When you think of modern horror, you can always guarantee that at least one of the movies that pops into your mind will have come from Blumhouse, who’ve cornered the market in recent years when it comes to crafting low-budget titles that reap huge rewards at the box office.
Not content with having the Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge and Happy Death Day franchises under their belt, super-producer Jason Blum has now seized control of the Universal Monsters as well. The Invisible Man got things off to a great start after receiving widespread critical acclaim and raking in over $130 million globally on a $7 million budget, and before we knew it, Dracula and The Wolfman were already in development.
Continuing their reputation as Hollywood’s premiere destination for horror, the company have now announced their eight-movie ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’ initiative, that will give up-and-coming filmmakers a platform to tell unique scary stories that will all be released exclusively on Amazon Prime. The first four titles are arriving in October and the press release below makes it sound like they’re capitalizing on theaters around the world remaining closed by directly appealing to the audiences that always show up to the latest releases in big numbers.
“We are excited to launch ‘Welcome to the Blumhouse’ with this exhilarating and provocative slate of original films for the first time ever on Prime Video. This collection from diverse and emerging filmmakers was a thrill to put together with our wonderful partners at Blumhouse Television. These chilling stories have something for everyone, ready to fright and delight genre fans and newcomers alike, and we are excited to share them with our global Prime Video customers. We’re beyond excited that the visions of these talented filmmakers will finally be seen by genre fans around the world, especially during this time when people are seeking to escape and be entertained.”
First out of the gate is The Lie starring Joey King and Peter Sarsgard, with the sci-fi influenced Black Box debuting on the same day. One week later then sees the arrival of the Priyanka Chopra-produced Evil Eye and supernatural thriller Nocturne. Blumhouse’s Halloween Kills may have been pushed back by a year, but fans will be thrilled to hear that they’ve still got plenty of fresh horror content heading their way right around the spookiest time of the year, and we can’t wait to see what the studio has cooked up for us.