JASON BLUM
Welcome To The House Of BlumW W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K |^029
WE CAN’T QUITE PUT OUR FINGER ON IT
BUT THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT A
BLUMHOUSE MOVIE THAT WE CAN’T RESIST.
WE SPEAK TO JASON BLUM, THE MAN
WHO PUTS THE BLUM IN BLUMHOUSE, TO
TRY AND FIND OUT HIS SECRET...
WORDS RACHAEL HARPERWE THINK IT’S FAIRLY REASONABLE TO
SAY THAT THE HORROR GENRE HAS
SEEN A RESURGENCE IN RECENT YEARS.
Pulled from the burnt ashes of some of the
schlocky horror films from the Nineties (which,
we have to be honest, hold a special place in
our hearts), the Noughties (especially post-2010)
have been a high time in horror. Think about
it, we’ve seen horror films grossing huge box
office figures, seen some of the biggest actors
of our generation clambering to be in them and
we’ve even seen a horror film being nominated
for Best Picture at the Oscars, which has only
happened six times.
We would also think it’s fairly reasonable to
say that Jason Blum, CEO and founder of the
incredibly successful Blumhouse Productions, has
been an integral cog in that great horror wheel
of our time.
When we sat down to speak with the man
himself, he was high on the success of The
Invisible Man, a retelling of the classic H G Wells
novel which tells the story of, well, a man who
manages to make himself invisible. Ho w e v e r,
people may be more familiar with the movie
iterations (of which there are many) about the
invisible man which, unlike the novel, plays
him more akin to a tragic hero. The Blumhouse
movie successfully flips that tragic hero trope
on its head, instead focusing on the invisible
man’s spouse, in the movie played by Elizabeth
Moss. Grossing $100 million (on a budget of
around $9 million) at the worldwide box office
in less than two weeks, the timely adaptation
is very much a firm tick in the success box of
Blumhouse’s movie slate.
The character of the invisible man has
also previously been part of Universal’s Dark
Universe and its success could be a boost for
the apparent re-spawn of the Dark Universe,
which so far has been on rocky ground. Does
this mean Jason Blum plans to produce more
of the Dark Universe movies? “We don’t but
that doesn’t mean I’m not eager too. We really
would like to but we have no plans at the
moment but that doesn’t mean we’re not going
to try,” he tells us.
Either way, Blum is understandably happy
with how this movie has turned out: “I’m very
pleased with The Invisible Man,” he says. “That
was my seventh movie with Leigh Whannell.He’s an amazingly talented guy and the world is
finally figuring that out, but we’ve known it for a
long time. The flipping of the invisible man into
the bad guy was all Leigh’s idea but I loved it.”
Indeed, one of Blumhouse’s key aspects is
its ability to procure great under appreciated
directors – either reinvigorating their careers or
plucking them from relative obscurity. Whannell,
for instance, had a long history as a writer and
actor but had very few directing credits to his
name (his most notable being 2018’s low key sci-
fi horror, Upgrade). “I think I take a longer view
on directors’ career than Hollywood does,” Blum
tells us. “Rather than judging them by their last
movie I try and look at all of their movies.”
An example of this view working out for the
best is with one of Blumhouse’s earlier movies,Insidious, back in 2010. At the time, director
James Wan had just helmed two relative flops
with Dead Silent and Death Sentence. “Instead
of looking at James Wan’s past movie or two I
remembered he did Saw and I think Hollywood
is guilty of taking a very short view on the
career of a director,” Blum explains to us.
However, the punt on Wan was more than
worth it. Released in 2011, Insidious follows a
couple (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) whose
son inexplicably falls into a coma and becomes
a vessel for ghosts who want to inhabit his body.
Written by none other than Leigh Whannell, the
film follows the traditional haunted house tropes
before diving off an astral plane cliff and taking
the movie into a whole new direction.
A scary and fun horror, audiences around
the world agreed, with the movie making over
$99 million on a budget of around $1.5 million.
It would also go on to spawn three sequels,
with the latest arriving in 2018. “I didn’t realise
Insidious would be big when I was making it, I
had no idea what I was doing,” Blum laughs.
“That was pretty early on in my career, very
early on in [my career in] horror. Now as time
has gone by, I definitely think it’s a seminal
movie. It relaunched James Wan’s career
which I’m proud to say we’ve done a lot of.
And the Insidious movies are very, very close to
my heart.”
