Blumhouse’s Jason Blum discusses the state of Horror Films in an interview with Dan Murrell of Screen Junkies.
Jason Blum is the Producer and founder of Blumhouse, AKA the house that Paranormal Activities built. He is one of the driving forces behind the current trend of modestly budgeted horror films that spin innovative and compelling stories and is elevating the quality of scary in Hollywood. Last October, Blum, and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon sat down with Screen Junkie’s Dan Murrell to talk about Landon’s movie, and Screen Junkies decided to post the video this week when Happy Death Day came out on Blueray and DVD.
I found the interview to be incredibly insightful, as Blum explained his philosophy on keeping horror movie budgets small, and at the same time giving his directors a lot of freedom, which in the end results in very original stories that can take real risks. I particularly liked that he sees his role as doing the opposite of the big movie houses, where they will want to know the precedents on their big-budget movies in order to guarantee that the movie will succeed, whereas he operates in selecting movies that are new and haven’t been done before. The track record of films like Split, Insidious, The Purge, and The Gift suggests the man has a pretty good plan. Good young directors + quality actors + innovative plots x responsible budgets = huge box office profits, and now… awards. On a day when one of his films, Get Out, has been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, I felt it the opportune time to share this video.
For other Screen Junkies videos, including their famed Honest Trailers, go here: http://www.screenjunkies.com/