Movies

Final Destination creator schools Piers Morgan on horror history in Gillette ad-inspired Twitter feud

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Published on January 15, 2019 05:07PM EST

final-destination — Photo: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images; Dave Benett/Getty Images

Is there anyone with whom Piers Morgan can’t get into a fight? Apparently not. The argumentative former America’s Got Talent judge has somehow managed to embroil himself in a Twitter dispute with Jeffrey Reddick, creator of the Final Destination horror franchise.

Like much social media chatter today, the feud has its roots in the new commercial from Gillette, a short film which essentially acts as a critique of toxic masculinity. The ad prompted Morgan to redirect his ire from the subject of vegan sausage rolls (long story) to the venerable razor-sellers.

“I’ve used razors my entire adult life but this absurd virtue-signalling PC guff may drive me away to a company less eager to fuel the current pathetic global assault on masculinity,” wrote Morgan on Twitter. “Let boys be damn boys. Let men be damn men.”

Morgan’s anti-Gillette posts attracted the attention of Reddick, whose screenwriting credits also include 2016’s sleep paralysis chiller Dead Awake and the upcoming horror film The Final Wish, which stars genre legends Lin Shaye and Tony Todd.

“Gillette isn’t saying men and masculinity are bad,” wrote Reddick on Twitter. “Toxic masculinity is when we teach boys that real men don’t cry. Real men don’t show fear. Real men don’t lose. Real men take what they want. Real men solve problems with their fists. It is toxic and it damages men and women.”

And that’s when things started to get nasty.

In response to Reddick’s tweet, Morgan launched into a critique of what he believed to be the screenwriter’s professional output.

“Hi Jeffrey,” tweeted the former Celebrity Apprentice contestant. “Fine words!! Do ‘real men’ make millions of dollars from movies glorifying the slashing, stabbing, shooting, incineration, strangulation & dismemberment of women?”

Unfortunately for Morgan, his “Gotcha!” proved horribly unimpressive, at least to Reddick.

“Hey Piers,” the writer tweeted. “Nice try. But none of the horror movies I’ve written glorify violence against women. I’ve never even written a nude scene. They’re all supernatural thrillers, except for one zombie movie. And the zombies ate more men than women.”

See Morgan and Reddick’s tweets, below.

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