The latest upcoming horror movie to hit theaters is a new take on a genre classic from producers James Wan and Jason Blum called Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. And whether you’ve been to theaters to see it, or are summoning up the courage, you might be curious to know how the heck the production pulled off all that skin flaying! CinemaBlend had to find out.

When Eric Eisenberg sat down with Wan of Atomic Monster, Blum of Blumhouse Productions and Cronin, he asked about what the horrifying skin in the movie is actually made of. It made for a hilarious little moment. Check out the clip below:

When asked about the “actual material” used to make the audience believe some of the characters’ skin is not A-OK, at first, Cronin answered by saying it was “human skin” with a completely straight face before getting serious. Here’s what he had to say candidly about the process:

So, when you’re watching The Mummy, and you’re terrified by all the body horror stuff, perhaps this conversation can help ground things a bit. But, I’m going to be honest, I still think this movie is going to haunt you in all the right ways.

The first reactions to Lee Cronin’s The Mummy have incited all sorts of strong reactions for “not hold[ing] back”, having “ghoulish scares” and “without question, the most terrifying and disgusting Mummy movie you’ll ever see”. The movie earned a high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes of 78%, too.

The movie was thought up by Lee Cronin after someone asked him about when there was a “really, really terrifying” version of the story that’s typically been either a campy slasher or more of an action-adventure. You can check out the stress-inducing The Mummy trailer below:

The movie centers around a couple whose young daughter goes missing in the Egyptian desert. Eight years after her disappearance, she comes back into their lives when she is found mummified in a sarcophagus, yet somehow still alive. Her parents decide to move her back home, but it’s not long before she starts behaving erratically and horrors start occurring. It’s playing in theaters now. And, while you’re here, you can check out the same filmmakers that talked about the comeback of body horror here on CinemaBlend.

Those who've followed some of the most buzzworthy horror movies to be released as of late may have noticed that body horror has been back in a big way. And that trend continues with the latest title on the schedule of upcoming horror movies, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. If you’ve been wondering why the subgenre (which had its heyday in the 1980s) is back, know that CinemaBlend talked to horror Cronin and producer James Wan to get their thoughts about why grotesque body transformations are all the rage right now.

James Wan is easily one of the most prolific horror filmmakers to have worked in the past few decades. Throughout his career, Wan has worked in directorial and producing capacities for franchises like Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious and M3GAN. This new The Mummy movie honestly feels on brand for him in the best possible way. In terms of the resurgence of body horror, here's what Wan shared with CB:

As Wan explained, much like fashion, different sides of the horror genre cycle in and out of interest among filmmakers and the audiences who watch them over time. In the past few years, body horror initially seemed to gain traction through more niche titles like Swallow, Possessor and Titane. And then The Substance became a cultural touchstone when it earned mass praise and awards buzz, including earning five Oscar nominations. (The Demi Moore-led film ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.)

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy presents a lot of body-based scares and provides a off-kilter story as well. The film follows a family dealing with the fallout of their young daughter, Katie, going missing. Eight years after she mysteriously disappears in the Egyptian desert, she returns, but only after having been locked away in an ancient sarcophagi with 57 other individuals. The parents bring their child home to New Mexico but, as the film's trailer teases, it’s perhaps the most terrifying family reunion someone will ever have.

Cronin, who wrote and directed this new Mummy flick, found himself hooked into the project after being asked when there had ever been an adaptation of The Mummy that was “really, really terrifying.” During our interview, Cronin shared a thoughtful take on the reason for body horror's uptick in popularity:

The first reactions to Lee Cronin’s The Mummy have been quite visceral, with people using adjectives like "freaky" and "disgusting" to describe it. Of course, those sentiments were very much meant to be complimentary to the movie’s direction. This movie is definitely a far cry from Brendan Fraser's The Mummy franchise, which is getting a fourth installment. Still, horror hounds looking for body-based frights will surely want to see what Cronin's been cooking up.

Check Lee Cronin's The Mummy when it hits theaters this Friday, April 17. In the meantime, read up on other scary fare that's set to hit the 2026 movie schedule.

Jamie Lee Curtis has been synonymous with the Halloween movies for decades, but it turns out her return to Laurie Strode in the recent Blumhouse Halloween trilogy almost didn’t happen the way fans might think. When she first agreed to star in the 2018 requel, reboot, directed by David Gordon Green, she believed she was signing on for just one movie. Only later did she discover the project was actually planned as a full trilogy, which she was not pumped about. Still, she managed to turn that unexpected development into a big silver lining.

Taking some time off her busy 2026 movie schedule to speak at a SXSW panel (via Variety), Curtis reflected on how the new Halloween films came together and how producer Jason Blum helped revive the franchise. The actor made it clear she credits Blum with bringing the series back to life decades after the original. She explained:

The 2018 Halloween revival was a perfect example, costing around $10 million while eventually grossing more than $250 million worldwide. At the time the True Lies star signed on, however, she believed she was only committing to that single installment. While the film was still in post-production, she learned that the creative team had bigger plans for Laurie Strode’s return. Curtis continued:

The move secured the Everything Everywhere All at Once star a development deal with Blumhouse, allowing her to bring future projects to the studio through her company, Comet Pictures. One of the early projects tied to that deal involved filmmaker Russell Goldman, who had been working with Curtis on her first directing gig, the film Mother Nature. Goldman now works in development for Comet Pictures and recently premiered his feature directorial debut, Sender, at SXSW. According to her, seeing the Comet Pictures logo on the big screen during that premiere was a milestone moment for her as a producer.

Curtis also joked during the panel that Blum may have initially viewed the arrangement as more of a “vanity deal.” Instead, she quickly began bringing him a steady stream of project ideas. One of those came after she heard an NPR story about a school bus driver and teacher who saved 22 children during a devastating wildfire. She was immediately drawn to the story and ultimately helped bring it to the screen as the intense film The Lost Bus, streaming with an Apple TV subscription and starring Matthew McConaughey. While the movie flew somewhat under the radar with audiences, it still earned recognition, landing a Best Visual Effects nomination at the 2026 Oscars.

While Jamie Lee Curtis was not pumped to be signing on to three Halloween movies, what started as a surprise franchise commitment ended up helping her expand her producing career. Considering how successful Blumhouse’s Halloween trilogy ultimately became, despite its less-than-stellar critical response, it seems the arrangement worked out pretty well for everyone involved.

Jason Blum gets it right a lot of the time. The Blumhouse CEO is responsible for producing some of the most iconic horror franchises, like The Purge, Halloween, and Paranormal Activity among others. While the studio has become synonymous with horror films, the producer has his hands in other ventures as well, like Whiplash, Blackkklansman, and Kicking and Screaming. While the master-producer may seem to have a finger on the pulse of mass entertainment, he’s had some misses as well, and is now opening up about some failures that still haunt him.

In an interview with Variety, the studio head honcho talked about what has made Blumhouse so profitable and made people so excited for upcoming Blumhouse flicks. While theatrical releases have been unpredictable for many studios, Blumhouse’s low-budget horror flicks continue to attract an audience. Even with successes, Jason Blum continues to think about some the misses, including two glaring ones. He said:

That's a harsh reality of this business, tha's for sure. And while addressing that, Blum went into detail about what exactly happened with these two movies, explaining:

Jem and the Holograms had a lot going for it. It was the inspiring story about a talented shy teenager who forms a girl group with some of her friends that slowly rises to success. It was written and directed by Jon M. Chu, who was coming off the success of a handful of music-based films, and was also produced by music business titans like Scooter Braun.

However, Jem and the Holograms ended up being a financial failure and was panned by critics. It performed so terribly that the movie started being pulled from theaters. Even with the talent behind it, it never seemed to rise above a mediocre storyline, and the lack of star power involved likely prevented the film from being a commercial success. While it felt like it'd work on paper, it didn't work in theaters, which still haunts Blum.

The Hunt, however, felt like a more circumstantial failure. The film followed a group of wealthy elites who kidnap lower-class individuals to hunt them for sport. It was deliberately a political film, and meant to be a satire.

The movie was originally set for a 2019 release, but the studio decided to delay The Hunt to March 2020 as the release date corresponded with mass shootings in America and the timing would’ve been in poor taste. When it was eventually released, it was during the height of the pandemic, when movie theaters were struggling and political tensions were high. As a result, the film flew under the radar and failed at the box office.

In the sea of so many successes for Blum, these two films seem to still be a sore spot for the producer. They clearly are outliers, and not representative at all of Blum’s talent for selecting great projects that are commercially successful and producing prowess.

This goes to show that even the most accomplished individuals can still get it wrong sometimes, and it’s most understandably frustrating when these losses are out of creative control of the team involved. Even if these misses personally haunt Blum, they haven’t hurt his reputation, as he continues to be one of the most in-demand and successful movie producers of the modern era.

You can revisit The Hunt for yourself now, as the film is currently streaming with a Peacock subscription. You can also check out Jem and the Holograms, which is available to rent on Amazon. Additionally, horror fans can look forward to Jason Blum’s upcoming horror movie producing feat, The Black Phone 2, which hits theaters on October 17th, 2025.

Jason Blum has seen more horror cycles than most people have seen horror movies. As the founder of Blumhouse Productions, the Fear Factory boss has built an empire on low-budget scares that pay off big. But after a rough year of box office misses and increased competition from high-priced auteur horror films like the 2025 movie releases, Weapons and Sinners, the veteran producer is once again confronting an old question: Are there too many upcoming horror movies? His answer, like most things Blum says, was blunt, but still, I didn’t expect this response.

In a new Variety profile celebrating Blumhouse’s 15th anniversary, the producer admitted that, yes, horror may have reached a boiling point this year, but insisted that the industry’s ups and downs are just part of the cycle. On people saying horror is oversaturated, the producer said:

Now that quote is pure Jason Blum. Little chaotic, but true. He’s describing a Hollywood that can’t help but binge on whatever’s hot until it crashes, but ultimately, much like the actor recently did, it shows back up ready to do it all over again. Horror, more than any other genre, lives and dies by excess.

That excess may have finally caught up with the genre’s reigning king. Blumhouse has weathered a string of critical and box office disappointments, starting in 2024 with Night Swim and Imaginary, and continuing through 2025 with The Wolfman, The Woman in the Yard, Drop, and the underwhelming M3GAN 2.0. Meanwhile, some of the most acclaimed genre releases this year, like Ryan Coogler's Sinners and Zach Cregger's Weapons have scored massive wins with higher budgets and arguably riskier creative swings.

To make matters worse, Blum also lost a high-profile bidding war to A24 for the rights to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, admittedly, a painful setback for a producer whose legacy was built on resurrecting fading franchises. Still, the man who redefined modern horror doesn’t seem particularly shaken.

Blum told the outlet that these market swings are inevitable and survivable. He’s seen the genre crash and rebound too many times to panic now. And while this year’s results may look grim, not everything is doom and gloom. His sister company, Atomic Monster, continues to thrive. As the genre’s reigning mogul explained, the formula that continues to work is simple:

History backs up the scary movie powerhouse here. The post-Paranormal Activity boom led to the Conjuring era, which in turn influenced Get Out and the prestige-horror wave, paving the way for M3GAN and now Sinners. Each cycle burns hot, crashes hard, and rises again. The genre doesn’t die, but regenerates.

Jason Blum isn’t digging a grave for his company just yet. As the horror hitmaker himself put it, the horror genre “is like Charlie Sheen,” and if I were a betting man, my money would be on the horror mogul making one hell of a comeback. That comeback could arrive much sooner rather than later, with The Black Phone 2 and the highly anticipated Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 both on Blumhouse’s upcoming slate.

To adapt an old saying into modern times, victory has many parents, while failure is an orphan. Operating under that analogy, one could say that Blumhouse producer Jason Blum has become a father to four 2025 movie schedule flops. That’s because rather than shying away from M3GAN 2.0's box office stumble, he went into painstaking detail about what he thinks went wrong, as only he could.

Jason Blum Got Honest About Why He Had To Talk About The Blumhouse Slump

Surprisingly, Blum called the host of The Town with Matthew Belloni to set up the interview that allowed him to do just that. Welcomed by the veteran journalist and founding partner of Puck, the producer of Paranormal Activity and Sinister made his case for doing so, with these blunt remarks:

Going on to talk about how many Hollywood movers and shakers only share their lessons from failure when the next success comes around, Jason Blum opted to own up “right in the middle of the pain.” Which, to be fair, he admits he’s allowed to do thanks to Blumhouse not being a publicly traded company.

Now, the explanation for why this conversation took place is just as refreshing as the extensive post-mortem Blum engaged in.

M3GAN 2.0’s Failure Came Down To Three Things, According To Jason Blum

While the conversation that followed applies to the recent flameout of M3GAN 2.0, it can be applied to Wolf Man, The Woman in the Yard, and Drop as well. So far, this year’s Blumhouse releases have left the production house without a #1 hit, forming the “slump” that seems to be in play.

In the process of owning M3GAN 2.0’s underwhelming $10.2 million domestic opening, Jason Blum isolated the blame game with these caveats:

The three key failures of this Blumhouse horror movie were, in Mr. Blum’s opinion, genre swapping, acting like a summer tentpole, and execution. That last part comes with the caveat that while series director Gerard Johnstone can “solve almost anything you can throw at him,” he needs the time to do it.

To the director's credit, Johnstone's genre-hopping explanation in his interview with CinemaBlend's Sarah El-Mahmoud may have helped offset that factor. Alas, the lack of time, plus an ineffective push for the same social media glory M3GAN won in 2022, only contributed to this perfect storm of imperfection.

Jason Blum Thinks Horror Needs To Go Bigger To Survive

This year is one of the most ambitious frames on the books for Blumhouse, with eight pictures in total on the docket. The good news going forward is that Jason Blum still has a lot of confidence for the upcoming Blumhouse movies heading our way, which includes The Black Phone 2 and the hotly hyped Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Such optimism comes from his observation that while Blumhouse may not be having a good year, horror has seen glorious hits like Sinners, Final Destination Bloodlines, and 28 Years Later. Taking that inspiration, the Insidious franchise producer offered this important piece of strategy:

For Jason Blum, the pre-COVID days of numerous horror movies being able to compete are gone, with an uncertainty toward whether or not they’ll return. Which, in turn, may be setting off alarm bells for how the upcoming M3GAN spin-off SOULM8TE should be handled. Not everyone will agree with what he’s had to say, as is the law of the land for any sort of business analysis.

Keeping that in mind, it shouldn’t be a stretch for people to agree that calling out his own mistake is a bold move that shows growth. Here’s hoping that growth somehow finds its way to M3GAN 2.0’s box office fortunes, as the film enters its second weekend in theaters.

Even the most steady creative talents have something they feel they must apologize for in their careers. That’s still true on the 2025 movie schedule, as a recent event had The Life of Chuck adaptor Mike Flanagan issuing his own apology to Blumhouse mastermind Jason Blum. And as it turns out, this story comes from an unexpected project: Flanagan’s 2016 prequel Ouija: Origin of Evil.

I say that this is unexpected because while most see the follow-up to 2014’s Ouija as a marked improvement, there was one key category the picture failed to capture. Speaking at an event at the newly christened SXSW London festival (via Variety), Mike Flanagan explained this slightly shocking mea culpa thusly:

I get that financials can be quite a touchy subject when it comes to potential franchises. Seeing as director/co-writer Stiles White’s Ouija made $103.6 million worldwide, comparing that figure to its prequel’s $81.7 million showing does seem a bit unfavorable.

