tell all! Questions or comments for Jeffrey Reddick? Contact us!

Take me home!

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