The horror movie juggernaut, Blumhouse, is getting into video games with plans to stay at the low-budget, indie level that they utilized so well in the movie and TV business.
Following success after success in the horror genre, Blumhouse will start a new venture with CEO Jason Blum starting Blumhouse Games, which hopes to continue the studio’s history of making smaller budgets into horror hits.
Blum’s production company plans to make horror games costing less than $10 million to produce, sticking with their film philosophy. It will identify titles in development at smaller studios and offer financing, creative input, and the value of its reputation in the horror space over the last decade or more, which has seen the Halloween reboot, as well as M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass and Split.
Blumhouse Games has hired Zach Wood (Prey: Mooncrash, Redfall), who has worked on more than 25 games, to oversee the creative side of its business, as well as Don Sechler, a veteran of PlayStation, to run finance and operations. They will report to Abhijay Prakash, the president of Blumhouse.
“For some time we have been looking to build out a team to start accessing the growth opportunity in interactive media,” said Abhijay Prakash. “When we sat with Zach and Don they articulated an approach that resonated with our model and we knew it was a perfect place for us to start our push into the interactive space.”
“We’re in the scary story business. We do films, we do TV, and there is this massive, growing segment in media and entertainment called gaming,” Prakash said. “The space is hundreds of billions of dollars; we’re in a great position to try and access it.”
Blumhouse is already the biggest producer of horror movies in Hollywood and is about to merge with Atomic Monster, a production company led by director James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw). The pair have already been working together on the Insidious movies.
With other smaller successes in the horror genre, such as Creep, Ouija, Oculus, and my personal favourite horror movie of all time, Sinister, there is a ton of potential for Blumhouse Games in a market screaming for more horror titles.