But even with a slightly increased production budget cited for the second film, Mike Flanagan’s apology still seems a bit out of left field. As our own Eric Eisenberg’s Ouija: Origin of Evil review described the picture as fitting into a pattern of “great sequels to critically-reviled originals,” it's hard to look at a movie that achieves that feat as something inferior.

So while there was a slight dip in the money that came into the till, the reactions from critics and audiences could have been enough to take another spin with the planchette. (Especially after Origin of Evil's dark ending left the door open.) With this second Ouija entry on offer for those with a Netflix subscription, the fanbase for this picture might even be growing stronger at this very moment.

Of course, if this happened to take place without the Doctor Sleep helmer in the driver’s seat, that goodwill could have still evaporated. Which means that even if a hypothetical Ouija 3 flamed out without his involvement, the good-natured Mike Flanagan would have probably apologized anyway.

That just shows you how subjective apologies can be, and clearly Jason Blum isn’t sweating Ouija’s failure to launch a new franchise. If he were truly upset, he probably wouldn’t have tapped Mike Flanagan to take over the new Exorcist reboot, which follows the pretty huge flameout that was The Exorcist: Believer. Seeing as how that movie killed an actual planned trilogy, Origin of Evil practically feels like a “no harm/no foul” scenario.

Those of you looking to let that Flanagan magic wash over you should head to the movies this weekend. At least, that’s if you trust Stephen King’s review of The Life of Chuck, which is heading into wide release this weekend. Now there’s a situation where an apology couldn’t be further from the table.

When it comes to popular video game franchises, Five Nights at Freddy’s has ranked pretty high on that list for over a decade now. In 2023, the property got the film adaptation treatment, and following the Five Night’s at Freddy’s movie’s commercial success, a sequel was greenlit for the 2025 movies schedule. We’re more than half a year away from Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’s arrival, but Jason Blum addressed a big elephant in the room concerning the upcoming video game movie while appearing at CinemaCon’s Universal Pictures and Focus Features panel. This update also came as the first look at the sequel was released.

Let’s get to Blum’s comment first. You may recall that Five Nights at Freddy’s was a day and day release, meaning that on the same day it opening in theaters, it also became available to stream with a Peacock subscription. Well, while appearing on stage dressed as Freddy himself, the Blumhouse Studios head announced that this won’t be happening with this upcoming horror movie, saying:

So for those who want to see Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 as soon as possible, you’ll need to go to your theater starting on December 5. While the sequel will hit Peacock eventually, you won’t be able to access it on the platform right off the bat like last time. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 currently doesn’t have any opening weekend competition on its December 5 date, but it does come out a week after Zootopia 2 and a week ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Like I already mentioned, Five Nights at Freddy’s didn’t struggle at the box office, as it made nearly $300 million worldwide off a reported $20 million budget. But just imagine how much bigger that amount would have been if the movie had started out playing exclusively in theaters. If Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 performs similar to its predecessor, there’s a good chance its box office haul could far surpass $300 million.

As for what Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has in store this December, get us a taste of what’s to come in the teaser below:

Whereas the first movie showed the possessed animatronics murdering inside Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, the sequel will see these monstrosities going out into the world to wreak havoc. Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio and Matthew Lillard reprise their roles in Five Night’s at Freddy’s 2. Emma Tammi resumed her directorial duties and also re-teamed with Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback to write the script.

Once again, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 opens exclusively in theaters on December 5. Count on CinemaBlend to share how it did on opening weekend. Because who knows, if it exceeds expectations in just a matter of days, Universal and Blumhouse might greenlight Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 quickly.

January is frequently a month when studios release movies that they’re less confident in from a box office perspective. That being said, the lack of stiff competition can often mean that a movie or two can become significant box office hits in January. Unfortunately, the 2025 movie schedule has been off to a slow start, as movies like Blumhouse’s Wolf Man failed to make a strong showing. Jason Blum is apparently a bit frustrated about that, though he’s trying not to let it show.

A few days ago Jason Blum apparently tweeted about Wolf Man’s box office returns which have totaled less than $30 million globally. The post included an image of an angry face, indicating he was annoyed by the totals. He quickly deleted the tweet, but as the internet is forever, others got screenshots and retweeted the post.

It could be considered is a little weird that Jason Blum reportedly posted that. We don’t normally see studio heads even talk about their films that aren’t performing well at the box office. Movies that hit big are celebrated, those that don’t are simply ignored. It’s the nature of the industry; not every movie is a winner. And only time will tell if Wolf Man ends up being one of the best horror movies of the year.

Responses to the original post are varied. Some consider Blum’s honesty a little refreshing. It’s not exactly a shock to hear that Jason Blum is unhappy with the response to Wolf Man and posting about the things that annoy us is one of the primary uses of social media.

At the same time, it’s suggested by some that Blum bringing attention to Wolf Man’s disappointing box office is disrespectful to all those people who made the movie. Certainly, a lot of people worked hard to try and make Wolf Man a success and they’re likely already frustrated enough that the movie hasn’t found an audience. Blum must have thought better of the post after putting it up, perhaps for this exact reason, as he deleted it shortly after.

Expectations for Wolf Man were likely significantly higher, at least at the outset. The movie was the second time that writer/director Leigh Whannell had been handed a classic Universal Monster to reimagine. 2020’s The Invisible Man movie was a huge hit, grossing nearly $150 million on a $7 million budget.

By comparison, Wolf Man reportedly cost about $25 million to produce. This means, that after marketing and distribution costs are factored in, the film likely hasn’t made back its initial investment and it will be lucky if it breaks even.

There’s still an opportunity for Wolf Man to find its audience. It will see Digital and Blu-ray releases and it certainly wouldn’t be the first movie to flop in theaters to become a hit on streaming platforms. Still, maybe it’s best if we don’t draw too much attention to the box office right now.

When it comes to upcoming horror movies, we’re about to see a ton of classic movie monsters return to the fold. From Nosferatu hitting theaters on Christmas to Universal’s new Wolf Man movie, there’s a lot to look forward to. But now it’s also been announced that another Mummy movie is on the way in 2026, and I can’t stop thinking about the Brendan Fraser movies.

Blumhouse Is Making A New The Mummy Movie

Lee Cronin, who previously did 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, is behind the next Mummy movie, per an announcement from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, which are producing it. It has an April 17, 2026 release date, and Cronin had this to say about the project:

Cronin is penning the script for the new Mummy movie, as well as directing. He’ll have James Wan of The Conjuring movies and Jason Blum on his side as producers, along with his Evil Dead Rise producer John Keville. Other than that, we just have this Instagram teaser:

I think it’s safe to say that the next The Mummy movie is going full horror. While the property has been around way longer than when Brendan Fraser gave off big movie star energy in the 1999 movie, that’s the next movie from the franchise I want instead.

I Think The Next Great Mummy Movie Needs Brendan Fraser

The Mummy movies go way back, from the 1932 Boris Karloff version to the 1959 one with Christopher Lee. Aside from The Mummy trilogy, there’s also the awful 2017 reboot with Tom Cruise that was supposed to help set up the Dark Universe. While I totally get that Hollywood feels that it needs to give the property another try, I would much rather see Brendan Fraser back as Rick O’Connell having a blast in a tomb somewhere than see a generic horror movie about a buried corpse from Egypt coming to life... again.

Over the years, Brendan Fraser has shared his interest in doing another movie from the franchise, and as fans, we’ve been hoping to see a fourth movie in the franchise resurrected. Here are Fraser’s latest comments about being in another sequel for The Mummy from 2023:

Of course, Fraser at the time was speaking from the standpoint of someone who’s surely been asked this for many years and has yet to see a script to show for it. The 2017 reboot really showed what not to do with the franchise (as director of the 1999 Stephen Sommers said he was even insulted by the remake). Blumhouse's reputation with horror lately has been up and down, so while they could strike gold, I know what I'd prefer.

I think the sooner Hollywood realizes that The Mummy’s legend status currently comes from Brendan Fraser, the sooner they’ll have another hit from the franchise. But hey, maybe I’m totally wrong and Lee Cronin’s version will be amazing! We’ll keep you updated here on CinemaBlend.

This weekend, the latest of upcoming horror movies is here with Blumhouse’s Imaginary. The movie centers on an evil teddy bear named Chauncey who terrorizes a young child who latches on to him as her new best friend after she finds him in her family’s new residence. But where did the idea for Chauncey the Bear first hit its writers? When CinemaBlend spoke to co-writer/director Jeff Wadlow (alongside producer Jason Blum) about the making of the movie, he shared the killer teddy’s origins. 

When I sat down with the Imaginary filmmakers, I was curious if the movie’s dangerous imaginary friend was ever any different than the unsettling teddy we see in the new release. Especially since “imaginary” could theoretically encompass pretty much anything. Here’s what Wadlow shared: 

Hey, sometimes it’s not that deep. Per the co-writer and director of Imaginary, it was always going to be a teddy bear from the get-go, which makes a lot of sense considering it's the most classic of stuffed animals. And in terms of the character’s unique name, it sounds like it came from a random strike of genius from one of his other collaborators. 

While we’ll keep the origins of Chauncey in the context of the movie underwraps for the time being, so you have a chance to experience it yourself in theaters, Wadlow also spoke with us about how Chauncey as a character changed during the development of Imaginary. Here’s what he had to say: 

As Wadlow shared, Imaginary ultimately became more of a mix of psychological horror and horror fantasy in its theatrical release, rather than stepping on the bloody legacy of Chucky. While Chauncey gets to carve his own path away from other horror films like it, oddly enough it’s not the only imaginary friend film among 2024 movies. John Krasinski has also directed a family-friendly movie called IF that stars the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Steve Carell. 

With Chauncey now haunting theaters everywhere, you can check out what critics are saying about it, including through CinemaBlend’s Imaginary review. You can also learn about how the cast felt about working with a killer teddy on set while we’re on the subject. 

Every once in a while, a funny thing happens in Hollywood where comparable movies hit the big screen in the same year. Remember when Antz and A Bug’s Life both came out in 1998? Or how about when The Illusionist and The Prestige were part of 2006’s slate? And one cannot forget that time when Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War both pitted major heroes against each other in 2016. This year, history is repeating itself when it comes to imaginary friend movies between Blumhouse’s Imaginary and Paramount’s IF. 

With Imaginary up first among them in the 2024 movie release schedule, CinemaBlend spoke to producer Jason Blum and director Jeff Wadlow about the coincidence. Here’s what Wadlow shared about the fascinating phenomenon: 

Imaginary is among the upcoming horror movies, as it tells the story of a former imaginary friend that reemerges from the childhood home of DeWanda Wise’s Jessica when she moves back there with her husband and stepchildren. On the other hand, John Krasinski is the director behind a family-oriented fantasy about a young girl who goes on an adventure to reconnect forgotten imaginary friends “IFs.” Here’s how Imaginary’s producer Jason Blum responded: 

While it’s rather wild that there are two movies in the same year about imaginary friends, especially since we could count on one hand movies about the subject in the past, as Blum shared, they are not the same movie by any means. He explained that he ran into the IF director recently and felt that John Krasinski was “a little standoffish” with him. Of course, sometimes these things just happen, and both filmmakers must know this is likely just a massive coincidence! Wadlow also said this: 

Time will tell how the pair of imaginary friends movies stack up! This weekend, Imaginary will open next to Kung Fu Panda 4 and the second weekend of Dune: Part 2, which had a massive debut this past weekend. You can compare and contrast the Blumhouse horror movie by watching IF’s Super Bowl trailer below: 

IF has a stacked cast list that includes Ryan Reynolds, Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw. While Imaginary hits theaters this weekend, IF will come out on May 17. 

For all that Jason Voorhees is a scary movie icon who strikes fear (and machetes) in the hearts of his victims, Friday the 13th’s lawsuits and legal troubles over the years have been as much a horror as anything else about the franchise. Thankfully, TV fans will be taking a trip to Crystal Lake with Bryan Fuller and Peacock, and now Jason Blum is back in the conversation, and he has one of the best ideas possible for which director should spearhead the next big screen feature if his production company ever lands the rights.

Seeing as how Friday the 13th is one of the best horror movies of all-time, the next effort should have someone equally noteworthy behind the camera. Speaking with Collider about his ongoing hopes for Blumhouse Productions to acquire rights to the slasher classic, he suggested one of the genre’s current hitmakers would be perfect for it. In Blum’s words:

Oh man, oh man, oh man. The idea of having James Wan in the driver’s seat for a Friday the 13th movie seems like a legitimate match made in viscera-soaked heaven. And one doesn’t even need to be a super-fan of either Wan’s entire filmography or all of the Friday sequels to grasp how sweet this could be. 

One of the biggest issues in the world of horror, whether it’s reboots or wholly original projects, is that projects rarely get sizable budgets, and much of the money that does get spent goes to securing rights and marketing, with the cast and special effects also taking a chunk of the dough. And when all of that comes into play, there’s rarely enough left over to land top-notch filmmakers to get behind the camera, with plenty of promising horror movies being helmed by first- or second-time directors that don’t necessarily have a “vision” yet.

But James Wan rather quickly established himself as someone with the skills to bring a variety of genre tales to life, from Saw’s slasher vibes to Insidious and The Conjuring’s supernatural scares to Malignant’s slow-burn approach. And his work with the Aquaman films and Fast X proved he can still deliver even when the budgets are huge. 

Blumhouse is in the process of promoting Jeff Wadlow’s upcoming horror movie Imaginary, and is still riding the waves of success of Five Nights at Freddy’s (and Night Swim more recently, to a lesser extent). Meanwhile, James Wan is coming off of the highly erratic production and release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which fizzled at the box office in light of James Gunn and Peter Sarafan’s rebooted DCU. But that was outside of his impact, so it likely won't dissuade fans from watching everything else he does in the future. And if that "everything" includes resurrecting Jason Voorhees in theaters, he'll earn every Camp Crystal Lake badge possible.

Though nothing is actually moving forward with a new Friday the 13th movie just yet, it's only a matter of time before it happens. Until then, remember to hug your mother.

The Spawn reboot has been in the developmental hell for years. The film has gone through several writers and directors, including creator Todd McFarlane since it was announced. Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner have been consistent mainstays for the superhero reboot. As the reboot inches closer to production, Blumhouse honcho Jason Blum has teased what the horror-centric studio will bring to the remake.  

The horror-focused studio might be the best fit for the superhero remake given the source’s graphic and supernatural nature. So, of course, Blum wants to bring out the horror factor in the underworld-centric comic. After the upcoming film underwent a massive rewrite, the horror film producer explained to ScreenRant how the genre would influence the Spawn reboot, saying:

If you watched the original HBO animated series, it sounds like Blumhouse will amp up the gore, frights, and psychological mind games fans love. Of course, avid fans loved the style and vibe of the original Spawn, but some fans felt it didn’t tap into the horror enough. The 1997 film ended up being a critical and commercial disappointment during its original run. It later found cult status through video rentals and TV viewings. Now it appears the demonic remake will hit on every angle that made the comic book a cultural phenomenon.

As mentioned earlier, the superhero reboot has gone through several turnovers. Todd McFarlane was attached to write and direct a small-budget remake of the 1997 cult classic early in the film’s development. After McFarlane completed the script in 2016, Broken City scribe Biran Tucker was hired in 2021 to draft a new script under Blumhouse’s leadership with McFarlane reportedly still directing the film. However, the film faced other behind-the-scenes changes as it was announced rising Hollywood writer Matt Mixon was teaming up with superhero film vets Scott Silver and Malcolm Spellman to rewrite Tucker’s script. They were reportedly close to finishing the new screenplay before the WGA strike began. It is unclear if McFarlane will still direct the revival. The Spawn creator hinted he might relinquish the director’s chair to the new team in a recent update. It appears that the comics artist will remain with the production in some capacity if he doesn’t helm the film.

