Highlights

  • Blumhouse Productions has become a powerhouse in the horror genre, producing successful low-budget films with creative freedom and crossover appeal.
  • The company has revived older franchises, including Halloween and The Exorcist, while also developing diverse and fresh horror properties.
  • Blumhouse has had notable successes with films like Paranormal Activity, Happy Death Day, Get Out, and The Invisible Man, earning critical acclaim and box office success.

Since it was founded in 2000, Blumhouse Productions’ name has become synonymous with modern cinema scares. Working with the hottest talent in the genre, the production company has been behind some of the most successful horror movies of the 21st century. Its efficient low-budget model allows filmmakers creative freedom, often translating to crossover appeal at the box office. That record has won Blumhouse a first-look distribution deal with Universal Pictures and a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards.

Split image of Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer) in Ma and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in Halloween Ends
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As well as its impressive achievements in developing diverse and fresh horror properties, Blumhouse has resurrected older franchises. Having completed a trilogy that rejuvenated and seemingly ended the Halloween franchise, Blumhouse set its sights on returning the long-troubled Exorcist franchise to theaters in 2023. That’s one of eight terrifying movies the prolific production company has scheduled for the year.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

The found footage recovered from Paranormal Activity's camera

Paranormal Activity remains the poster child for what Blumhouse can achieve with a low budget. Found footage movies were already famous for their profitability thanks to The Blair Witch Project, but Paranormal Activity had a fresh take. Here, the cameras are suspended in the corners of the home that young couple Katie and Micah suspect might be shared with an evil presence.

Alternative ending of Paranormal Activity 1
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The terrifying record of the couple’s 21 nights up to an infamous final scene spawned Blumhouse’s first franchise, including sequels and prequels. Despite a reshot ending that cost over 10 times more than its original shoot, it remains one of the most profitable movies of all time.

Happy Death Day (2017)

The killer strikes in Blumhouse's Happy Death Day

Blumhouse has played a significant role in sharpening the slasher genre after it stumbled after its 1980s heyday. Happy Death Day doesn’t just have a great title but a high-concept plot that turns the slasher movie on its head. When Tree Galbman is slaughtered on her birthday, she wakes up earlier that day, destined to endlessly relive her murder unless she can unmask the killer.

The darkly humorous story from comic book writer Scott Lobdell has fun playing with slasher tropes, dragging in romantic comedy and high school parodies on the way. Its 2019 sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, lived up to its punning title.

The Invisible Man (2020)

Elizabeth Moss encounters The Invisible Man

In the mid-2010s, Universal had ambitions to rejuvenate its classic horror franchise with a big-budget, star-led shared universe to rival Marvel. The Dark Universe barely made it out of the crypt, but Blumhouse showed the studio how to update a classic horror effectively.

Writer-director Leigh Whannell, co-creator of Saw and Insidious,blends horror and science fiction in this update of H.G. Wells's 19th-century tale. The smart thriller that puts Elizabeth Moss in the middle of cutting-edge optics technology and the genuine horror of abusive relationships made nearly $145 million from its $7 million budget.

The Black Phone (2021)

Abducted Finney talks on The Black Phone

This supernatural thriller puts Ethan Hawke at the heart of another high-concept horror as a demented killer. Set in the 1970s, it sees Hawke’s child abductor, the Grabber, imprison schoolkid Finney in a sound-proofed basement. However, Finney finds he can communicate with the killer’s previous victims through a mysterious, disconnected black phone on the wall.

Finney and The Grabber from The Black Phone
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Adapted from Joe Hill’s short story, Scott Derrickson co-wrote and directed The Black Phone after he parted ways with Marvel over creative differences. The freedom at Blumhouse held obvious appeal, and the result earned praise for its depth and making the most of its impressive child actors.

Halloween (2018)

laurie Strode confronts Michael Myers in Halloween (2018)

The incredible box-office return enjoyed by John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978 was a clear inspiration for Blumhouse’s lean approach to filmmaking. But when the production company came to pay respect to definite slasher Michael Myers, the franchise was already ten films and multiple continuities deep.

Director David Gordon Green’s response is a masterclass in stripping out the excess and returning to the slasher’s roots and impressive box office. The trilogy it started proved more controversial, but Blumhouse’s brutal return to Haddonfield showed they were a safe pair of hands with legendary horror.

Get Out (2017)

Daniel Kaluuya suffers in Jordan Peele's Get Out

Get Out was arguably when every cinemagoer had to pay attention to Blumhouse. After proving their skill at delivering creative films on low budgets, Get Out won their first Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Sometimes characterized as post-horror, it references multiple subgenres, from slasher to gothic horror, as it takes a psychological swipe at the dark undercurrents of American society.

A huge crossover success and probably Blumhouse’s most analyzed movie, Jordan Peele set an almost impossibly high bar for himself with his directorial debut.

M3GAN (2022)

Megan and Cady read Alice in Wonderland

Blumhouse had tackled many horror subgenres before it took on killer dolls. When it did, M3GAN became an immediate franchise in waiting. The story of the cutting-edge tech taking its responsibility for orphaned girl Cady James too seriously breaks through the subgenre dominated by the Child’s Play franchise, leaving other attempts to create horror from ventriloquist dummies like James Wan’s Dead Silence short.

Split image of Blaire in Unfriended and The Grabber in The Black Phone
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It showcases Blumhouse’s strengths, fusing horror with sci-fi, featuring a strong female cast, and backing it with a phenomenal soundtrack. Its PG-13 theatrical release opened up the concept to a broad audience.

M3GAN can be streamed on Prime Video or rented and bought at Apple TV Plus, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, VUDU, and Microsoft.

Freaky (2020)

The two victims of Blumhouse's twisted bodyswap comedy horror Freaky

Blumhouse often finds a killer new twist on a familiar concept. Killer is the operative word in this comedy slasher spin on Freaky Friday. Transferring the body swap comedy into the middle of a serial killer spree, student Millie finds that she is in the body of a middle-aged killer, striking fear into the community as the Butcher.

The mix of genres was inspired by Happy Death Day, which blurred time travel and slasher movies. The director of that film, Christopher Landon, duly came on board to helm this subversive mash-up.

Insidious (2011)

The medium arrives in Insidious

After Paranormal Activity, Insidious showed that Blumhouse’s model also works with physical supernatural horror. The concept came from James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the creative team behind the Saw. This time, torture and violence were out, and demonic possession was in.

The result is a trimmed-down masterclass in suspense that set a new franchise in motion and led to Wan’s Conjuring Universe over at New Line Cinema. The combined Insidious franchise has generated nearly $750 billion on a combined budget of less than $50 million.

Creep (2014)

Creep found footage movie from Blumhouse

Blumhouse didn’t stop exploring new ways to bring found footage horror to the screen with Paranormal Activity. In Creep, the twist is that the footage is filmed by a videographer hired to record a diary for a client who isn’t as eccentric as he is homicidal.

Packed with ambiguity about the reality of what we see, it's another mash-up from the production company that loves to fuse genres. The mix of found footage and home invasion horror has spawned one sequel, with more expected.

NEXT: Insidious, Paranormal Activity, & The Purge: Which Blumhouse Movie Series Is Best?