Blumhouse is a production company headed by Jason Blum and partnered with Universal, and it really took off after the found footage phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity films and James Wan’s Insidious. Blumhouse is known for its low-budget horror films that often turn into box-office successes and has since evenexpanded into developing video games.
Some of the best modern horror movies in our lifetime came from the wonderful creative visionaries and writers at Blumhouse, who have become legendary horror talents with their very iconic and original ideas. While it also has some disappointing flops, these are Blumhouse’s best horror hits so far!
Although we only focus on Blumhouse’s horror titles here, the studio has also produced dramas like Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-winningWhiplash, Spike Lee’s Oscar-winningBlacKkKlansman, andNetflix’s Benji.
Christopher Landon
Happy Death Day
Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken, Rob Mello, Rachel Matthews, Jason Bayle, Laura Clifton, Phi Vu, and Ramsey Anderson
2017
71%
6.6
VOD
Happy Death Day 2U
Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Rachel Matthews, Ruby Modine, Steve Zissis, Charles Aitken, Rob Mello, Jason Bayle, Laura Clifton, and Missy Yager
2019
72%
6.2
Happy Death Day was one of the cleverest and freshest new additions to the genre of slasher horror from Blumhouse. The entire premise is abouta time loop Groundhog Day scenariocentered around college student Tree Gelbman and a killer wearing a baby face mask. It’s only more horror genius from Christopher Landon, who’s also behind Blumhouse’s Freaky and the Paranormal Activity series.
Tree continues to relive her birthday each day and dies in a loop unless she can kill the masked foe stalking their college campus before he can get her again. The first film ends with a satisfying twist that puts a hybrid sci-fi spin on the classic whodunnit reveal. The sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, sees the return of the time loop curse for Tree, but, this time, really delves into the science behind all of it.
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Gerard Johnstone
Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Stephane Garneau-Monten, Lori Dungey, Amy Usherwood, and Michael Saccente
2023
93%
6.3
Starz
Memorable teen slashers continued to reign at Blumhouse with 2023’s M3gan,one of the better horror films from that year. It’s a clever modern-day AI spin on Child’s Play, with a story from writing duo James Wan and Akela Cooper, who previously collaborated on Malignant. You have a robot doll prototype named M3gan that’s gifted as a companion to engineer Gemma’s niece following the loss of her parents.
As is the usual case with films of this nature, M3gan’s AI goes rogue, and she soon becomes an unstoppable killing machine that protects her owner from all threats and stops everyone who stands in her way. M3gan instantly rose to become a new iconic horror mascot, especially with the scene of her dancing right before she takes a weapon and continues to kill it off the dance floor.
David Gordon Green
Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Nick Castle, James Judge Courtney, Haluk Bilginer, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner, Rhian Rees, Toby Huss, Miles Robbins, Dylan Arnold, and Drew Scheid
2018
79%
6.5
Blumhouse secured the rights to classic horror propertieslike John Carpenter’s Halloween and then The Exorcist. The 2018 Halloween movie turned out to be a much greater success than The Exorcist revival. It spawned a new trilogy directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by comedian Danny McBride, but really only the first movie was worth watching. The sequels took quite a downhill turn.
Halloween (2018) serves as a direct legacy sequel to the original 1978 film, taking place exactly 40 years after Laurie Strode’s initial confrontationwith Michael Myers. Laurie still resides in Haddonfield and is now a grandmother who must fight to protect her family from Michael. The cinematography, script, and suspenseful kills have indeed made this installment the best since the original.
Nahnatchka Khan
Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Charlie Gillespie, Julie Bowen, Lochlyn Munro, Randall Park, Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Liana Liberato, Kelcey Mawema, Stephi Chin-Salvo, Anna Diaz, Ella Choi, Jeremy Monn-Djasngar, Nathaniel Appiah, and Jonathan Potts
86%
Amazon Prime Video
Totally Killer is a Blumhouse horror comedy movie developed straight-to-stream on Amazon Prime Video, and just because it didn’t receive a theatrical release, doesn’t mean it should go unnoticed. This film is quite a gem that offers a time travel twist to the slasher formula and features a new masked killer antagonist dubbed the ‘Sweet 16 Killer’ with an original look.
In the lead role is Kiernan Shipka, who starred in previous horror projects like The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and she continues to knock it out of the park. Shipka’s character, Jamie Hughes, travels back in time to the ’80s when her mother and father are still in high school, and must work with them to stop the Sweet 16 Killer’s original spree and thus prevent her mom’s future murder.
Leigh Whannell
Logan Marshall-Green, Melanie Vallejo, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson, Benedict Hardie, Christopher Kirby, Richard Cawthorne, and Clayton Jacobson
88%
7.5
Netflix
Known for his creative partnership with James Wan, Leigh Whannell made his Blumhouse directorial debut in 2015 with Insidious: Chapter 3. However,his 2018 action-packed sci-fi thriller, Upgrade,was even better and remains sadly underrated. While it’s not horror, it presents a cyberpunk story where a character is left paralyzed and gets augmented with a chip implant that turns him into a lean, mean, John Wick machine.