News on the upcoming film is good so far, but there might be two factors holding it back. The project won’t be able to film until the SAG-AFTRA strike is over unless everyone involved gets an interim agreement. So the writing team might be back to craft the script after the writers’ strike ends, but actors aren’t available to work yet.

The other stumbling block might be relate to stars Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner. Both Hollywood A-listers have faced health issues since their involvement was announced in 2018. Foxx suffered a still-unknown medical crisis earlier this year. He’s only made a few public appearances since then, including returning a fan’s lost bag. Renner has laid low as well since suffering a traumatic snowplow accident earlier this year. He has kept fans updated online by posting jokes and adorable photos on social media. He even showed Foxx some love after the latter gave a positive recovery update.

So, time will tell when the Spawn reboot finally starts filming and whether Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner are still attached. Both actors also have busy film slates in the coming years. In the meantime, check out the original Spawn through an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Come back to CinemaBlend for more updates on the new Blumhouse version.

As we’re entering the month of October, that means we have a lot of upcoming movies to get chills from. One soon-to-be-released horror film that’s showing a lot of promise is Blumhouse Production’s The Exorcist: Believer which includes one original star, Ellen Burstyn, returning as Chris MacNeil to save two girls who suffered the same fate as her daughter. The film’s co-producer Jason Blum talks about The Exorcist actress returning for the new trilogy and his embarrassing antic when they first met.

The Exorcist is known as one of the best horror movies and offered disturbing moments at every turn that kept you up at night. The Exorcist: Believer was inspired by David Gordon Green’s Halloween Trilogy seeing fans loving the return of Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis. Green decided to repeat the re-emergence of a horror icon by having Ellen Burstyn come back as Chris MacNeil. Co-producer Jason Blum talked all about that experience with EW and what Burstyn did differently than Curtis.

Ellen Burstyn clearly has that natural presence on a film set. It makes sense since the veteran actress has graced herself on film sets ever since her film debut in 1971’s The Last Picture Show. So the question would have been if she was willing to revisit one of her most iconic movies after her history of turning down Exorcist sequel offers. The surprising and awesome reason she said yes to the upcoming Exorcist trilogy was for the promise of a scholarship program to be brought in for Masters students at Pace University, whom she collaborates with as co-president of the Actors Studio. The deal ended up working really well for the Oscar winner and Blumhouse Productions. She got her scholarship program and Blumhouse got the “Triple Crown of Acting” performer to wow us once again for their new trilogy series.

It can be incredibly intimidating knowing you’re about to meet the woman who first brought Chris MacNeil to life only to see her revive that character before your eyes. Jason Blum continued to talk about a hilarious way he was trying to impress the award-winning actress.

Well, that’s one way to show you’re a fan. Now, I'm curious what those Exorcist-themed Vans shoes look like. Ellen Burstyn seems to feel her return to the horror franchise was the right call for her as she said in a behind-the-scenes sneak peek with EW that she believes audiences “will get their money's worth with this one.” Based on the film’s terrorizing trailer, it appears to be a nod to the original, where the upcoming horror film doesn’t hold back on the unsettling and downright creepy exorcism scenes. 

But, there are some key differences in The Exorcist: Believer with the stakes being higher in two girls being possessed and a new demon being introduced called Lamashtu. This makes me wonder if this new demon will be the same or grimier than The Exorcist’s Pazuzu. Deadline predicts Believer will open at $30 million with the same opening as 2022’s Scream. We shall see this weekend if Burstyn’s instincts prove to be correct.

If Jamie Lee Curtis’ return worked out well for the Halloween trilogy, I have no doubts that Ellen Burstyn’s comeback as Chris MacNeil will bring in the same results. If you can find them as Jason Blum did, wear your Exorcist Van sneakers and see The Exorcist: Believer in theaters this Friday. You can also find this horror flick on your Peacock subscription once the theatrical window closes.

Barbenheimer was good for some serious box office cash and seeing the two movies go head-to-head was enough that some people have tried to make this weekend’s Saw Patrol (aka Saw X and Paw Patrol) a thing, but ExorSwift will not be happening. That’s because following the surprise announcement that a Taylor Swift concert movie was set to hit theaters the same day as The Exorcist: Believer, Blumhouse moved its movie, and studio head Jason Blum isn’t even pretending he did for any other reason.

Speaking with EW, Jason Blum freely admits that when facing the choice of joining Taylor Swift on opening weekend or letting her have it, he gave in. While Blum himself at first promoted the whole ExorSwift idea, he says it was simply too big a risk. And since Taylor’s movie and Exorcist will still be sharing theaters when the horror film does debut, anybody who really wanted to make that double feature happen still can. He explained…  

Generally speaking, we simply don't see more than one major film release on the same weekend anymore. Studios all consider competition a difficult thing to deal with and so studios end up staking out release dates years in advance if only to be sure that they can grab a date nobody else has. On the rare occasion that we see two movies hitting on the same date, the one that sees itself as the smaller film usually moves on.

And that’s what happened here. Taylor Swift is the biggest star in the world and there was never any doubt that The Eras Tour film was going to do big business. But The Exorcist: Believer likely appeals to a different audience, so like Barbie and Oppenheimer before it, it might succeed in its own right on the same weekend. If that didn’t work out it would likely mean millions in lost box office for Exorcist. Blumhouse is no stranger to scary prospects but Jason Blum says that competing with Taylor Swift is about as scary as it gets for him, he admits… 

From a business standpoint, you simply can’t take Taylor for granted. She’s just too powerful. As an actress Taylor Swift is only just getting started but that doesn't mean she can't take over movie theaters with her music. This is already poised to be one of the biggest concert films ever released and any demon would be smart to be scared of that.

Today has been the day for Jason Blum to provide the best and sassy responses on Twitter. As news of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert movie announced the film was going to compete with The Exorcist: Believer, Blum coined what could have been a new double feature along the same lines as Barbenheimer. While that potential combo will still be possible, director David Gordon Green’s legacy-quel has now moved up on the 2023 movie release schedule. Naturally, the Blumhouse impresario had yet another quippy comment up his clever sleeve. 

Earlier today, Jason Blum was all about #Exorswift when finding out that this cultural juggernaut of the moment is now heading to a theater near you. To be fair, there could be an overlap between people who are interested in drama of demonic possession and the discography of Taylor Swift. Admittedly though, that doesn't feel like an often mined market of interest.

Stranger things have certainly happened, but just in case, The Exorcist: Believer will now be debuting a week earlier, moving from October 13th to the 6th. This was announced by Jason Blum on social medial through this Taylor-centric message: 

To be fair, it’s probably for the best that The Exorcist legacy-quel moves out of the way of this Eras Tour event. Even Jason Blum understands this, as he used not only Swift’s own lyrics, but also the hashtag #TaylorWins as the ultimate concession speech. Let’s be honest, with people being encouraged to basically treat the cinematic version of Taylor Swift’s latest tour as an actual concert, the distance between these two movies is an even better move.

Just picture it: moments of quiet religious terror like the stuff we’ve seen in The Exorcist: Believer’s trailer unfolding next to a rowdy pop concert experience. That could cause some unintended jump scares, which would keep the audience off guard. Ideally, that’s not how horror fans are going to want to encounter their first experience with this long-awaited continuation of a horror classic.

Though if we can circle back to the potential overlap between these markets, it might be a good idea for Jason Blum to scoop up the trademark for “Exorswift” as soon as possible. Just as Full Moon Studios is making an actual Barbenheimer film, a horror-comedy where pop fans are trying to fend off a demon accidentally summoned at a major concert event could be an idea worth exploring. 

Or, if we really want to have fun, perhaps Blum can make a deal with Ms. Swift to secure some unreleased tunes to be included in M3GAN 2.0. The possibilities are endless, and even Taylor Swift would probably get a kick out of another cultural icon using her music to great effect in a horror-comedy. As we've seen earlier this year, strange combinations can lead to some pretty impressive results; and there's still time to turn into this storm.

Once again, The Exorcist: Believer will now be opening on October 6th, with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert film beginning its theatrical run on October 13th. Exorswifties, you may want to get your tickets now, as this new double feature is undoubtedly going to be as difficult to plan as Barbenheimer.

Horror has many masters. Mainly because there are several different types of horror, most of which are showcased on our list of the 30 best horror movies of all time. But James Wan and Jason Blum have been driving the car for horror fans for years now, collaborating together on the Insidious and Conjuring franchises, as well as cult masterpieces like Malignant. However, Wan has also transitioned over to superhero work, thanks to directing Aquaman and the upcoming DC movie Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. But he and Blum say that DC planning is nothing like horror planning. 

There’s a reason for that. The DC movies, and superhero films in general, come with an incredibly healthy budget. And horror films generally do not. This is how Blumhouse wins. They keep their costs down, and their profits high. So when I asked the duo, with Insidious: The Red Door hitting theaters, if they ever sat down to map out the timeline of Insidious stories, Jason Blum told me:

Which makes perfect sense. Concentrate on the movie that you are making, and make it as flawless as you can. If the audience responds, then start to think about taking them on the next step of the journey. However, as James Wan goes on to explain, there’s different pressure in the comic book world. A storyteller always has to be looking ahead. As Wan explains it to us:

Which is why I think James Wan has successfully transitioned from horror to superhero blockbusters. Because he does think about that bigger picture, and the larger world that is being created in something like Aquaman. Someone needs to explain this to Jason Momoa. Apparently he’s still baffled by Aquaman’s success, but he’ll be bracing for a fresh wave of popularity when his and James Wan’s sequel reaches theaters later this year. 

In the meantime, make sure that you check out Insidious: The Red Door, which Patrick Wilson directs as a continuation of the story presented in Insidious and Insidious 2. It’s in theaters as we speak. 

Beware of minor spoilers for M3GAN down below.

M3GAN is the horror movie we didn’t know we needed. Now, it'll end up being the next big horror film franchise for this generation. All it took was the killer doll movie getting the meme treatment after its wild trailer came out, and it was already speculated that a sequel would be in the cards. Luckily, our prayers have been answered in that M3GAN 2 is officially happening, but Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum explains why this highly-anticipated sequel isn’t being rushed into production.

They say that good things come to those who wait. That means we’ll all have to do a lot of waiting for M3GAN 2.0 as you can’t rush art. In an interview with Empire, M3GAN’s producer Jason Blum explains why they’re taking their time crafting this horror sequel, which isn’t expected to come to theaters until January 2025.

I wouldn’t be surprised if M3GAN 2 was nothing short of bigger and better. M3GAN’s ending gave us a final tease of the original doll being destroyed after an intense battle with Gemma and Cady only for Gemma’s smart home device to turn on its own. Could this mean M3GAN will exist in the form of other technical devices in the town like in Eagle Eye? Or could the M3GAN sequel get the I, Robot treatment where we get a whole army of M3GAN dolls? With viral marketing showing a team of M3GANs doing that viral dance at the film’s premiere and a halftime performance at the Chargers-Rams game, we kinda get the idea of what we’re in for if M3GANs decide to take over the world.

Two months before M3GAN’s theatrical release, the New York Times reported that Universal was so impressed with the hype that this sci-fi horror film was receiving that they were thinking about a sequel. As M3GAN blew past box office predictions making double what was estimated, it was a given this AI robot’s story wasn't over yet. What we know about the horror sequel so far is that its stars Alison Williams and Violet McGraw will be returning as well as writer Aleka Cooper. Producer James Wan also has an idea of where he’d like the world of M3GAN to go with plans of taking things to a whole other level. With a title like M3GAN 2.0, I’d like to hope that also means we'll get a new halftime show-worthy dance routine for the next one. Blum may have broken his “cardinal rule” about imagining a sequel to his works before it hit theaters, but that clearly means he has faith that M3GAN is a horror project that could bring about the same legacy that the Child’s Play series brought out to audiences in the ‘80s. 

The success that M3GAN brought to Universal and the horror genre, in general, is completely unbelievable and groundbreaking. Initial reactions said M3GAN was “worth the hype” as well as being “creepy,” “fun,” and “slays.” Critical reviews were also raving about the box-office topper in introducing us to a new horror villain and successfully blending comedic campy qualities into it. Its Rotten Tomatoes score even matched up with Get Out’s 98% score when it first came out. That’s very impressive as M3GAN could have easily been too campy of a film for audiences to take seriously with all of its meme-able moments, but it proves that a movie has the potential to live up to its hype as long as we give it a chance.

It may be a slow and steady process to get M3GAN 2.0 up and running, but I’m confident the wait will be worth it. While you wait for the M3GAN sequel in January 2025, you can keep track of 2023’s new movie releases to add to your watchlist.  

The twisted minds behind “M3GAN,” including James Wan (writer/producer), Jason Blum (producer), Gerard Johnstone (director), and star Allison Williams (Gemma), discuss their new horror movie in this interview with CinemaBlend's Eric Eisenberg. They dive into the creation of M3GAN’s look, the dangers of AI, and even some spoiler territory with the film’s ending.

Video Chapters

00:00 - Intro
00:24 - ‘M3GAN' Director and Allison Williams Discuss The Doll’s ‘Uncanny’ Appearance
01:50 - How The Film Struck The Balance Between Funny And Serious
03:55 - Why Is ‘M3GAN’ Rated PG-13, Not R?
04:48 - Allison Williams Discusses Her Research Into The World Of AI
06:48 - Animatronics, Puppets & More - How ‘M3GAN’ Was Brough To Life On Set
08:46 - [SPOILERS] Director Gerard Johnstone Discusses The Film’s Ending

There’s just something about M3GAN that has audiences, critics, and even the powers behind the film buzzing with excitement about a potential sequel. Universal executives were allegedly talking about another round before the 2023 new movie release was even in theaters, and they weren't the only ones. That enthusiasm was apparently infectious enough that even producer and Blumhouse mastermind Jason Blum broke his own “cardinal rule” about sequels and started dreaming of the killer doll’s return himself.

Jason Blum, while speaking with Variety, volunteered the information that he was pretty positive about the prospect of a M3GAN sequel early on. However, that was something that broke a very important directive that he and collaborator/producer James Wan share about potential franchising: 

That’s a pretty firm and fair guideline when it comes to dreaming up a follow-up, especially when it comes to an untested quantity like director Gerald Johnstone and co-writer Akela Cooper’s killer doll flick. That's even more true in the light of how the studio execs were riding high on the success of the movie’s trailer. 

A very quick, but positive, memeification of the titular doll already had some convinced that this project couldn't miss. At that point, such a notion was merely a dream, as there was no way to really tell how the public would accept the story until they'd experienced it. Now that M3GAN’s second week box office has shown some pretty strong worldwide results, that hoopla can be chalked up as proactive thinking as opposed to premature sequelization. 

Aside from Jason Blum and the several other decision makers, producer James Wan was also won over by the charms of more marvelous mechanized murder. While he’s also no stranger to the sequel game, thanks to The Conjuring and Insidious series, Wan shared a similar reluctance to premature franchise building. It didn’t stop him from thinking about the possibility, so one could imagine that once Blum started to light up over M3GAN’s potential return, Wan probably joined the crowd as well.

M3GAN’s ending certainly leaves the door open but, past that point, there’s more difficulty than trying to figure out a cool new title that may or may not involve more numbers. Much like the robot girl that terrorized her prey on the big screen, Jason Blum has broken the rules and could get away with even more murder in the process. Just imagine the Internet’s frenzied reaction when (or if) that announcement hits the web.