Over ten years after Blum’s first forays into
horror with Paranormal Activity (made inThe Hunt garnered a
lot of controversy...028-031_SFN_170 Blum.indd 29 18/03/2020 22:55JASON BLUM
Welcome To The House Of BlumW W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K |^029
WE CAN’T QUITE PUT OUR FINGER ON IT
BUT THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT A
BLUMHOUSE MOVIE THAT WE CAN’T RESIST.
WE SPEAK TO JASON BLUM, THE MAN
WHO PUTS THE BLUM IN BLUMHOUSE, TO
TRY AND FIND OUT HIS SECRET...
WORDS RACHAEL HARPERWE THINK IT’S FAIRLY REASONABLE TO
SAY THAT THE HORROR GENRE HAS
SEEN A RESURGENCE IN RECENT YEARS.
Pulled from the burnt ashes of some of the
schlocky horror films from the Nineties (which,
we have to be honest, hold a special place in
our hearts), the Noughties (especially post-2010)
have been a high time in horror. Think about
it, we’ve seen horror films grossing huge box
office figures, seen some of the biggest actors
of our generation clambering to be in them and
we’ve even seen a horror film being nominated
for Best Picture at the Oscars, which has only
happened six times.
We would also think it’s fairly reasonable to
say that Jason Blum, CEO and founder of the
incredibly successful Blumhouse Productions, has
been an integral cog in that great horror wheel
of our time.
When we sat down to speak with the man
himself, he was high on the success of The
Invisible Man, a retelling of the classic H G Wells
novel which tells the story of, well, a man who
manages to make himself invisible. Ho w e v e r,
people may be more familiar with the movie
iterations (of which there are many) about the
invisible man which, unlike the novel, plays
him more akin to a tragic hero. The Blumhouse
movie successfully flips that tragic hero trope
on its head, instead focusing on the invisible
man’s spouse, in the movie played by Elizabeth
Moss. Grossing $100 million (on a budget of
around $9 million) at the worldwide box office
in less than two weeks, the timely adaptation
is very much a firm tick in the success box of
Blumhouse’s movie slate.
The character of the invisible man has
also previously been part of Universal’s Dark
Universe and its success could be a boost for
the apparent re-spawn of the Dark Universe,
which so far has been on rocky ground. Does
this mean Jason Blum plans to produce more
of the Dark Universe movies? “We don’t but
that doesn’t mean I’m not eager too. We really
would like to but we have no plans at the
moment but that doesn’t mean we’re not going
to try,” he tells us.
Either way, Blum is understandably happy
with how this movie has turned out: “I’m very
pleased with The Invisible Man,” he says. “That
was my seventh movie with Leigh Whannell.He’s an amazingly talented guy and the world is
finally figuring that out, but we’ve known it for a
long time. The flipping of the invisible man into
the bad guy was all Leigh’s idea but I loved it.”
Indeed, one of Blumhouse’s key aspects is
its ability to procure great under appreciated
directors – either reinvigorating their careers or
plucking them from relative obscurity. Whannell,
for instance, had a long history as a writer and
actor but had very few directing credits to his
name (his most notable being 2018’s low key sci-
fi horror, Upgrade). “I think I take a longer view
on directors’ career than Hollywood does,” Blum
tells us. “Rather than judging them by their last
movie I try and look at all of their movies.”
An example of this view working out for the
best is with one of Blumhouse’s earlier movies,Insidious, back in 2010. At the time, director
James Wan had just helmed two relative flops
with Dead Silent and Death Sentence. “Instead
of looking at James Wan’s past movie or two I
remembered he did Saw and I think Hollywood
is guilty of taking a very short view on the
career of a director,” Blum explains to us.
However, the punt on Wan was more than
worth it. Released in 2011, Insidious follows a
couple (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) whose
son inexplicably falls into a coma and becomes
a vessel for ghosts who want to inhabit his body.
Written by none other than Leigh Whannell, the
film follows the traditional haunted house tropes
before diving off an astral plane cliff and taking
the movie into a whole new direction.
A scary and fun horror, audiences around
the world agreed, with the movie making over
$99 million on a budget of around $1.5 million.
It would also go on to spawn three sequels,
with the latest arriving in 2018. “I didn’t realise
Insidious would be big when I was making it, I
had no idea what I was doing,” Blum laughs.
“That was pretty early on in my career, very
early on in [my career in] horror. Now as time
has gone by, I definitely think it’s a seminal
movie. It relaunched James Wan’s career
which I’m proud to say we’ve done a lot of.
And the Insidious movies are very, very close to
my heart.”
Over ten years after Blum’s first forays into
horror with Paranormal Activity (made inThe Hunt garnered a
lot of controversy...