5 best horror films by Blumhouse: what to watch when you want to tickle your nerves
Since its founding in 2000, Blumhouse Productions has been considered an authority on horror films. Working with the most talented representatives of the genre, it has released at least 10 successful films in this genre.
The Game Rent website writes: "Its efficient low-budget model gives directors maximum creative freedom, which often leads to box office success." Thanks to this scheme, Blumhouse received a distribution deal with Universal Pictures and an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
Here are 5 best horror films by Blumhouse, according to Game Rent.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Paranormal Activity remains an example of what can be achieved with a small budget.
The found-footage genre was already known for its profitability, thanks to The Witch of Blair, but Paranormal Activity takes a new approach. Here, the cameras are suspended in the corners of a house that young couple Katie and Mick suspect is haunted by evil.
The terrifying story of the 21 nights spent by the couple, right up to the infamous final scene, spawned the company's first franchise, including sequels and prequels.
Despite the reshooted ending, which cost more than 10 times as much as the original shooting, the film remains one of Blumhouse's most profitable projects of all time.
Happy Death Day (2017)
Blumhouse played a significant role in honing the slasher genre after its heyday in the 1980s. Not only does Happy Death Day have a great title, but it also has a conceptual plot that turns the genre on its head. When Tree Galbman is murdered on her birthday, she wakes up again the day before and is doomed to endlessly relive the experience if she fails to find the killer.
The darkly humorous story from comic book author Scott Lobdell is literally littered with corpses and pokes fun at romantic comedies about school.
The Invisible Man (2020)
In the mid-2010s, Universal had ambitions to rejuvenate its classic horror franchise with a big-budget, star-studded shared universe to rival Marvel.
"The Dark Universe barely made it out of oblivion, but Blumhouse showed the studio how to effectively update classic horror.
Screenwriter Lay Wennell, one of the creators of Saw and Insidious, has combined horror and science fiction in this new version of H.G. Wells' 19th century tale. The smart thriller, which puts Elisabeth Moss at the center of advanced optical technology and the true horror of an abusive relationship, earned almost $145 million on a budget of $7 million.
The Black Phone (2021)
This supernatural thriller puts Ethan Hawke at the center of yet another high-concept horror movie, in the role of a deranged killer.
The film is set in the 1970s. Hawke's child abductor, Grubber, imprisons schoolboy Finney in a soundproof basement. However, Finney discovers that he can communicate with the killer's previous victims through a mysterious, switched-off black phone on the wall.
Scott Derrickson co-wrote and directed Black Phone, adapted from a story by Joe Hill, after he parted ways with Marvel over creative differences. The freedom provided by Blumhouse proved to be quite appealing, and the result earned praise for its depth and use of striking childlike imagery.
Halloween (2018)
The incredible box office success of John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween was the inspiration for Blumhouse's frugal approach to filmmaking. But when the production company decided to take on this project, the franchise already had a dozen films and their sequels.
It's a good thing that they weren't intimidated by this. The modern version of Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green, is a master class in stripping away everything superfluous, returning to the roots, and the impressive box office of a slasher.