Moviegoers who haven’t introduced themselves to M3GAN shouldn’t wait too long, or else they run the risk of having all the surprises spoiled. Should you need to set a playdate, the film is currently playing in theaters far and wide. However, when it comes time to its streaming debut, you should probably have a Peacock subscription handy, as that’s more than likely going to be where the deadly playmate sets up shop.

As the film industry continues to bounce back from the shutdown of theaters around the world in 2020, there have been a lot of questions about what movies work on the big screen and which ones don’t. There have been a number of significant hits and misses during the era – but one arena that has seen relatively consistent positive results is the horror genre. While dramas and comedies have proven to have unclear potential in cinemas, box office results suggest that audiences are still excited to gather together in auditoriums to get scared.

Given these circumstances, James Wan and Jason Blum – two of the biggest names in the world of modern horror– are in quite an incredible position. The duo first collaborated over a decade ago in the making of 2010’s Insidious (which has since launched three sequels, and a fourth is on the way), and most recently they co-produced M3GAN, which just had a tremendously successful opening weekend. They clearly work well together, and now they are set to take their partnership to the next level by actually becoming partners: it was announced this past November that their two production companies, Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions, are in the process of merging.

Wan and Blum are together in a key position to guide the future of horror and maintain its success on the big screen, and I recently had the opportunity to talk with them and learn about their outlook. I sat down with the filmmakers during the recent Los Angeles press day for director Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN, and we discussed three different facets of where the genre stands: the popularity of original titles, the lack of a subgenre trend, and audiences’ acceptance of more “weird.”

How James Wan And Jason Blum Look At Balancing Original Horror Movies And Franchise Films

While modern Hollywood has become dependent on franchises and established properties, one of the most remarkable things about horror movies in 2022 was the popularity of original titles. Audiences demonstrated clear excitement to see Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream and David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends, but the genre’s biggest success stories were Jordan Peele’s Nope, Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone, Parker Finn’s Smile, and Zach Cregger’s Barbarian .

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by James Wan and Jason Blum, who individually have resumes filled with films of both varieties. As a director, Wan has contributed to the Fast & Furious and DC Extended Universe canons, but has a resume of originals including the aforementioned Insidious, Saw, and The Conjuring (… all of which, of course, eventually became franchise titles themselves because of their success). He’s made sequels, but he has never made a full trilogy because of his desire to cultivate new ideas instead of old ones.

Wan wants this kind of to balance to continue in the movies that he and Blum develop and produce together. Discussing it, he recognized that audiences love to see continuations of established brands (nodding to the Blum-produced Exorcist legacyquel that is in the works), but doesn’t forget that those established brands started as originals that wowed us when we were younger. Said the filmmaker,

We will see James Wan and Jason Blum make franchise moves (for example M3GAN’s ending leaves the door wide open for a sequel), but Wan explained that pursuing the production of originals is “good for the soul.” He added,

If they can continue producing originals that turn into box office hits like M3GAN, that balance shouldn’t be hard to maintain.

How James Wan And Jason Blum Feel About The Current Lack Of A Subgenre Trend In Horror

In addition to the popularity of non-IP projects, a standout aspect of success in modern horror is that none of it is hanging on any specific trends. It’s been the case in the past that certain subgenres or styles explode and then get exploited until oversaturation – examples including slashers, zombies, vampires, and found footage – but there’s no pattern to speak of when you look at the big winners from 2022.

It’s a climate that Jason Blum and James Wan apparently feel wholly comfortable in, as they told me that they try not to pay attention to those kinds of trends anyway. Blum explained that when you try and pinpoint exactly what an audience wants, you end up making something that’s dated by the time it moves through production. Said Blum,

Wan echoed his fellow producer’s sentiments, noting that the key is focusing in on ideas that grab and excite them as filmmakers:

Blum added,

With And After M3GAN, James Wan And Jason Blum Want To Keep Horror Weird

In order for any horror movie to work, it perpetually needs to keep audiences on their toes and throw out new and different ideas. That’s something we’ve seen in recent months with hits like Barbarian and Damien Leone’s Terrifier 2, and M3GAN certainly has its fair share of surprise as well. The hallway dance the titular android performs went viral because it’s really goddamn weird.

That’s certainly the intended vibe, and something that the producers only want to embrace further as their partnership develops. As Jason Blum put it during our interview,

Adding, James Wan explained that there is an inherent desire to understand the familiar and break it in a way that results in something special. In this realm, Wan gave a lot of credit to screenwriter Akela Cooper, who worked with Wan on both M3GAN and 2021’s Malignant. Said the director/producer,

With this mindset in place as James Wan and Jason Blum continue to make movies together, hopefully the horror genre will only continue to blossom.

To keep track of all the excellent scary films that are on the way to both theaters and streaming in the coming months/years, check out our Upcoming Horror Movies guide.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for M3GAN. If you have not yet seen the film, proceed at your own risk!

It’s a well-established tradition in horror movies (especially slasher movies) that evil never really totally dies. You may be able to stab it, shoot it, crush it, and obliterate it, but there is always the possibility that it could come back – either to terrorize the same group of characters or a whole new ensemble – and it’s common practice for genre films to end with a hint at that potential. M3GAN is the latest title to be a part of that particular legacy, with an ending that sees the titular doll get destroyed, but teases how she may come back in a sequel.

In the movie, M3GAN heads back to Gemma’s house after wreaking homicidal havoc at Funki headquarters, and she makes her move to kill Gemma (Allison Williams) so that she is no longer an obstacle in her self-development and future with Cady (Violet McGraw). Both the roboticist and her ward survive the encounter – with help from Bruce, a robot Gemma built in college – and it mostly seems like a “happy” ending as Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) are alive and outside with the police… But then Elise, the Alexa-esque smart home device Gemma owns, turns itself on, leaving audiences with the impression that M3GAN’s programming lives.

After the giddy ride that is the M3GAN cinematic experience, it’s a treat to know that the door is open for a possible sequel – and that was certainly a specific point that the filmmakers wanted to put across in the making of the movie. Director Gerard Johnstone said as much when I interviewed him last month during the film’s Los Angeles press day, as he discussed both why the tease was put in place and an alternate idea that actually made it pretty far in the production pipeline.

Why M3GAN’s Ending Came Together As It Did For The Final Cut Of The Film

By the end of M3GAN, you’re most definitely rooting against the eponymous doll. Sure, she does dispose of some jerks in her slaying, but that has never been viewed as a proper excuse for murder – and let’s not lose sight of the fact that she kills a child and a dog in addition to trying to kill the protagonist and pretty much everyone she knows. At the end of the film, it’s clear that she needs to go.

But Gerard Johnstone, screenwriter Akela Cooper, and producers James Wan and Jason Blum wanted to have their cake and eat it too. While Gemma and Cady would emerge as victors from the final confrontation in the film, the love of M3GAN as a horror villain incentivized them to figure out a proper way for the character to survive. Said Johnstone,

It’s a tradition forged by some of the best scary movies of all time. Jason pops out of the water in Friday The 13th, Freddy attacks Nancy at the end of A Nightmare On Elm Street, and M3GAN’s advanced AI proves strong enough to hijack a smart home system, becoming a purely digital terror. Given Gemma’s affection for and reliance on technology, it’s most definitely a platform from which the Model 3 Generative Android can execute revenge and continue to unleash a whole lot of horror.

Elise eerily turning on by itself is a fun, subtle note that well-follows a third act of violence and robot battles, but it should be noted that Gerard Johnstone’s further comments during the interview suggested to me that a potential M3GAN sequel won’t necessarily keep the eponymous slasher a disembodied killer. I say this because the filmmakers behind the movie played around with the idea of having the programming get into a different toy.

The M3GAN Alternate Ending That Was Both Written And Storyboarded For The Film

When the director mentioned that there were “other iterations” of the idea to let M3GAN survive, I followed up by asking if he could give me an example. After he initially backtracked on the original comment, Johnstone then recalled a different version of the ending that was written and prepped for production with storyboard art. Said the filmmaker,

Perhaps a special feature for the home video release?

From a purely logical standpoint, it’s understandable that the alternate toy route wasn’t taken and why taking over Elise was a clever play. As advanced as M3GAN’s artificial intelligence is, she’s not supernatural and wouldn’t just be able to take over a standard doll or toy without advanced components. Meanwhile, Elise is a perfect gateway for her, and gives her the ability to do things that she couldn’t do while stuck in a physical form.

That being said, given the overwhelmingly positive response to M3GAN’s design and presentation, it does seem really hard to believe that a follow-up film would keep her as a wholly digital killer. Perhaps that will be the case through the first two acts of M3GAN 2, but the third will reveal that she has built herself a new doll body that is better in every way than what was originally created for her by Gemma and her team.

As things stand, a M3GAN sequel is only theoretical, so we’ll just have to see what developments come in the future (that being said, the newly forged partnership between James Wan and Jason Blum, certainly makes the future seem bright). While we all wait for news about a M3GAN 2, you can learn about all of the films that are presently set for release in the coming 12 months with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar, and find out how your next craving for big screen scares will be satiated with our Upcoming Horror Movies guide.

M3GAN is now playing in theaters everywhere.

Silly and smart is a hard line for a film to walk. If it leans too far one way, the goofiness undercuts anything intelligent that the filmmakers are trying to say; if it leans too far the other way, it can feel pretentious to an audience that is just looking for a good time at the movies. In that respect, Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN is a talented tightrope performer. Based on a screenplay by Akela Cooper, who wowed horror fans in 2021 with her script for James Wan’s Malignant, the new genre feature has commentary to dispense in regards to modern child rearing and its relationship with technology, but it’s also a crowd-pleaser as the latest entry in the cinematic legacy of killer dolls.

With clever plotting and sharp dialogue meeting amazing design and effects in bringing to life the titular character, M3GAN has a white-knuckle grasp on what it is, and it’s going to make movie-goers giddy. There is a significant hindrance in play due to the PG-13 approach, as its bloodlessness prevents it from executing greater escalation in the third act, but that missed opportunity doesn’t overshadow all of the thrills and grins that the film inspires.

Further bolstering her horror resume after Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Richard Shepard’s The Perfection, Allison Williams stars as Gemma – a genius roboticist working for a popular toy company who becomes an overnight parental figure to her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), after her sister and brother-in-law die in a car crash. Being single and work obsessed, she’s not entirely equipped for the job, but the ace up her sleeve is her latest invention: the Model 3 Generative Android, or M3GAN for short.

As designed, M3GAN is a life-like doll (or uncanny valley nightmare, depending on your perspective), and programmed with powerful and advanced artificial intelligence that drives her to do whatever is necessary for the well-being of the child with whom she is linked. This makes the android exceptionally useful for Gemma, who passes off parenting responsibilities to her creation amidst Cady’s recovery from the trauma of losing her parents. But there are serious consequences as the girl grows to see the toy as her primary caregiver, and the relationship combined with updated protocols has the effect of turning M3GAN into an extreme danger.

M3GAN won’t give you nightmares, but it will inspire some chills along with laughter.

M3GAN is the first wide release of 2023, and after 2022 proved to be magnificent for horror, the film is kicking off the new year properly for the genre. It can’t be said to be an experience that will haunt the dreams of any movie-goers not already predisposed to a fear of dolls, but it finds great moments to be effectively chilling. Every member of its audience is going to go in knowing that the eponymous android is eventually going to become a homicidal terror, and there aren’t exactly any big twists that are unleashed, but it finds its way to get under your skin as you can sense M3GAN getting more advanced.

It’s the kind of creepiness that inspires grins and nervous chuckles instead of preparing you for big screams, and that’s wholly intentional; it’s perhaps a step too far to call M3GAN a horror comedy, but there certainly isn’t a fear that laughs are going to undermine the terror. When M3GAN starts to talk back to Gemma aggressively and assert more independence, her sharp personality lowers the temperature of your blood a bit, but simultaneously makes you want to let out an audible, “Oooh” like you’re the member of a talk show audience.

These kinds of moments ultimately balance well with the (albeit limited) pure horror that the film has to dole out. The movie knows when to get seriously scary, and that leads to some of the most memorable sequences – including M3GAN’s encounters with the next door neighbor’s dog and a bully hassling Cady.

Impressive filmmaking techniques do a great job bringing M3GAN to life.

In the world of the film, M3GAN is a technical marvel with a $10,000 retail price, and the way that the character is brought to life presents her as worth every penny. The design is terrific, as her prim and proper appearance (albeit with eerie wide eyes) is contrasted in excellent ways by her disturbing behavior, and the techniques used to animate her are flawless. Puppeteering, visual effects, and a costumed performer (Amie Donald) were used by the production, and they all work together seamlessly to make the android seem like she is both alive and still a toy (the perfect recipe for generating uncanny valley-based unease). On first watch, you can’t fully tell scene to scene how M3GAN is being rendered so lifelike, and it’s wonderfully convincing – and exceptionally important to not take you out of the movie.

A targeted R-rating could have been very useful in the making M3GAN.

With its smart and silly script along with great performances and technical achievements, M3GAN coasts through its first two acts effectively, but it runs into trouble in the third act when everything in the plot is coming to a head. You’re all set and ready for the cute/terrifying doll to go full tilt as a horror villain… but the movie never gets to that point, and there are fingers to be pointed at the decision for the production to target a PG-13 rating. There is certainly escalation in the behavior of the antagonist, but it’s not translated well enough in her actions, with the full extent of her insanity being kept off screen. This is a movie that should have an absolutely wild and bloody finale, and it’s unable to deliver it so that teenagers can purchase tickets to the film without a parent present (and let’s be real: even if it did have an R-rating, those 13-to-17-year-olds interested in seeing it would find a way to get in regardless).

M3GAN isn’t entirely the experience you want it to be, but its best qualities outweigh its faults in reflection. It’s a well-made, fun, and freaky experience, and a solid opening act for the horror movies to come in 2023.

When it comes to die-hard horror fans, many like their movies to be gore fests in the vein of this year’s surprise hit, Terrifier 2. But, blood and gut-drenched movies inevitably call for an R rating, so whenever it was announced the upcoming horror movie M3GAN would be PG-13, it sent some horror fans into a bit of a stir. Many took to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the MPAA rating. However, the film’s producers, James Wan and Jason Blum are pushing back against the rating complaints. 

The producing duo spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about everything from the potential merger of their companies to AI-driven filmmaking and the potential for a sequel to the Blumhouse hit, Invisible Man. However, talk soon turned to online “bellyaching” regarding M3GAN’s PG-13 rating. Wan, a well-respected genre director in his own right, said the rating should suit the film and that a PG-13 is appropriate for the AI-Killer doll movie. Wan also said they didn’t have to compromise the scares in order to make a more accessible horror movie. Wan told THR: 

James Wan is no stranger to making wonderfully scary PG-13 movies. One of his biggest hits is the horrifying and critically well-received, Insidious. The 2010 flick sports a PG-13 rating and doesn’t hold back on the scares. Fans so liked the movie that it spawned an entire series. The fifth in the franchise, Insidious: Fear the Dark, is forthcoming and was directed by longtime franchise star Patrick Wilson. 

Jason Blum went a step further in support of the PG-13 rating, saying some of the best horror movies aren’t rated R. Blum said:

Jason Blum makes a good point. Some great horror movies have been made in recent years that have been rated PG-13. A Quiet Place, both of the Happy Death Day movies, and the Insidious franchise are just a few recent examples that come to mind. 

The first reactions for M3GAN seem to support the powerhouse-producing duos’ comments about the rating. Many lucky enough to see early screenings of the killer doll movie have been relatively positive. Universal was allegedly so happy with how the film turned out that sequel talks are already happening before the movie has even hit cinemas.  

