When does a movie studio come to the realisation that the movies your churning out are not that good? Well if your Blumhouse the answer is… never.

Let me explain.

Back in 2009 we were greeted with one of the most scariest found footage films since the Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity.

Much like Blair Witch it starred complete unknowns, and quickly became the most scariest found footage film ever made, and with good reason, the film followed young couple Katie and Micah as they document demonic hauntings in their California home.

It was of course Blumhouse’s first movie, soon after they quickly became a powerhouse within the horror genre.

Solely relying on low budgets and relatively unknown directors they took the world of horror by storm, and then… something happened.

The quality dipped, the movies were becoming… rubbish, rather than solely focus on what made them big in the first place, they made bog standard run of the mill horror with cheap effects, and over the top jump scares.

They even went down the franchises route and made rather unnecessary sequels to otherwise great films, paranormal activity for instance, the first one was great, it was scary… it did it what set out to do which was to scare the absolute crap out of you.

There is a reason people say it’s the scariest found footage movie ever made, and… they’re not wrong.

But then they bought out the sequel Paranormal Activity 2, it was… okay, the scares were still there but I don’t know I felt like there was something missing, I can’t quite put my finger on what that missing thing is, I just feel like there’s something, maybe it’s just me.

They then released the prequel with the third one, now this was great! We got a flashback to when Katie and Kristie were little, we got the backstory that we all wanted, and it delivered, it was a worthy prequel.

Until!

They made a spin-off, a Mexican family this time, it still had the found footage element but again it fell flat, then they released the fourth one and well… let’s just say the less said about that the better.

Then the dreaded fifth one came out, I went with my younger sister to see it, there was me and her and three other people in the theatre, the scares… well, I can’t remember there being any, and that ending! Good god in heaven it was bad, like I vividly remember when the credits rolled I went “was that it” sure I got a few laughs but I was being serious, was that it?

After the fifth one was released I do think this is where they started dipping in quality.

Remember the film Sinister? Starred Ethan Hawke as a true crime novelist who moves his family in to a murder home so he can write his next book, terrifying, critics loved it as did I.

It was a breath of fresh air, it didn’t just rely on cheap, tacky jump scares no, it relied on tension as well.

Then we got a sequel, we didn’t ask for it, we didn’t need it, but somehow we got one.

It felt flat, it felt… well I can’t even put it into words but it was bad, sure it still had the same formula as the first one but… the first one had great acting, this on good god, my cat could have acted better than those actors, now I rarely speak bad of child actors I really do, I always praise them, it’s just…

Some child actors have it… and others well… they don’t, and the two boys in this sequel didn’t have it, I’m sorry to say but they were bad, I know I know I feel terrible but believe me they were.

Call me harsh, call me mean but that’s what I thought.

Now don’t get me wrong for every bad movie they have released there are some pretty decent ones, as I mentioned sinister, the first Insidious movie, Oculus directed by Hill House and Bly Manor director Mike Flanagan, and of course the Halloween reboot released back in 2018 (we won’t mention the sequels)

Flash forward to today and they haven’t made a decent horror flick in my opinion for a good few years, again they solely rely on sequels and run of the mill scares.

There’s no passion from them anymore.

That’s a bold statement but just look at their recent flicks.

Imaginary, about an imaginary friend that kills people, again the premise is fantastic but the payoff was god awfully cheap.

Night Swim, I reviewed that earlier this year and did not hold back on how bad it was, I mentioned the premise, no one has seen a haunted swimming pool before in films, night swim was supposed to give us that and instead we got… cheap and cheesy scares with god awful character decision making seriously watch the film and get back to me regarding the decisions they make in this film, thank me later.

I used to be a massive fan of Blumhouse, but after a string of crappy films is it time for this distributor to go bye bye?

Believe it or not but the box office numbers tell a completely different story.

People love them, sure they complain that it’s bad but they love it, as strange the human race is we love a good scare.

In my honest opinion I really do think they need to take a step back, take a good look in the mirror and say “here’s where we’re going wrong” and work on that.

Will it work? Will they come back and regain their control as a powerhouse of horror industry?

Time will tell.

Until next time catch ya later 🙂