Prometheus' Logan Marshall-Green plays Grey Trace, the STEM implant-upgraded individual who goes after the men responsible for the attack that left him paralyzed and his wife dead. And you’ll experience incredible world-building and action. All the fight sequences are brilliantly suited to the cybernetically enhanced character, especially the way they are framed and choreographed, and with the camerawork and sound design choices implemented.
Mike Flanagan
Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Samantha Sloyan, Michael Trucco, and Emma Graves
2016
91%
AMC+, Tubi, Plex, Xumo Play, Philo
Mike Flanagan has proven himself a modern master of horror with all of his Netflix horror anthologies,numerous Stephen King adaptations, and originals like 2016’s Hush. This cat-and-mouse thriller is about an author staying in an isolated home trying to work through her writer’s block and finish her next book when, suddenly, a masked intruder hunts her around the premises with a crossbow.
It’s a harrowing and suspenseful story of survival, but even more intense since the main character is also both deaf and mute due to a childhood infection. Throughout the night, she must continue to outsmart the masked killer and turn the tables on him. The plot elements are kept purposely vague for a clever ending that can be interpreted in multiple ways.
Scott Derrickson
Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Michael Hall D’Addario, Clare Foley, Nicholas King, and Vincent D’Onofrio
2012
63%
6.8
HBO Max
Scientifically speaking,Sinister is proven to be one of the scariest films of all time, with your heartbeat bound to skip more beats than any other film on this list. That’s mainly the product of its atmosphere and disturbing content that highlights a new demon in horror cinema called Bughuul. The deal with this creepy fellow is that he targets children and forces them to kill their families and make some home videotapes out of it.
The story follows a new family moving into the home where these murders have taken place, as the dad, Ellison Oswalt, is a true crime writer who’s there to carry out his research and write. Through watching the videos and finding out the dark truth about the entity known as Bughuul, who has already begun to appear to them, Ellison’s family is next, and he must attempt to save them and break the cycle.
Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, E. Roger Mitchell, Troy Rudeseal, James Ransone, Miguel Mora, Jacob Moran, Tristen Pravong, Brady Hepner, Brady M. Ryan, Banks Repeta, Spencer Fitzgerald, and Jordan Isaiah White
2021
81%
6.9
Peacock
Scott Derrickson and Ethan Hawke re-teamed for a new Blumhouse horror film in 2021 and lightning certainly struck twice. The Black Phone is based on a short story by Joe Hill, son of prolific horror author Stephen King, and this one puts a supernatural spin on a child kidnapper and murderer called The Grabber (played by Ethan Hawke), where his previous victims can communicate through a mysterious black phone in his basement.
While his latest victim, Finney, has a younger sister assisting the police in helping locate her brother before it’s too late, he also starts receiving helpful tips from past child victims via the phone and works with them to stop The Grabber once and for all. It’s a harrowing and emotional story that also comes with some twists and features a perfectly sinister villainous debut for Ethan Hawke.
James Wan
Insidious
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey, Andrew Astor, Joseph Bishara, and J. LaRose
2010
66%
Hulu, Disney+
Insidious: Chapter 2
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Steve Coulter, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey, Andrew Astor, Danielle Bisutti, Tom Fitzpatrick, Tyler Griffin, Hank Harris, Lindsay Seim, Jocelin Donahue, Garrett Ryan, Michael Beach, and J. LaRose
2013
38%
Legendary horror icon James Wan is known for horror film series like Saw and The Conjuring, along with building out the Insidious franchise for Blumhouse. With Insidious,Wan mastered the use of jumpscaresand crafted a paranormal ghost story that features some of the creepiest and most unsettling makeup for the dead spirits inhabiting The Further.
The Bride in Black (aka Parker Crane), a deceased serial killer, his equally scary-looking mother, and also what’s known as the Lipstick-Face Demon are all haunting the Lambert family after their son, Dalton, travels to their realm while in a coma. The spirit plane here, The Further, is a very original concept and all the ghosts and demons are extremely ominous and scary to look at. And Tiny Tim’s ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ will now never not sound unnerving.
Although the other Insidious movies are also connected through canon timelines, they aren’t as strong or well-received as the original two movies, but you’re still encouraged to check them out. 2023’s The Red Door marks the directorial debut of Patrick Wilson and concludes the Lambert family’s story.
James Watkins
James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, Dan Hough, Alix West Lefler, and Kris Hitchen
2024
83%
James Watkins' Speak No Evil is an American remake of the 2022 Dutch film of the same name, and this is one of those rare cases where the remade version can equally measure up to the original. This is nothing but an intense and gripping thriller with pulse-pounding tension from start to finish, largely thanks to James McAvoy in the most chilling performance of his career (think Split but upped to 100).
Speak No Evil follows an American couple who meet a seemingly wealthy and privileged family while on vacation in Italy, and are then invited to stay with them in their home in the British countryside. They quickly start to see that not all is as it seems with James McAvoy’s idyllic family and he starts to get more and more verbally abusive and unhinged, resulting in a realistic and horrifying final twist where they’re forced to escape.