I love that the filmmakers are keen on creating an excellent scary movie that teens can enjoy. I am a father of a pre-teen daughter, and M3GAN is the first horror movie she’s ever remotely been interested in seeing. Ever since the wild trailer appeared online, she’s been talking about checking it out in the theater, so perhaps, Wan and Blum know what they’re doing. 

Whether a PG-13 rating will hinder an audience’s enjoyment of M3GAN is yet to be seen. Based on the buzz surrounding the new movie’s release, I think we might be in for a new horror villain icon. No R rating required.

Blumhouse is a production company synonymous with many iconic horror film franchises. And one of the most talked about upcoming horror movies is the James Wan and Jason Blum-produced M3gan. Since the wild trailer depicting the diabolical dancing evil doll dropped online, it has received nonstop viral meme treatment. The film just had its world premiere, and Jason Blum (one of the film's producers) attended the recent world premiere showing his support by dressing as the film's titular killer AI.

Producer Jason Blum dressed in the robotic dolls' already iconic look to attend the movie premiere, which took place at the TCL Theatre in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles on Wednesday, December 7, 2022. Eagle-eyed fans will recall this isn't the first time the horror filmmaker has donned the look. Blum and his wife always dress somewhat elaborately for Halloween, and this year the producer saw the holiday as an opportunity to premiere his take on M3gan. He shared the process of getting into the look on his personal Twitter. 

I can’t lie, the mega-producer pulls the look off. The sunglasses are an extra nice touch.

M3gan is the story of a roboticist (played by Get Out's Allison Williams) at a toy company that uses artificial intelligence to develop a life-like doll named M3GAN. The robot doll is programmed to bond with William's character's niece and protect the young girl. However, Megan takes things a bit too seriously and becomes overprotective, resulting in bloodshed. 

The movie's second producer, James Wan, posed for an amazing picture with lead actresses Allison Williams and Violet McGraw (who plays Williams' niece, Cady) and several terrifying Megan look-alikes--which include Jason Blum, of course.

Though the premise of the movie sounds like a brutal and bloody concept, the producers have promised elements of a black comedy, which these hilarious photos of the cast at the premiere exemplify. We can only hope the movie is as fun as the premiere seemed to be.

The film has been rated PG-13. While some gore thirsty horror fans might scoff at the rating, the studio behind the movie has spoken at length in the past about how they determine whether a film will be rated R. Considering the movie primarily focuses on a pre-teen girl, it makes sense the filmmakers would make a movie that teens can go to a theater and enjoy. Based on Blumhouses record, an R-rating was almost certainly never in the cards for M3Gan.

The early reactions from folks attending the horror flicks premiere have been very positive. This tremendous response to the movie will only bolster the rumors of a fast-tracked sequel. Universal was rumored to be so pleased with how the horror film turned out and the online response that sequel talks were ongoing before an audience even saw the movie.

Whether M3gan will be the next big horror icon is yet to be seen. Until the movie hits cinemas and we can decide for ourselves, we will have to settle for watching the trailer again. 

We will have to wait until M3gan shimmies into cinemas on January 6, 2023, to see if the killer AI has what it takes for franchise longevity, providing Jason Blum plenty more excuses to dress up as the maniacal dancing doll. For all your movie-going plans, stay tuned to CinemaBlend and check out our list of upcoming movie releases. 

In the early 2010s, Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions quickly became a dominant force in the horror genre. The producer and his company experienced remarkable success when Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity became a phenomenon in the fall of 2009, the movie earning instant comparisons to The Blair Witch Project. It not only helped kick start the found footage wave of the era, but established a Blumhouse reputation: big scares on a micro-budget.

While still producing movies and television shows in other genres, Blumhouse made horror a cornerstone, and in addition to producing annual Paranormal Activity sequels, they also teamed up with filmmakers like James Wan, Scott Derrickson and James DeMonaco for Insidious, Sinister, and The Purge (all of which inspired their own respective sequels). It made all the sense in the world that the production company would inevitably develop a Stephen King adaptation, and such a project got in the works in late 2012 with Mercy, a big screen take on the short story “Gramma.”

Jason Blum told Collider in 2014 that gears originally started turning thanks to a meeting that the producer took with filmmaker McG. The point of the chat was initially meant to be about McG potentially directing a Blumhouse-produced feature, but the conversation turned, and the producer/director told Blum about a screenplay by Matt Greenberg that was already in the works. Blum was on the hunt for what he described as “low-budget, high-concept movies,” and Mercy fit the bill. Plus, the deal with Stephen King for the rights had already been completed.

Entering production in 2013 with director Peter Cornwell at the helm, Mercy was made as the first feature adaptation of “Gramma” – though it was the second time that the material crossed mediums, as Harlan Ellison developed the short story as an episode of the 1986 reboot of The Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine anyone in the world, Constant Readers or not, who would call it a worthy remake, and I’ll dig into why in this week’s Adapting Stephen King.

How Peter Cornwell’s Mercy Differs From The Twilight Zone’s “Gramma”

When Harlan Ellison and the writing staff of The Twilight Zone revival in the mid-1980s began trying to adapt Stephen King’s “Gramma,” a standout adjective was used to describe the short story as source material: “impossible.” Obviously it ultimately wasn’t, and even more impressive is the fact that he didn’t have to deviate from King’s work all that much. The setup of a young boy being left alone at home with his dying grandmother isn’t cinematic, but Ellison and co-director Bradford May made it work with voice over narration that translated the protagonist’s internalized fear and a house full of atmosphere.

With a feature film runtime to fill, Matt Greenberg didn’t have the luxury of trying to directly bring Stephen King’s writing into live-action, and – like the filmmakers behind Children Of The Corn, Graveyard Shift, and 1408 before him – he had to add quite a lot of padding to the material. The movie is actually incredibly short, running only 79 minutes with end credits, but what’s pretty ridiculous is the fact that King’s work ends up getting totally swallowed by what Greenberg invents, and there is actually very little in Mercy that is directly from the short story (beyond the broad strokes).

The closest that Mercy gets to The Twilight Zone’s adaptation of “Gramma” (which is to say the closest that it gets to being a faithful interpretation of King’s short story) is a stretch of narrative that begins around the 52 minute mark and ends when the film gets to the 60 minute mark – so about eight minutes, or 10 percent of the total runtime. It’s during this point in the film that George (The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs) is left alone at home with his grandmother, Mercy (Shirley Knight), as his mother, Rebecca (Frances O'Connor), takes his brother, Buddy (Joel Courtney), to the hospital. Like in the original adaptation, George is forced to face his fears about his sick Gramma, and he thinks she is dead before being horrified by an onslaught of witchcraft, but before too long he’s sprinting out of the house to try and get help from the neighbors.

Woven into the grander narrative of Mercy are the big revelations about George’s grandmother that are included in the Twilight Zone, specifically her reading from a Necronomicon after learning that she can’t have children and making a pact with a demon named Hastur to allow her to become a mother, but overall there really is no comparing the approaches of the TV episode and the movie (and I say that as someone who doesn’t think that the former has aged all that well aesthetically).

How Peter Cornwell’s Mercy Differs From Stephen King’s Short Story

When compared to Stephen King’s “Gramma,” Mercy does a lot of stretching with the existing material. For example, it expands the timeline by having the story start when George, his mother, and his brother first go to live with George’s grandmother (after she has some kind of medical episode), and the secrets about the titular character aren’t uncovered via gathered memories in one night, but instead by having George ask around about Mercy and piece together information from the local pastor (Eddie Jones) and his uncle, Lanning (Mark Duplass). There is, however, also plenty of pure invention and deviation from King’s work as well.

Mercy actually wastes zero time at all throwing in a bit of new, as the movie opens with Mercy as a young woman (Pepper Binkley) nursing one of her children and watching as her husband, Frank (Chris Browning), kills himself with an axe to the forehead. This is far more dramatic and violent than the short story, where Mercy’s husband passes away from a heart attack – and it’s in the aftermath that George and his family move in with his grandmother.

There is also quite a bit of character shuffling and replacement. In Mercy, Rebecca is a triplet with the aforementioned Lanning as a brother and a sister named Jinny (Abigail Rose Solomon). Neither of those siblings are in the short story, and instead George’s mom has many more siblings of various ages, including brothers Larson, George, and Franklin, and sisters Stephanie and Flo. Lanning, who is depicted to be a bit off-kilter/an alcoholic, can generously be called an amalgam of George and Franklin, as the former is mentioned as being drunk in one of the protagonist’s recollections, and the latter ends up being killed as a result of a hex by his mother.

Also created for the movie is Jim Swann (Dylan McDermott), a neighbor who seems to have a romantic spark with Rebecca… and who ends up being a part of a nonsensical antagonist twist that suggests that he is somehow an ally of Mercy’s who accepted some kind of deal so that he could be with Rebecca. It doesn’t actually add anything to the plot beyond a conflict George encounters in the third act when the kid is trying to escape, and there is no resolution as Jim ends up being quickly killed by a speeding car that rams into him shortly after George gets away from him.

And speaking of nonsensical things, the ending of Mercy is completely different than the short story, and is neither very logical nor interesting. In Stephen King’s version, George succumbs to his Gramma’s witchcraft and comes under the control of the same demon she conjured with her Necronomicon – and after killing his Aunt Flo with a hex he makes plans to torment his bullying older brother. None of this is in the film.

Instead, Mercy comes to an end when Hastur sets George up to kill himself just like his grandfather, but instead of sticking an axe in his own head, he sticks it in Mercy’s as she is creeping up behind him. The next day, with seemingly zero consequences in the aftermath of events, George, Rebecca and Buddy come together to bury Mercy’s body in a field next to a tree, and voice over narration from the protagonist delivers a generic monologue about how dark times can be a blessing with the support and power of family.

Is It Worthy Of The King?

While written with a supernatural bent, “Gramma” is an exceptionally personal story for Stephen King. Similar to George in the story, King was young when his mother moved him and his brother to Durham, Maine so that she could take care of her aging parents, and he ended up being the one to discover that his grandmother had died when he walked into her bedroom one day. Per the Spring 1984 issue of Weirdbook magazine (via Stephen King: Art Of Darkness by Douglas E. Winter), he used the mirror in his mother’s compact to try and tell if she was still breathing – an idea he got from the movies – and she failed to fog it. Decades later, he commemorated the horror of the experience with his fiction.

“Gramma” is a terrific and atmospheric short story not just because of the creep factor provided by the inclusion of witchcraft, but because it plays on a common phobia of old people – which is psychologically rooted is memento mori. As a child, George has no real reference point for death, and not only has his grandmother become an incarnation of the terrifying and mysterious end of all things, but the incredible responsibility of her care is put in his inexperienced hands. Any reader can relate to the weight and dread of the circumstance.

Mercy captures none of this intent and/or spirit. The remarkable personal stakes in the source material are nowhere to be found, and it lacks any kind of momentum. “Gramma” is rendered as a slow drip tale about a kid who moves in with a grandmother that he loves, discovers that she is evil/possessed, and ends up driving an axe into her face. It doesn’t have a single scare to speak of, as even the cheap shocks fail to inspire even the slightest jump, and you are left wondering how the hell so many talented people got involved with such an unremarkable project.

It does have at least one standout legacy in the history of Stephen King adaptations: it seems to be the first and only feature project based on a King story/book that failed to get either theatrical or small screen distribution, and instead had to go straight to home video. Of course, that’s a bit of trivia that comes with certain connotations, and Mercy deserves absolutely every single one of them.

How To Watch Peter Cornwell’s Mercy

Should you care to burn 79 minutes of your precious life, Peter Cornwell’s Mercy is extremely accessible in the digital age – though those of you who are into physical media and building the ultimate Stephen King collection have to settle for a the DVD (which contains zero special features). The movie can be found available for rental and purchase at all of the major online outlets, including Google Play, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and Apple TV.

Stephen King fans didn’t have to wait long for more adaptations in the wake of Mercy’s release, as Mikael Salomon’s Big Driver premiered less than two weeks after it in October 2014 – and, as such, it will be the next work under the microscope for this column. Given that it was made as a movie for the small screen, you’ll find my feature next Wednesday in the CinemaBlend TV section, and in the meantime you can discover all of the previous Adapting Stephen King installments by clicking through the banners below.

Blumhouse is a name synonymous with many iconic horror film franchises, but as is the case with all horror, not every movie Jason Blum’s company churns out is a winner. The CEO was recently on hand in Locarno, where he admitted one of their recent horror movies was actually “terrible.”

Anyone who has an affinity to horror movies and a Paramount+ subscription might know exactly what Jason Blum is talking about. Variety captured Blum’s thoughts recently, where he admitted that the 2021 release Paranormal Activity: Next Of Kin, wasn’t a good movie. Blum said: 

Jason Blum didn’t mince words when it came to Paranormal Activity: Next Of Kin, which was released in 2021 on Paramount+. The movie chronicled a team hoping to make a documentary about why the main character’s mother abandoned her, so they travel to an Amish commune where all sorts of spooky things are happening. The movie was widely panned by critics (it failed to make CinemaBlend’s top horror of 2021 list), and apparently, is not a movie that Blum is proud of. 

What’s even more interesting about the news is that Jason Blum teased the long-running horror franchise might actually be coming to an end. Blum talked about where he’s at with the franchise at the moment and what it might take for future Paranormal Activity movies to happen: 

Blumhouse currently has Paranormal Activity: The Other Side on the way with a tentative 2023 release date. Assuming Jason Blum isn’t implying that movie is done, it’ll take a lot after that to convince the studio to greenlight another movie in thre franchise for a while. I’m definitely interested in the idea of seeing a director like Scott Derrickson step in to make a Paranormal Activity movie (especially after that ending with The Black Phone), but who knows what notable directors are lining up to do something for the franchise (CinemaBlend’s Jason Wiese is a fan of Jordan Peele, but would he take a shot at it)? 

Assuming Paranormal Activity: The Other Side is the last entry in the franchise, that’s a solid run for a horror series. Plus, considering the impact Paranormal Activity has had on pop culture throughout its run, it’s hard to believe we won’t see some sort of remake or reboot happening years down the road. Maybe when there’s a genre like “found footage VR” or something, though I’m not sure I’d want to experience a franchise like that in virtual reality. It’s also possible that Jason Blum might just change his thoughts on the films if The Other Side is a hit, but we’ll just have to wait and see if that happens. 

As mentioned, Paranormal Activity: The Other Side is expected to release sometime in 2023. Paramount+ subscribers have a lot of horror to stream on the platform beyond the iconic franchise, so be sure to check out what offerings are there if you’re a subscriber. 

The horror genre has been on a roll over the past few years, with fans enjoying a delightful renaissance of new and returning properties. Some of the best horror movies returned to theaters via new sequels, including John Carpenter’s Halloween. The current slasher trilogy is expected to end with Halloween Ends, and Jason Blum is teasing when the first trailer will finally arrive.

The 2018 Halloween movie was a massive success, with Jamie Lee Curtis returning to the role of Laurie Strode in a timeline-defying new slasher. Two more sequels were quickly ordered by Blumhouse, with David Gordon Green returning to the director’s chair. Halloween Ends will arrive this October, and Jason Blum has hinted that the trailer could be arriving soon, posting on Twitter:

Well, that’s exciting. While no date was given by Jason Blum, it seems like Halloween Ends’ first footage could arrive at any time. When a fan asked if the trailer was "dangerously close", Blum responded with "That is correct." After all, there’s only a few months left until the slasher sequel arrives in theaters and seemingly ends Jamie Lee Curtis’ run as Laurie Strode. So bring on bloody footage of Michael Myers. 

