Blumhouse is taking their wave of genre dominance to yet another streaming service! On the heels of series launches on both Netflix and Hulu this year, Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Television has inked a deal with Amazon Studios for eight new thrillers movies — sorry, “elevated thriller/darkly-themed feature-length productions,” per the press release. The “elevated genre movies” will be released exclusively on Amazon Prime Video worldwide. The other interesting tidbit is that all the titles will come from "diverse and underrepresented filmmakers."
“Jason Blum has built an empire based on fear, shock and all things spine-tingling,” Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke said. “He has redefined the horror genre for fans who are hungry for high concept scares. Whether it’s found footage, a socially conscious terror comedy or a pure sinister adrenaline ride, he reinvented and infused the genre with cultural relevancy.”
“We are delighted Amazon is entrusting Blumhouse to deliver its signature thrills and chills to its global audience through this deal,” said Blum. “This is a great opportunity for Blumhouse Television to empower underrepresented filmmakers offering a fresh take on the dark genres loved by fans the world over."
Over the last decade, Blumhouse has become an unmitigated force in the film industry, launching a series of franchises by giving filmmakers small budgets but big creative freedom. However, they're just beginning to find their footing in the realm of TV. After some earlier efforts with short-lived series like Stranded and The River, Blumhouse has put a focused push into TV production over the last couple years, leading to a massive rollout this year.
Blum has made it clear that he views TV as a necessity for continued growth in content creation, and he's not wasting time racking up the deals. Last month, Blumhouse TV hired five new executives to expand production, development and business affairs. This year output included Hulu’s holiday themed anthology Into the Dark, the USA Network series adaptation of the hit The Purge franchise (which was just renewed for a second season), Netflix’s Indian horror series Ghoul, and perhaps least expected, HBO’s critically acclaimed mystery series Sharp Objects.
Indeed, Blum seems focused on curating a robust lineup of genre-bending content, not just the horror-specific projects audiences have come to expect from his box office hits. Hence, all this "elevated genre" nonsense, which seems to be a marketing move along the lines of when they called Get Out a "social thriller" instead of a horror movie. And hey, it worked -- Get Out won an Oscar, which horror movies rarely do, so maybe it's a smart PR move. But as a proud fan of horror and thrillers, it continues to be a bit frustrating when creators turn their nose up at the genre fans who feed them. At the same time, if this means we're going to get eight new movies from diverse filmmakers who take genre seriously -- that's a pretty great thing!
What do you guys think? Is this a good fit for Blumhouse? Will you be excited to see new feature-length thrills on Amazon Prime? Are you as sick of this "elevated" nonsense as I am, or just excited to see more genre content? Sound off in the comments below.
