Movies
“I Will Never Give Up”: Jason Blum Says ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Elm Street’ Are Still His White Whales
If Jason Blum had his way, he’d be acquiring all the big horror franchises like Infinity Stones. But while Blumhouse has generated multiple new franchises of their own, including Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, and The Black Phone, the only white whales that Blum has been able to get his hands on thus far are Halloween, which Blumhouse revived with a trilogy of tales chronicling the further adventures of Michael Myers, Laurie Strode and (checks notes) Corey Cunningham, and The Exorcist, which has gotten off to a rocky start.
And then there’s SAW, which Blumhouse just boarded earlier this year. Blumhouse is bringing James Wan back in the fold to shepherd a new chapter for the twisted franchise.
What else is next, now that Blumhouse has left Haddonfield behind? In a sprawling new conversation with Variety, Jason Blum has provided some insights into his franchise hopes.
For starters, Blum has confirmed that Blumhouse indeed no longer has the rights to make Halloween movies. He explains, “We don’t own the rights anymore. I had a three-picture deal. But I would do another Halloween movie.” He also reveals that Blumhouse was recently in the mix to board The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, though A24 ultimately won the rights.
“We were in the mix. The deal isn’t closed, but we probably won’t get it,” Blum admits.
His other white whales on the horror front? Blum tells Variety in this week’s new interview discussion, “Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger, those are my two white whales.”
There has been no movement on the Elm Street franchise in many years, but the Friday the 13th saga is a different story. After years of messy legal issues, Jason Voorhees is back with his new “Jason Universe” initiative, with A24 and Peacock filming a prequel television series titled “Crystal Lake” and a new Friday the 13th movie reportedly in early development at this time.
Stay tuned for more on all of the above horror franchises – and Blumhouse’s role in them.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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