Jason Blum’s comments on Twitter are sure to excite the generations of Halloween fans out there who are eager to see how the current trilogy will be wrapped up in the next slasher. While no trailer for Halloween Ends has been made available to the public, some limited footage was previously revealed at CinemaCon. It showed Laurie Strode and Michael Myers once again in the midst of battle, after being kept apart throughout the runtime of Halloween Kills. The stakes are high, as is anticipation for the Blumhouse flick.

Blumhouse has been keeping busy as of late, recently celebrating the release of Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone starring Ethan Hawke, as well as the Firestarter remake. But the excitement for Halloween Ends is on another level, with moviegoers eager to see how the final battle between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode will end. The Shape has been extremely deadly throughout the last two movies, and smart movie says he’ll back for a vengeance when once again facing off against Laurie and her granddaughter Allyson.

Not much is known about the contents of Halloween Ends, but the limited information has helped to buoy anticipation for the project. David Gordon Green and company previously revealed that the movie will feature a time jump, allowing the timeline to catch up with what year it is IRL. What’s more, the pandemic will reportedly be addressed in the upcoming slasher. Besides that, the movie is a mystery, especially with almost the entire cast of Halloween Kills being murdered by Michael. Although Kyle Richards’ Lindsey Wallace survived, and will appear in the next movie.

Halloween Ends is currently expected to arrive in theaters on October 14th. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

The horror renaissance has been going strong for years, with some of the best horror movies of all time returning to theaters thanks to new sequels or reboots. This trend began partly thanks to the wild success of 2018’s Halloween, with Blumhouse ordering another two movies from filmmaker David Gordon Green. But will Halloween Ends actually end the long-running slasher property? Here’s what Jason Blum says.

The title of Halloween Ends seems to hint at the upcoming slasher’s stakes. What’s more, Jamie Lee Curtis has indicated that the movie will be her last outing as final girl Laurie Strode. Jason Blum was recently asked by ScreenRant if this means that Michael Myers will be gone from the big screen forever, and he got honest by saying:

Well, there you have it. Halloween Ends is merely the completion of the property’s contract with Blumhouse. As such, The Shape could be back to terrorize Haddonfield sometime in the future. Although the upcoming Blumhouse threequel is expected to be Jamie Lee Curtis’ swan song as her signature character.

Jason Blum’s comments about Halloween Ends come as the producer is promoting the upcoming Blumhouse horror movie The Black Phone. Since the studio has so many beloved horror properties, the conversation turned to John Carpenter’s beloved slasher franchise. And while the current story will be completed in the sequel this coming October, after that another filmmaker can potentially put their own spin on Michael Myers. Although that presumably won’t include the OG Scream Queen herself.

The horror genre is built on long-running franchises, which constantly adjust the official timeline/canon. 2018’s Halloween ignores all of the sequels, serving as a direct follow-up to John Carpenter’s 1978 original. So if another studio or filmmaker eventually gets the rights to Halloween, it would be easy to make a bold narrative choice; the timeline has been altered a number of times before. 

Not much is known about the contents of Halloween Ends, but the stakes definitely feel high thanks to it being Jamie Lee Curtis’ final bow as Laurie Strode. The mysterious slasher will reportedly feature a time jump, allowing the year in-universe to catch up to reality. While most of the cast was murdered throguhout the course of Halloween Kills, Andi Matichak and Kyle Richards will be back as Alyson and Lindsey repsectively. 

Halloween Ends will hit theaters October 14th. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

Firestarter’s release this weekend may mark another horror remake for Blumhouse, but please hold for this jump scare: the studio has just announced an original slasher hitting Peacock this summer. The upcoming horror movie is called They/Them and features Kevin Bacon as an LGBTQ+ conversion camp director and a mysterious killer. 

John Logan, the Oscar-nominated writer behind hit movies like Skyfall, The Aviator and Gladiator is the filmmaker behind They/Them, with the film serving as his first time directing a movie. In a Peacock press release, Logan introduced the horror film with these words: 

The movie was formerly known as “Whistler Camp,” referring to the name of the conversion camp in They/Them. It is being described as a “queer empowerment story” and the horror movie feature a number of LGBTQ+ characters. Check out some of the cast below: 

Kevin Bacon will play a character named Owen Whistler, who will be the director alongside a number of counselors, including his wife Cora (played by Carrie Preston). Veep's Anna Chlumsky plays the camp’s newest employee and a new medic at Whistler Camp. The young They/Them cast will consist of seven characters, all of which find themselves at a conversion camp for different reasons. 

The Politician actor Theo Germaine plays Jordan, a transgender and non-binary camper from a religious background who made a deal with their parents to legally emancipate if conversion therapy doesn’t “work.” Austin Crute of Booksmart plays Toby, a gay man who negiotated for a trip to New York to attend for one week and Monique Kim’s Veronica is a bisexual camper who wants to stop fighting who she is. 

Also among the cast is Dear White People actor Quei Tann, who plays Alexandra, a transgender woman whose parents are threatening to kick her out if she doesn’t go. Anna Lore as Kim, a closeted lesbian who hopes that if she finally fits in she’ll be loved by her friends and family. Cooper Koch as Stu, a jock with aspirations to get a swim scholarship and join his father’s fraternity rather than being open about his sexuality. And lastly, Darwin del Fabro’s Gabriel, who a gay man who has been bullied his entire life. 

They/Them will be available to stream with a Peacock subscription on August 5. While we wait, check out Blumhouse’s latest movie, Firestarter starring Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, hitting theaters this Friday, May 13. 

The horror genre has been experiencing a renaissance for a number of years now. Many of the modern classics hitting theaters were made possible thanks to Blumhouse, including hit projects like the Oscar favorite Get Out, plus The Invisible Man and Paranormal Activity. The studio is also behind the Happy Death Day franchise, with fans hoping a threequel arrives sooner rather than later. So is Happy Death Day 3 happening? Here’s the latest from Jason Blum.

Happy Death Day is a pretty wild burgeoning franchise. The first movie is like Groundhog Day but with murder, while the sequel greatly expanded the narrative. It’s for this reason that fans have been so curious about a third installment, with some recently asking Jason Blum about it on social media. He responded with:

Do you hear that sound? It’s horror fans everywhere collectively cheering. While Jason Blum didn’t reveal anything concrete about the development of Happy Death Day 3, apparently there are some things happening from within the studio. Hopefully we’ll get to see Jessica Rothe’s Tree back on the big screen sooner rather than later.

Jason Blum shared this update about the Happy Death Day franchise over on his personal Twitter account. When opening an informal Q&A, one fan asked the producer and CEO of Blumhouse about the possible future of the time-traveling slasher property. And it seems that the Happy Death Day franchise isn’t dead just yet.

The first sequel Happy Death Day 2 U was released in February of 2019, and saw the franchise lean into elements of science fiction. This pivot in the narrative definitely enticed the fans, who immediately started campaigning for a third movie. But it’s been months since there was any update from those involved in the franchise.

The most recent bit of hopeful news about Happy Death Day 3 came months ago, when director Christopher Landon teased that there would be good news in the “distant future.” But the studio pivoted focus to other projects like Halloween Kills and the Welcome to the Blumhouse movies. Hopefully Jason Blum’s newest update is a good sign for those wanting to dive back into the timeloop and see what’s happening with Tree and her friends. After all, the first sequel ended on an intriguing cliffhanger.

Narratively, it seems like the story could go just about anywhere with Happy Death Day 3. The second movie gives a scientific explanation to the bizarre murder loop that Tree lived through int he first movie, with the maguffin being a quantum reactor. She eventually joins an alternate dimension entirely, which further deepened the mythology. And now there’s so many doors open that director-writer Christopher Landon could go seemingly anywhere with the story.

Blumhouse has a number of projects coming down the line including Halloween Ends, an Exorcist sequel, and the sci-fi thriller Megan. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. 

Do you like scary movies? Unlike Scream’s lead final girl Sidney Prescott, Jason Blum loves them and has built a life and successful career out of them. As the founder of Blumhouse Productions, Blum has produced a large number of successful and recognizable horror films over the last 15 years. As his most recently released horror movie Halloween Kills already succeeding at the box office, Blum has opened up about the creepiest movies he's seen.  

The producer's success in the industry has led to Blumhouse tackling some pretty iconic franchises, the most notable probably being the Halloween franchise. The famous movie he deems as the scariest he’s ever watched, though, comes from a franchise he hasn’t (yet) had the pleasure of recreating. In an interview with Comic Book.com, Blum reveals that the OG Friday The 13th is the film that brought him the most terror, although he also gave props to a few others:

I think most of us have that one horror film we watched way too young, even if we had to sneak peeks either around our fingers or through cracked doors. For all those with coulrophobia, Stephen King’s IT was probably the cause, but it sounds like a young Jason Blum was probably more terrified of hockey masks and sleepaway camps, thanks to the slasher flick. Scariest doesn’t always mean best, though, and the film exec, of course, had to give that title to the reigning champ Alfred Hitchcock himself for Psycho - although you really can’t go wrong with any of his masterpieces of film.

Despite producing horror movies with lower budgets (which might even be a takeaway from the low budget Friday the 13th franchise he found so effective), the producer has managed to make some major contributions to the genre. Blumhouse pretty much got in on the ground floor of the “found footage” style of horror film (the main exception being The Blair Witch Project) with Paranormal Activity back in 2007, which launched a franchise and essentially his career.

Aside from Halloween Kills, the company has also released another franchise continuation in The Forever Purge, and there are dozens of other projects in the works. It’s beyond safe to say that James Blum knows horror. And at the same time, Jason Voorhees just won some major props in the fight for biggest horror baddie for terrifying a baby Blum back in the day.

While the Halloween franchise is one full of loose sequels and remakes, the movies thus far made by writer/director David Gordon Green are most definitely not either of those things. The 2018 Halloween does wipe the canon slate clean, ignoring everything but John Carpenter’s seminal film, but both it and the sequel, Halloween Kills, also do a tremendous job weaving themselves to that original title. It makes one wonder if a five-hour-plus of the three movies would be plausible – and for what it’s worth, star Jamie Lee Curtis is very much on board with the idea.

As captured in the video at the top of this article, this seal of approval was delivered earlier this month during the Los Angeles press day for Halloween Kills – at which time I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamie Lee Curtis, David Gordon Green, and producer Jason Blum. The topic came up because there are a number of flashbacks in the new movie set during the events of John Carpenter’s Halloween, and I was curious if any attempt had been made to splice the material together. When they all agreed it would be an interesting experiment, I asked about doing the five hour version, and that definitely got their wheels spinning.

Jason Blum noted that such a cut would not be something that could be given a wide release, as the situation with the rights precludes that as an option, but the idea of a one-night-only event at the Hollywood Bowl was suggested (featuring a live performance of the score, of course) – and that’s just an idea that is too good to ignore. Imagining what such an experience would be like practically makes one want to start rubbing every lamp in sight hoping that a genie will pop out in a wish-granting mood.

Not only does Halloween Kills feature flashbacks that tie back to the events of Halloween night in 1978, but it’s also a sequel that is primarily set in the immediate aftermath of the events featured in 2018’s Halloween. The main narrative in the film begins where the last one ended: with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the back of a flatbed with her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), driving away from a compound that is burning to the ground and has Michael Myers trapped in the basement. It seemed like a moment of victory in the last movie, but the tide quickly turns as the killer manages to once again escape certain death.

Fans will be able to watch all of the gore-soaked mayhem unfold in just a couple days, as Halloween Kills is arriving in theaters everywhere this Friday (it will also be available to stream on Peacock – but this is one that you’re going to want to see with a large crowd). Go see it, and then stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for our in-depth coverage!

Halloween Kills stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Anthony Michael Hall, Kyle Richards, director David Gordon Green and producer Jason Blum are back to discuss the follow-up to one of the greatest horror reboots of all time. 

In this interview with CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg, they discuss behind-the-scenes secrets (including a hidden cameo by Bob Odenkirk), how Laurie Strode and her relationship with her daughter have evolved, what it was like to bring back characters from the 1978 classic and more.

Video Chapters

• 00:00 - Intro 
• 00:09 - David Gordon Green & Jamie Lee Curtis Discuss The Dramatic Shift In Laurie’s Story Arc 
• 02:03 - How Halloween Kills' Director Helped Revive Characters From The Original 1978 Film 
• 03:21 - How Judy Greer & Jamie Lee Curtis Approached Karen and Laurie’s Closer Relationship 
• 04:31 - Halloween Kills Director Blew Jamie Lee Curtis' Mind With His Sneaky Bob Odenkirk Cameo 
• 05:28 - The Halloween Kills Cast Discusses Working Behind The Scenes With Director David Gordon Green 
• 06:11 - We Have An Awesome Idea For A 5-Hour Halloween Special, and Jamie Lee Curtis And Jason Blum Are Here For It

While Halloween Kills was delayed a year, it’s finally coming out in just a few days, and the final movie, at least for now, is set for next Halloween. And with a name like Halloween Ends, it’s clear that the movie at least wants us all to believe this is really it. 

It’s a good time to be a horror fan, and that’s partly thanks to Blumhouse, who deserves credit for contributing to the genre’s renaissance as of late. The studio has worked with the best horror filmmakers of the day like The Haunting of Hill House’s Mike Flanagan, Get Out’s Jordan Peele and The Invisible Man’s Leigh Whannell. Now, they’ll be revisiting one of the most terrifying movies of all time, The Exorcist, with a sequel headed our way in October 2023. And according to the company’s founder, Jason Blum, the decision to bring back Exorcist was influenced by the latest Halloween movies. 

Blumhouse brought back Michael Myers and Laurie Strode for a brand new trilogy starring the original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, 40 years after the events of the first movie. When speaking to CinePOP, Jason Blum shared how the 2018 film’s success has since inspired the production company to return to the haunting demon story: 

As Jason Blum shared, the same filmmakers behind the new Halloween trilogy, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride are making the next Exorcist movie. And much like their other horror hit, the sequel will ignore the events of the other four films and continue the events of the 1973 original instead. Blum is producing the film alongside Universal and Peacock, as it will be made for the streaming service as well.

The movie has already enlisted an original cast member from the 1973 classic, Ellen Burstyn. The 88-year-old actress will reprise her role as Chris MacNeil, a famous actress who temporarily moves to Georgetown with her 12-year-old daughter, Regan, to star in a film there. The horrors begin when Regan becomes possessed by a demon, which Chris then seeks to exorcise out of her. Joining MacNeil so far in the cast is Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr, who will play a father who seeks out help for his child, who becomes possessed this time around. 

Much like Halloween, it sounds like The Exorcist sequel is repeating a few of the best aspects of the new franchise, such as bringing back an original character and focusing on the storyline of the first movie, rather than completely rebooting it or getting stuck in the continuity of the other movies. Ahead of its release though, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills is coming to theaters and Peacock on October 15, and its concluding chapter, Halloween Ends, will be released in October 2022. 

Picking up where 2018’s Halloween left off, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills is all about the survivors and the victims of Michael Myers’ reign of terror back in the fall of 1978. Alongside Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, Lindsay Wallace and Tommy Doyle are brought back into the story, played by Kyle Richards (reprising the role) and Anthony Michael Hall, and there is specific recognition of all the people who the serial killer murdered during the fateful night captured in John Carpenter’s classic film.

