Blumhousehas become an institution forhorrorfans since it was created in 2000. The company was founded by its namesake, Jason Blum, with a pretty simple business model. He wanted to make low-budgethorror filmscapable of turning massive profits. While the production company didn’t actually produce it’s first film until 2007’s Paranormal Activity, Blum’s plan proved a massive success as the found footage hit made $193 million on a $15,000 budget. Since then Blumhouse has produced a ton of great films with some of the most terrifying and memorable characters in horror.
The rest is horror history. Blum’s no-note approach, where Blumhouse gives near-total control to its directors, has also helped some of the most exciting young directors in Hollywood, likeJordan PeeleandJames Wan, develop their craft. It also allowed Blumhouse to appeal to existing hit directors like M. Night Shyamalan, who’s made three films with the company.
With over 20 years of films though, it’s not easy to choose which Blumhouse horrors you should re-watch or check out for the first time this Halloween. Luckily, I’ve seen just about every Blumhouse movie, and these are my picks for the best of the best duringspookyseason.
Jordan Peele’s directorial breakout hit
Jordan Peele’s breakout hit follows Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris as he visits his girlfriend’s parents for the first time.
It wasn’t that long ago that Jordan Peele was most well known for portraying Barack Obama on a Comedy Central sketch show, but his directorial debut, Get Out, turned him into one of Hollywood’s hottest auteurs.
The film tells the story of a black man, played by Daniel Kaluuya, visiting his white girlfriend’s family for the first time. While the family seems to be nice at first, he uncovers that they are hiding a horrifying secret in plain sight.
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2The Invisible Man
Gaslighting taken to the furthest possible extreme
The Invisible Man
Elizabeth Moss plays an abused wife who can’t find peace even after her abuser’s apparent death.
The Invisible Man is Blumhouse’s modern-day retelling of the classic horror story. It stars Elizabeth Moss as a woman who’s abusive partner suddenly dies, but all isn’t as it seems, as she begins to suspect he may still be around and tormenting her after all. Moss has recently stated that asequel to the filmis in the works.
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3Paranormal Activity
Never play with a Ouija board
Paranormal Activity
A couple document their own experience with the paranormal in this found footage classic.
25 years ago,Jason Blum passed over The Blair Witch Projectwhile working at Miramax. That film would go on to be one of the most successful film of all time when it comes to profitability, thanks to its bare-bones budget.
When Blum set out to start his own production company, he took direct inspiration from this smash-hit with his first film. On a shoestring budget of 15,000 dollars, he produced Paranormal Activity, a found footage horror film that documents a couple’s problems with a demonic spirit. The film would eventually go onto make almost $200 million at the box office, and set up Blumhouse to dominate horror movies for the next 18 years.
4Insidious
Patrick Wilson’s first leading horror role
A family is forced to face off with a demonic entity after their son falls into a mysterious coma.
Insidious stars the scream king Patrick Wilson, who’s made a living playing a middle-aged man tormented by spirits since the first Insidious hit theaters. He’s starred in four Insidious films including pulling double duty to direct the most recent sequel, Insidious: The Red Door. In addition to this series, he also stars as Ed Warren in The Conjuring series.
Insidious follows a family as they attempt to find the cause of the mysterious coma their son has fallen into, only to discover that he is being controlled by demonic spirits from a realm called the Further. Insidious was also directed by James Wan, who went on to create The Conjuring universe.
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One of Blumhouse’s most disturbing films
Ethan Hawke plays a true crime writer who discovers home videos of murdered families.
Ethan Hawke stars in this film as a true crime writer who discovers a cache of sinister home movies after moving into a new house. Each tape contains the brutal murder of a family that occurred years apart in the same home he now lives in. As he dives deeper into the videos, he discovers that the families on the tape seem to have been murdered by a supernatural entity known as Bughuul.
6The Purge
The Fast and Furious of horror movie franchises
A family try to survive the one night in America where all violent crime is legal.
The Purge franchise has now grown to five films and a TV series. All the sequels attempt to expand the world of The Purge in an attempt to explain how the United States arrived at the policy of an all-crime-is-legal national holiday. The original film is much more bare bones, centering around a single family trying to survive the purge.
It again stars Ethan Hawke, this time as a family man who helps design homes that help people ride out the annual purge. After the murder-spree starts, his home becomes the target of a group of people out looking to murder as many people as they can.
A paralyzed man gets an upgrade
A paralyzed man is offered a chip that will give him control of his limbs again, allowing him to seek revenge for his murdered wife.
Upgrade is a revenge tale with a sinister twist. It follows a man named Grey, who’s paralyzed in a mugging that also sees his wife murdered. After attempting to take his own life, he’s offered an experimental implant called Stem that will allow him to use his limbs again. Soon after he’s given the implant, Stem begins speaking to Grey, offering to help him find his wife’s killers.
A deaf woman has to fend off a home invader
A deaf woman is stalked by a masked home invader in this underrated film from Mike Flanagan.
Hush is one of the first films by director Mike Flanagan, who went on to create hits like Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, and Midnight Mass. Hush stars Flanagan’s wife Katie Seigel as a deaf woman who’s attacked by a home invader wearing a terrifying mask. Seigel also helped to write Hush along with Flanagan. Interestingly, the pair were married not long after the release of this movie.
9The Black Phone
Ethan Hawke stars as a terrifying killer
The Black Phone
A serial killer known as the Grabber abducts his next victim in this adaptation of the novel from Joe Hill.
The third Ethan Hawke-led film on this list sees him play the bad guy. Hawke plays a serial child murderer known as the Grabber. The Grabber abducts a boy named Finney and keeps him in a basement where he begins to speak with the killer’s other victims through a black phone. A sequel to the film is also currently in the works. Scott Derrickson directed this film as well as Sinister and the first Doctor Strange film.
10Night Swim
Stay out of the haunted pool
Night Swim
A family moves into a new home only to discover every prospective home owner’s nightmare – a haunted pool.
When I first saw the trailer for Night Swim, I was overwhelmed by what a stupid concept a haunted pool movie was. But, then I watched it, and it turned out it was one of my favorite horror movies of the past year. It stars Wyatt Russel as a family man who’s basically re-enacting the original Amityville Horror, but with a pool instead of a house.
