Blumhouse, the production company that’s become known for making big bets on lower-budget horror movies—like Paranormal Activity and The Purge—has been around since 2000. But in the past year, the company has laid the groundwork to put a monster (or serial killer or sentient AI doll) under every bed by becoming the preeminent brand in horror across several different media sectors, including TV, live events, and theme parks.
“People love scary stories in every format, from TV to movies to video games to live experiences,” says Blumhouse president Abhijay Prakash. “We are taking—or about to take—the brand to all those places.”
Part of the shift came last fall, ahead of the January premiere of M3gan. The marketing for the film—a campy blend of horror and humor, exemplified in a viral clip of its titular AI doll dancing menacingly down a hallway mid–killing spree—became ubiquitous on social media and propelled the $12 million film to a $176.8 million box-office haul.
“I couldn’t say that we calculated, ‘Okay, we’ll do the dance, and it’ll pierce the zeitgeist and become this viral thing,’ ” says Prakash, “but the character we created lent itself to amazing activations.” Blumhouse’s marketing campaign ultimately led to more organic opportunities: Fashion brand Marc Jacobs reached out to make M3gan a model for its Heaven fragrance alongside Paris Hilton, Ashanti, and Ashlee Simpson.
Beyond M3gan, Blumhouse is expanding the horror fan base with content on the big and small screens designed to appeal to different audiences. These efforts include an appeal to hard-core horror fans with the release of a new film in the Exorcist series and targeting gamers with a film version of the video-game franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s. The company’s small-screen series The Thing About Pam, based on real-life murders committed by Pam Hupp and released last year, was designed to appeal to true crime fans. “We’re looking at what horror can look like on TV—thrillers, true crime like our series The Jinx, all fall within the bounds of horror,” Prakash says.
The company is currently working on developing more horror-adjacent projects, including a Kay Scarpetta series based on the popular Patricia Cornwell books for Amazon in partnership with Academy Award–winner Jamie Lee Curtis (who anchored Blumhouse’s reboot of the Halloween franchise). It’s also trying to cultivate new and diverse voices in horror with its screenwriting fellowship, which launched this year. It’s an effort to better serve the company’s audience: Blumhouse properties over-index in appeal among non-white audiences.
With its TV and film strategy on lock, the company is now setting its sights on making more inroads in live events. Its horror-fan convention, BlumFest, is now in its fourth year, and Blumhouse has a presence at Universal Studios in its seasonal Halloween Horror Nights attraction (Blumhouse has a first-look production agreement with Universal). This year, an Exorcist-themed section, tied to the new movie’s release, will come to Universal, and the company has plans for more theme-park attractions in Las Vegas, as well as virtual experiences. “There’s a lot of breadth within the horror genre,” Prakash says. “It’s a bigger tent than a lot of folks think.”
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