Unfortunately, pulling off the latter proved to be a bit more complicated than originally expected for the production, but thanks to the cooperation of the great Bob Odenkirk, the issue was ultimately resolved and Halloween Kills has been outfitted with an amazing Easter Egg.

I learned about this story yesterday during an interview with David Gordon Green, Jamie Lee Curtis, and producer Jason Blum – captured in the video above. During my screening of Halloween Kills, I spotted Bob Odenkirk’s name in the end credits, but didn’t remember actually seeing him in the movie. Wanting to feed my curiosity, I asked the filmmakers about it, and the director gave me the inside scoop on the Better Call Saul star’s involvement:

Bob Simms in 1978’s Halloween is played by John Michael Graham, and the role is his only credited part. Fans will remember him as the boyfriend of P.J. Soles' Lynda Van Der Klok, who meets a rather grisly fate when he is just trying to get a post-sex beer. An encounter with Michael Myers in the kitchen results in him being pinned to the wall with a chef’s knife and quickly dying.

Excitedly adding to David Gordon Green’s story, Jamie Lee Curtis explained that the production reached out to Bob Odenkirk, and were thankful when he said yes:

At the end of the day, it’s practically a coincidence that Bob Odenkirk is a part of Halloween Kills, but it’s an element of the film that David Gordon Green seems to be very proud of. He added,

So when Halloween Kills arrives in theaters and on Peacock next week, be sure to pay close attention to the news broadcast early in the film, as you’ll get to quickly spot a photo from Bob Odenkirk’s high school days. And also be sure to pay close attention here on CinemaBlend in the coming days, as we’ll have more for you from my interviews with the new sequel’s filmmakers and cast.

Countless movies were pushed back last year during the pandemic, and that includes horror flicks. Fans were disappointed when Halloween Kills was delayed a full year, but the Jamie Lee Curtis slasher is nearly upon us. And Jason Blum recently explained why Halloween Kills is also going to streaming on Peacock.

With Halloween Kills just weeks away from its release, moviegoers were shocked to learn that it would be releasing simultaneously on streaming. This hasn’t stopped folks like Jamie Lee Curtis from hyping up the delayed slasher’s release, but it definitely turned a few heads. Jason Blum revealed that the decision was actually his, as he recently shared:

Interesting. Blumhouse is known for being a haven for horror, but that doesn’t mean the studio hasn’t made errors in the past. Jason Blum specifically cited Vince Vaughn’s body-swap horror movie Freaky, and how he felt he let that movie down with an exclusive theatrical run. As such, Halloween Kills will be more available thanks to it hitting streaming and movies.

Jason Blum’s comments to IndieWire help to peel back the curtain on what it’s like at the head of a major movie studio. Horror movies run on tighter budgets than blockbusters, so they also have the opportunity to make a major profit. But the entire film industry has been in a strange place, and Blum wants to make sure that the most eyes possible are on Halloween Kills.

Luckily for Jason Blum and company, anticipation for Halloween Kills is pretty damn high at this point. While David Gordon Green’s 2018 movie was very much focused on Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie and her family, the universe is definitely expanding in the upcoming slasher. The town of Haddonfield will arm up to take on Michael Myers themselves, bringing in a number of OG actors from John Carpenter’s original Halloween movie.

The trailers for Halloween Kills really make it look like the Avengers of horror flicks, with actors facing off against Michael Myers 40 years and change after the events of the original. It should be interesting to see if it matches the same record-breaking box office numbers of the 2018 sequel. This is especially true since the new movie will also be available to stream. 

Halloween Kills hits theaters officially on October 15th. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.

July 9 marked the long-awaited debut of Black Widow, and Scarlett Johansson is still getting plenty of attention for her ninth and final Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (including her brief appearance in Captain Marvel), but not for the reasons we were expecting. Last week, Johansson sued Disney over the company allegedly breaching its contract with her when it made Black Widow available on Disney+ Premier Access alongside its theatrical run. Numerous people in the entertainment industry have expressed support for Johansson’s legal crusade, and now we can count producer Jason Blum, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, among that bunch.

Shortly after Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit was announced, Disney issued a public statement saying that it found said lawsuit “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” as well was noted that the actress received “additional compensation on top of the $20M she has received to date.” As part of The Hollywood Reporter’s extensive writeup on how Disney’s response to Johansson’s lawsuit has been received in the Hollywood space, Jason Blum said the following:

Jason Blum is among the people who believe that streaming services should share revenue with talent, and while he acknowledged the hypocrisy of this stance given that Blumhouse jus signed a huge deal with Universal Pictures to make a new Exorcist trilogy, that’s a model he hopes isn’t sustainable. The alternative, as he sees it, is simply paying the corporation, which isn’t any better.

Black Widow is the latest Disney movie to premiere on Disney+’s Premier Access tier at the same time it plays in theaters, with others including Raya and the Last Dragon, Cruella and Jungle Cruise. This release strategy has been adopted as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, much like how Warner Bros’ entire 2021 release slate is playing on both the big screen and on HBO Max. Although in that instance, HBO Max subscribers can access these WB movies for 31 days at no additional charge, while Premier Access charges an addition $29.99 to always have the movie available as long as you’re subscribed to Disney+. Disney CEO Bob Chapek has also been making a concerted effort to draw in more Disney+ subscribers to drive up Disney’s stock price, and putting Black Widow on the platform has helped with this.

Regardless, this situation with Scarlett Johansson has opened up a proverbial can of worms and could lead to more actors suing Disney for similar financial reasons (which Cruella’s Emma Stone is reportedly considering). Because unlike Warner Bros, evidently the Mouse House didn’t shell out additional money to its biggest talent after implementing the day-and-date release plan (though admittedly, WB didn’t do this until after backlash to the initial announcement came pouring in). Here’s what Jason Blum had to say about what he believes streaming services are hoping to accomplish in the coming years:

Whether or not this happens remains to be seen, although an unnamed producer who also spoke with THR stated that they see this segment of the entertainment landscape becoming “work for hire.” In other words, talent will still “get a huge payment up front,” but there won’t be “huge home runs” anymore and associated fees will “get smaller.” Jason Blum added that when it comes to streaming movies, if you’re not “participating in the upside or downside,” that results in the creative process being “compromised,” and he predicts there will be “a ton of lawsuits” that hopefully lead to “sharing in streaming.”

We’ll keep you apprised on more updates on Scarlett Johansson’s Disney lawsuit as they trickle in. For now, the next movie on the MCU film slate is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and as of this writing, it’s only going to play in theaters rather than also be put on Disney+ Premier Access.

Sequels are not remakes. We can all agree upon that fact, right? A remake can retain the name alone and basically do whatever it wants as long as it maintains the basic premise of its source material. On the other hand, a sequel usually connects with the film that precedes it, as fans are going to expect certain things out of a movie if you're saying it's a follow-up to the original property. Well, producer Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions did an admirable job with the 2018 Halloween sequel (simply titled, Halloween), aims to do something similar with another one of the most beloved horror movies of all time, The Exorcist.

In fact, Jason Blum compares this new Exorcist sequel that his production company is cooking up to the recent Halloween. While speaking with Den of Geek, Jason Blum shared some details on his plans for the next iteration in the storied horror franchise:

The “David” that Jason Blum is referring to is director David Gordon Green, who managed to connect this recent version of Halloween with the 1978 original. And ultimately, the 2018 movie disregarded every film after the first Halloween, retconning the entire series in the process. Of course, some fans of the long-running franchise (myself included) were not pleased that we had to sit through numerous other Halloween movies of varying quality (with the term "varying quality" being very generous) only to find out that none of those movies are relevant besides the first one.

That said, 2018's Halloween was actually really good for all that it was worth. It should be mentioned that I'm very much in the minority and love Halloween III: Season of the Witch. I'm admittedly also somewhat of a Rob Zombie apologist, who greatly enjoyed his Halloween remake (but can’t stand his Halloween II). Still, I can definitely understand where Jason Blum and co. wanting to scrap the other movies and start anew, even though it may not sit well with some fans of the horror franchise. In the same interview, he continued:

Now, I’m not really sure where Jason Blum is getting this information from that 95% of the audience will NOT have seen the original Exorcist, but I do kind of understand where he’s coming from here as well. The fans of the The Exorcist series (and yes, Exorcist III is awesome), will likely already have feelings on the series and might not even care that the other films are getting erased.

This sequel is, ironically, not for the original fans as, instead, this sequel is more of a soft reboot. And by Jason Blum’s words, it's the kind of film that younger audiences will see and afterwards, will possibly be tempted to check out the original, which he believes only 5% of the audience for this new film will have watched.

Well, I would normally say, “I don’t care. I’m not going to watch a sequel that disregards The Exorcist III.” But I really liked 2018’s Halloween and am looking forward to its follow-ups. So I guess all I can really say is, “Take my money, Mr. Blum, because I want to see what your production company will be doing with The Exorcist.” But what do you think? Are you part of the 95% that Jason Blum thinks has never seen (or even HEARD OF) the original Exorcist? Sound off in the poll below. I’d actually love to know if the first Exorcist is truly starting to become obscure.

This poll is no longer available.

Is The Forever Purge going to be the last movie in the Purge franchise? There certainly have been reasons to think that it might be. In 2018, following the release of The First Purge, writer James DeMonaco said in an interview that he had an idea for a film that would be a “really cool ending” for the series, and ever since then there has been speculation about whether or not the upcoming fourth sequel would actually be that capstone story.

Now the movie is about to actually come out, but unfortunately the answer to the big question remains as unclear as ever. This is because while James DeMonaco might still be thinking of The Forever Purge as the franchise finale, producer Jason Blum isn’t yet ready to say goodbye to the popular horror brand.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Blum earlier this month during The Forever Purge’s recent virtual press day, and my very first question to the filmmaker was about the movie’s status as a potential finale. Blum acknowledged that comments previously made by James DeMonaco, who is credited as the creator of the franchise, and made it very clear that he doesn’t have any interest in making a Purge movie without him – but at the same time he made it very clear that he is not ready to see these films end their run just yet. Said Blum,

Unlike The First Purge, which was a prequel set before the events of the original 2013 film, The Forever Purge is a direct sequel to The Purge: Election Year that jumps ahead in the franchise timeline and sees the fascistic New Founding Fathers Of America reclaim power and reinstate the annual 12-hour horror show the series is named after. The big catch this time, however, is that those who very much enjoy the purging process decide that they don’t want to just limit themselves to a single half-day of chaos anymore, and a movement begins nationwide that sees lawlessness and violence continue even after the Purge is officially declared over.

The Forever Purge is the darkest chapter in the series yet, and while it’s ending does keep the door open for more stories to be told (I won’t get any more spoiler-y than that), Jason Blum does respect why James DeMonaco wants to step away. The producer is very proud of the success that the series has had, though, and doesn’t quite want to let it go:

As recognized by Jason Blum, one strong argument to keep the movies coming is that, when you consider worldwide box office totals, each installment has been more popular and more successful than the last. The Purge made $89.3 million globally when it came out eight years ago, and each of its sequels – The Purge: Anarchy ($111.9 million), The Purge: Election Year ($118.6 million), and The First Purge ($137.1 million) – has made more than its predecessor. When that kind of clear demand exists, why stop?

This then leads to another important question: given the track record, what would define success and worthiness of a sequel for The Forever Purge? The answer is obviously complicated (made more so due to the fact that theaters are still recovering post-2020), but Jason Blum took a crack at explaining it:

Directed by Everardo Gout, and starring Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas, and Will Patton, The Forever Purge arrives in theaters this Friday – just in time for the July 4th holiday – and we’ll keep you updated here on CinemaBlend regarding the potential future for a Purge 6.

In Hollywood, every project moves at its own pace. Enough excitement and resources for an idea can get some movies through pre-production and principal photography in a matter of months, while others may take a decade to get up on their feet. You can never quite be sure which way things are going to go.

Let’s take a pair of recently announced Stephen King projects as an example. It was only back in February that Paramount+’s upcoming Pet Sematary follow-up was announced as being in development, and now production is being planned for August. Conversely, while a new remake of Christine was revealed to be in the works earlier this month, producer Jason Blum has confirmed that it’s going to be a minute before that particular project starts really gunning its engine.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason Blum this week during the virtual press day for The Forever Purge, and I used part of the time during our conversation to discuss the Stephen King adaptations that Blumhouse Productions currently has in the works. He noted that Keith Thomas’ Firestarter, starring Zac Efron, is coming along nicely and has earned King’s seal of approval – but as for Christine, plans for that film are still very much in the early stages:

For those who missed the news, it was reported earlier this month that Blumhouse and Sony Pictures are collaborating on a new big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s classic killer car novel Christine, and Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) is attached to write and direct. It was said in the trades that the project will still be a period piece, but clearly there is little about the film that is presently set in stone.

The 1983 novel tells the story of Arnie Cunningham, a nerdy loser who starts to undergo massive changes when he purchases a trashed 1958 Plymouth Fury. Arnie dedicates himself to restoring the secretly evil car back to its former glory, but doing so slowly begins to corrupt him – leaving his best friend and girlfriend to try and save him before it is too late.

Christine is one of three Stephen King adaptations that Blumhouse Productions currently has in the works – the studio having previously made 2014’s Mercy (based on the short story “Gramma” from Night Shift). The aforementioned Firestarter is currently in production, and Jason Blum is also teaming up with Ryan Murphy to produce a feature version of “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” from If It Bleeds for Netflix.

So, fellow Constant Readers, we’ll have to be a bit patient when it comes to the wait for Bryan Fuller’s Christine – but hopefully all that time will be well spent making sure that the movie is the best version of itself possible.

Having spent nearly a half-century watching his novels and short stories turned into films, miniseries, and television shows, Stephen King doesn’t have a reputation for sugar-coating his opinions when it comes to adaptations of his work. He’ll proudly announce his support of any project he likes (for example, the series based on his Mr. Mercedes trilogy), but he’s also not afraid to express dissatisfaction (for example, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Children Of The Corn). Naturally, getting his approval can mean a lot, which is why it’s exciting to learn that King has thus far liked what he has seen from the developing remake of Firestarter starring Zac Efron.

The upcoming movie, directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil), is now filming, and this week I got an exciting update about its development from producer Jason Blum – who is currently promoting the forthcoming release of The Forever Purge. His company, Blumhouse Productions, is looking to become a big name in Stephen King adaptations in the coming years, as they are also developing a remake of Christine and a feature version of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, and it was while discussing Firestarter that he talked about consulting the author about the remake. Said Blum,

First published in 1980, Firestarter was originally adapted by director Mark L. Lester in 1984, and while the movie is an extremely faithful translation of the book that features an outstanding cast (including Drew Barrymore, Martin Sheen, George C. Scott, Art Carney, and Louise Fletcher), it doesn’t quite pack the punch and energy that it should. Blumhouse has been developing the remake since 2017, but it has really been in the last year that the film has found traction and made huge leaps forward.

Scott Teems, who co-wrote the screenplay for Blumhouse’s upcoming Halloween Kills, has penned the script that got Stephen King’s seal of approval. Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong star as Andy and Charlie McGee – a father and daughter with psychic abilities who go on the run from a government agency known as The Shop. Leading the search is a psychopathic mercenary named John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes), who is employed by The Shop, but has his own plans for the young girl.

Universal Pictures is set to release the film theatrically, but the studio has not yet announced a release date. To get all of the latest updates about all of the adaptations that are currently in the works, be sure to check out our Upcoming Stephen King guide, and check out my Adapting Stephen King column for weekly deep dives into King’s history on the big and small screens.

