Final Destination Bloodlines, the sixth instalment in the iconic Final Destination franchise, releases in theatres today. The newest chapter, a direct sequel to The Final Destination (2009), takes viewers back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice.

Like many of the sequences in the film, one of the most talked about is the tattoo parlour sequence, which also dominates the trailer. Richard Harmon (who plays Erik), on a wire, is yanked up by his character’s nose piercing, while an actual fire burns beneath him. “It creates a feeling you can’t get any other way,” says director Adam Stein, who helmed the film with Zach Lipovsky. “You can almost feel his lower half roasting as he’s yanked by his septum ring, and you can’t get that with visual effects,” he adds.

Harmon’s make-up process took more than two hours every day as a three-person make-up effects team applied Erik’s complex and numerous tattoos, as well as a nose ring and prosthetic nipples (which were then pierced). Harmon had worked with makeup-effects master Todd Masters several times previously. “Todd has taken care of me on a number of occasions over the past 22 years... he has killed me, maimed me, disfigured me, and cut my head off so many times! So, this was just one more in the line of so much fun I’ve had with him,” says Harmon.

Along with Harmon, Final Destination Bloodlines stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Rya Kihlstedt, Brec Bassinger and Tony Todd.