Buy low, sell high: How Blumhouse does horror films the right way

We’ve seen a recent resurgence of horror movies. This month there are two high-profile films set to hit theaters: “A Quiet Place” came out Friday and “Truth or Dare” comes out on Friday the 13th. “A Quiet Place” is an unusual big-budget release from a studio, while “Truth or Dare” represents the new model of success: modestly-budgeted productions with large marketing campaigns.

The financial strategy is simple: you make the movie cheap, and then hand it to the big boys to sell. No partnership exemplifies this model better than Blumhouse and Universal Studios.

Universal Studios releasing horror films is certainly nothing new. In fact, in the early days of cinema when each studio had its own genre specialty, that’s especially what it was known for. The studio was specifically notorious for its monster flicks, such as “Dracula” and “Frankenstein,” many of which are iconic today.

The studio has gone full circle now — decades later, it is re-upping its reputation as a horror house. The biggest difference, though, is that the actual production of these films are outsourced and Blumhouse is taking the reins.

Blumhouse is a production company run by producer Jason Blum that specializes in low-budget, high-quality horror. It finds directors with a vision, then turn the actual film over to Universal for the marketing. The genius of Blumhouse is that instead of making films around stars or even brands, it makes films about ideas.

Let’s take some of Blumhouse’s biggest hits: we have “The Purge,” a wildly successful franchise based on the idea of legal crime for a day. “Happy Death Day” was like if “Groundhog Day” was a horror film. Its latest, “Truth or Dare” is taking a classic game and putting it on its head in a horrifying way.

These are movies that don’t need high budgets because the ideas can sell themselves. Unlike the horror movies of the mid-2000s that were sold on their gore-factor, these films sell themselves with wit and charm and then make sure to have the scares.

You don’t go into the movie for the fear and stay for the cleverness — it’s the other way around. The genius of Blumhouse’s model is that when a movie flops, there’s minimal loss due to the low budget. When a film works, though, the gains can be huge.

Blumhouse produced “Get Out,” which was one of the most profitable films of 2017. These successful films create plenty of space for the occasional misfire, while also allowing the company to take creative risks. Again, with this financial freedom, if something risky does not work out, the losses are under control while the gains could be huge.

Time will tell if “Truth or Dare” is a horror hit or just another forgettable movie, but with costs under control and an interesting premise, it will be another financially stable product by Blumhouse and Universal.

Erik Benjamin is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at ebenjami@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @cokezeriksugar.