Producer Jason Blum is getting heavy into the Stephen King adaptation game. After years of development, Blumhouse Productions' upcoming remake of Firestarter has finally entered production, and is currently in principal photography up in Canada, but the company isn't just stopping there. Instead, Blum has apparently gotten his hands on another classic King tome, and now it has been announced that a remake of Christine is in the works.

News of this development comes to us from Deadline, which adds the exciting news that Bryan Fuller – best known for TV series including Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, and Dead Like Me – is handling the screenplay and is attached to direct. In addition to Jason Blum, filmmaker Vincenzo Natali is also producing, having previously been involved with Stephen King projects including the 2019 feature In The Tall Grass and two episodes of the recent The Stand miniseries. Should all go according to plan, it will be the third King movie from Blumhouse, as the company first made Mercy (an adaptation of the short story "Gramma") in 2014.

Of course, what's particularly notable about this development is the fact that we have already seen a big screen version of Christine, and one made by a true Master of Horror. John Carpenter's film from 1983 is still regarded as a classic, and it's a feature that you can watch today and still wonder how the filmmakers were able to pull off some of the cinema magic. There are some key deviations that the adaptation makes from Stephen King's book – including the removal of a key antagonist, and the ways that the titular car murders people she doesn't like – so it will be interesting to see if this new effort either hones closer to the source material, or attempts to be a total reinvention of the story. The trade report does say that the story is going to stick to being set in the 1980s.

First published in the spring of 1983, Christine tells the story of a loser teenager named Arnie Cunningham who sees his life completely change when he one day discovers a junked 1958 Plymouth Fury. Instantly falling in love with the car, he dedicates himself to refurbishing it to its former glory – but the larger truth in the story is that Christine is an evil machine that is not only intensely possessive, but also a dangerous corrupting force. It becomes the responsibility of his best friend, Dennis Guilder, and his girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, to stop the sinister vehicle before it is too late.

Right now this remake of Christine is very much in the earliest stages, but there's no denying that it's an exciting development given all of the talent involved. Given our anticipation, you can be sure that we'll have more updates for you as they continue to pop up. In the meantime, to check our all of the King adaptations that are currently in the works, be sure to check out our Upcoming Stephen King Movies And TV guide.

With so many movie theaters still closed during the health crisis, unless one is somehow able to rent out a theater or has access to a private one, then the only way to enjoy the big screen experience in these strange times is by visiting a drive-in theater. That’s what Blumhouse Productions founder and CEO Jason Blum recently did, with Wall-E being his feature of choice. Unfortunately for Blum, he crashed his car soon after seeing the 2008 Pixar movie.

As the “old” saying goes, pics or it didn’t happen. Well, Jason Blum has done just that; take a look at his wrecked car following his Wall-E screening:

Whether or not the snowfall had anything to do with Jason Blum crashing his car, it’s fortunate that no one was hurt during the accident. Yes, the car obviously looks for wear, but it can at least it can be repaired or replaced. Nevertheless, of all the ways to kick off 2021, getting into a car crash is certainly among the less than desirable scenarios.

Fortunately, it sounds like Jason Blum’s Wall-E drive-thru experience was pleasant enough beforehand, with the snow positively adding to the ambience. Blum shared a look at the screening hours earlier on Twitter, oblivious to what was in store for him and his family after the screening:

Considering that Jason Blum runs a production company that’s chiefly known for its horror offerings, perhaps he could use this car accident to his advantage and turn it into a cinematic story. Think about it: a family is caught in a car accident in the middle of a snowstorm, but rather than safely making it back home like Blum did, they instead find their way to a creepy house filled with suspect inhabitants, or perhaps are hunted down by terrifying creatures in the nearby woods instead. Whatever the case, it’d be an easy enough tale for Blumhouse to deliver to the masses since the company’s cinematic works are usually made off a small budget.

For now though, Blumhouse Productions has enough to work on for the coming years, including Insidious 5, Five Nights at Freddy’s, an Exorcist sequel and a Spawn reboot. Blumhouse’s most recent movie was the Vince Vaughn-led body-swap horror comedy known as Freaky, which was met with a lot of positive reviews. Blumhouse has The Vigil, The Forever Purge and Halloween Kills dated for 2021, while next year will bring Paranormal Activity 7 and Halloween Ends.

As for Jason Blum’s drive-in selection this past weekend, Wall-E still ranks as one of Pixar’s more unique movies, with the story following a robot in the future who been left to clean up trash on a deserted Earth by itself. When a probe robot called EVE makes its way into Wall-E’s neck of the woods, the titular protagonist falls in love with her and ends up following her across the galaxy. Along with earning critical acclaim, Wall-E collected over $521 million worldwide. Pixar’s latest movie is Soul, which dropped on Disney+ and has also been incredibly well received.

Keep locked in on CinemaBlend for more Blumhouse and Pixar news, and everything in between. Keep track of all the movies supposed to arrive this year with our 2021 release schedule.

There was a time when the biggest thing in video games was a simple independently developed horror title called Five Nights at Freddy's. Of course, it's possible that the game itself was somewhat less popular than the act of watching another person play it and leap out of their skin during one of the franchise's trademark jump scares, but it was popular nonetheless. The game may not be the biggest name in the industry currently, but it's still well regarded, so much so that a movie adaptation has been in development for years, and apparently, still is.

Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse studio is producing the Five Nights at Freddy's film recently told Inverse, that, while the movie has been slow going, it has been progressing forward at a steady pace. While it doesn't look like the project is close to finished yet, Blum certainly implies that the script process has been slowly unraveling the surprisingly complex film. Because of the depth to the story, turning the series, that now includes multiple games and books, has been a challenge. According to Blum...

At its core Five Nights at Freddy's is a simple enough game. The player takes on the role of a night watchman at a Chuck E. Cheese-like pizza parlor, called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The player sits at a security station and watches computer monitors for anything suspicious. There are no issues with break-ins. However, the night watchmen is required to deal with the fact that at night the animatronic mascot characters come to life and try to murder him.

While the premise is simple, game creator Scott Cawthon actually created some incredibly deep lore that's built into the fabric of the games. While numerous details regarding "what it all means" have been sprinkled throughout the various games, its often done in such a hidden and vague way that fans spend as much time trying to decode the game as they do playing it.

The movie has a pretty solid opportunity, as the lore of Five Nights has become a little nuts over the years and a movie has the benefit of simplifying and straightening it all out. At the same time, the movie might want to make changes to the story as well. Otherwise, a lot of people will know all the secrets before the movie ever arrives.

The past few years have been an exciting renaissance for the horror genre, as a variety of critically acclaimed movies arrived in theaters to box office acclaim. Many of the most recent classics have come from Blumhouse, including Get Out, Halloween, and Insidious. The studio is also known for the Paranormal Activity franchise, and Jason Blum is interested in an iconic actor returning. Namely, franchise star Katie Featherson.

Katie Featherson starred as a title by her own name in the original Paranormal Activity movie. The found footage horror flick made a whopping $193.4 million on an indie budget, and kickstarted a franchise that would include five sequels (so far). Katie was the overarching villain/victim of the films, appearing five times total. As such, fans are wondering if she might return for the sequel that's currently in development. Jason Blum addressed this possibility, saying:

Well, this is exciting. While there aren't any current plans to bring Katie Featherson back to the Paranormal Activity franchise, but Jason Blum seems more than open to another collaboration. We'll just have to see how the story plays out, and whether or not Katie the character appears in the developing horror project. Fingers crossed.

Jason Blum's comments to Fandom are sure to excite all the Paranormal Activity fans out there. Because since so much of the franchise's story is focused on the demon that is attached to Katie and her family, the new movie seems like a great opportunity to bring back the property's leading lady. But since the upcoming project is still in the development stage, there's currently no telling how the story will play out.

Katie Featherson was an unknown when she starred in the original Paranormal Activity, which eventually got its wide release in 2009. The first entry was filmed on a minuscule budget, and became a sensation in theaters. What's more, found footage movies also had a boom at this time, with plenty of other horror movies following suit.

Throughout the Paranormal Activity franchise, Katie is the one character to consistently appear in most of the entries-- even if they're merely cameos. The story follows as a curse is put on her family, and Katie is eventually possessed. The story's ending in Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was still open ended, and there's opportunity for the character to pop up again.

We'll just have to see how the development process of the upcoming Paranormal Activity sequel goes. There's a distinct chance this could be a long process at Blumhouse, or that the movie never even becomes a reality. Only time will tell, but horror fans like myself will keep their fingers crossed.

CinemaBlend will keep you updated on all things Paranormal Activity as more details become public. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next movie experience.

It's currently the middle of October, so Halloween season is in full effect. This month usually comes with a slew of horror movies in theaters, as moviegoers get festival and are treated to some good old fashioned scares. But horror fans were bummed to see that Blumhouse's Halloween Kills was delayed a full calendar year due to the ongoing issues with the pandemic. Some moviegoers are worried that the movie could be delayed again, and now Jason Blum himself as addressed this possibility.

David Gordon Green's 2018 Halloween movie was a record breaking success when it arrived in theaters, leading Blumhouse to green light two more sequels to form a bonafide trilogy. Halloween Kills was completed and mean to arrive in theaters this October, but was delayed a year so that it could hopefully see the same box office success as its predecessor. Jason Blum was recently asked if the movie might be delayed yet another year depending on global health issues, to which he said:

Well, that's a relief. Because while Halloween Kills was delayed a full year in order to try and make money for the studio, Blumhouse has no plans to push the highly anticipated slasher back another time. We'll just have to wait and see how the ongoing health crisis pans out, and how that affects the entertainment industry.

Jason Blum's comments to Forbes is sure to excite horror fans who were bummed that Halloween Kills was pushed to 2021. This call was made just a month and change before the highly anticipated sequel was meant to arrive in theaters. And while there are still a handful of scary movies in theaters for Halloween, but Michael Myers will be noticeably absent.

As disappointing as Halloween Kills' delay was for moviegoers, it does make a great deal of sense. The horror genre is known the ability to make a ton of money on a small budget, and 2018's Halloween was no exception. David Gordon Green's debut into the beloved slasher property made a whopping $255.5 million on a budget of around $15 million. And Blumhouse is no doubt hoping for the same success with its pair of upcoming sequels.

While information about Halloween Kills' contents are largely a mystery, anticipation for the slasher sequel has been steadily building since the project was first announced. The upcoming movie will pick up directly after the events of the last movie, with three generations of Strode women having barely survived Michael Myers' return to Haddonfield. The sequel will "unpack" the events of John Carpenter's 1978 original, while uniting all of the survivors from The Shape's first attack on the town.

Regardless of what the movie industry looks like in October of 2021, Jason Blum and company seemingly have every intention of releasing Halloween Kills. It should also be interesting to see if Halloween Ends follows suit the following October. That threequel hasn't been filmed yet, so only time will tell if/when production begins. Will they wait for Halloween Kills to finally hit theaters first? Only time will tell.

Halloween Kills is currently set to arrive in theaters on October 15, 2021. In the meantime, check out our 2021 release list to plan your trips to the movies next year.

The horror genre has been in a thrilling renaissance over the past few years, as plenty of unique properties hit theaters to critical and box office success. One of the most notable of these success stories is Jordan Peele's directorial debut Get Out, which ultimately earned him an Oscar for Best Screenplay. The acclaimed thriller came to theater thanks to the work of horror studio Blumhouse, which is now once again collaborating with Get Out star Allison Williams on a new project.

When Get Out hit theaters in 2017, the actor's performances were universally celebrated. This is especially true for Girls actress Allison Williams, who channeled a terrifying level of crazy as Rose Armitage. Fans of the genre will no doubt be thrilled to see Williams starring and executive producing the new tech thriller M3GAN for Blumhouse Productions.

M3GAN will mark Allison Williams' third major horror film, and she'll be playing the role of roboticist protagonist Gemma. She works at a high-tech toy company, and creates a life-style doll that can be programmed to be a friend to both parents and kids alike. She eventually takes a prototype of M3GAN home with her, and chaos no doubt ensues shortly thereafter.

The description of M3GAN sounds like a modern day take on Child's Play. But rather than being possessed by a villain, it seems that the AI programming could end up being the robotic macguffin for horror. The movie is being produced by an iconic duo of Jason Blum and James Wan, both of which have helped bring countless modern horror classics to life.

But that's not all we know about M3GAN. The upcoming horror project was written by Akela Cooper, who is known for her work in projects like The Nun 2 and Luke Cage. The rest of the movie's starring cast remain to be seen, but names like Allison Williams and James Wan are sure to attract more A-list talent.

This will mark Allison Williams' third starring role in a horror movie, making her a bonafide scream queen in the process. Get Out marked the Girls actress' transition from television to movies, and her performance was utterly chilling. She followed this up with the Netflix original film The Perfection, which was an even darker and far more bloody affair. It should be interesting to see how her character plays out in Blumhouse's M3GAN, especially given how successful their previous collaboration was.

Blumhouse has been behind a ton of iconic horror movies over the years. Aside from Get Out, the studio also helped to bring projects like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Happy Death Day, and 2018's Halloween to theaters. So Allison Williams and company are in good hands with M3GAN, and we'll just have to wait and se how the project ultimately comes together.

CinemaBlend will keep you updated on all things M3GAN and horror as more details become public. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next movie experience.

The horror genre was built on franchises, and there are few quite as iconic as Halloween. John Carpenter's 1978 changed slashers forever, and the property has never been far from theaters. 2018's Halloween was a direct sequel to the original, and resulted in box office and critical success. Blumhouse quickly ordered two more movies, starting with Halloween Kills. Moviegoers have been eager to see the highly anticipated movie's first trailer, and now producer Jason Blum has explained its delay.

Following the record-breaking success of the last Halloween movie, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride crafted two more stories to form a new horror trilogy. Halloween Kills completed filming months ago, and is currently expected to arrive in theaters this October. But despite how soon the release date is, we haven't been treated to a trailer. Jason Blum recently explained this delay, saying:

Well, that was honest. It looks like Blumhouse Productions doesn't want to start doing press for Halloween Kills yet, as it's unclear what the state of movie theaters will be in October. Plenty of projects are being pushed back to try make sure the theatrical release is as profitable as possible. Considering just how much money the last Halloween movie made, it stands to reasons that the studio is trying to have similar success with the sequel.

Jason Blum's comments to Fandom make a great deal of sense given the current unprecedented state of the entertainment industry. Theaters around the world were shut down amid global health concerns, with blockbusters like Black Widow, No Time to Die, and F9 all being delayed in the process. Halloween Kills is basically the horror version of a blockbuster, so its release is going to be methodical.

Theaters around the country have been slowly opening up, but there haven't been any major releases as of yet. There are a few movies coming down the pipeline like Tenet, but there's no telling what the state of the industry will be like in October. And as such, horror fans have to sit and wait in order to get a glimpse into the contents of Halloween Kills.

While Jamie Lee Curtis shared a video from the set of Halloween Kills months back, no more official footage has been offered since. But anticipation for the movie continues to steadily build, especially as the cast and crew teases what's coming with the sequel. Jamie Lee Curtis has maintained that Halloween Kills will "unpack" the events of John Carpenter's original movie, featuring the survivors from Michael's original attack on Haddonfield.

Seeing OG Halloween actors reprise their roles is one of the many reasons why anticipation for Halloween Kills is at a fever pitch. Kyle Richards, Charles Cyphers, and Nancy Stephens will all be back decades after the 1978 original, while Anthony Michael Hall will play an adult version of Tommy Doyle. The trailer will no doubt feature these familiar faces, which should expand the franchise greatly.

Halloween Kills is currently set to arrive in theaters on October 16th. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.