Upcoming Blumhouse Movies To Keep On Your Radar
Did you know Blumhouse produced "Tooth Fairy"? As in the 2010 fantasy comedy where Dwayne Johnson played an overly aggressive hockey player who got turned into the tooth fairy? Suffice it to say, Jason Blum's production company has come a long way since then (as has The Rock for that matter), evolving into the go-to source for inventive horror movie series and original, daring social thrillers thanks to its low-budget model. It's even branched out into TV with its "Welcome to the Blumhouse" streaming film anthology and prestigious cable shows such as HBO's "Sharp Objects" and Showtime's "The Good Lord Bird."
Blumhouse hasn't slowed down in the Covid era either, rolling out the critically acclaimed horror comedy "Freaky" and making the slasher sequel "Halloween Kills" available to stream on Peacock the same day it opened in theaters last month. With 2022 coming up quickly, here are some of the Blumhouse titles to keep on your radar for next year and beyond.
The Black Phone
Novelist Joe Hill, whose dad is some guy named Stephen King, has seen his horror books and short stories increasingly adapted into films of late, most of which ("Horns," "In the Tall Grass") have come and gone without making much fuss (which isn't to say they don't have their fans). That looks to change with "The Black Phone," a supernatural horror thriller based on Hill's 2004 short story, as well as the movie that director Scott Derrickson and his writing partner C. Robert Cargill chose to make instead of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
"The Black Phone" centers on a boy who gets kidnapped by an elusive child serial killer in 1970s Colorado and ends up trapped in the murder's basement with nothing but a disconnected phone ... which, out of nowhere, begins ringing. To say more would be to spoil some of the fun — but rest assured, the story only gets more intense and unsettling from that point on. The film is already generating strong buzz after its premiere at Fantastic Fest, with much of the praise going to Derrickson's taut direction and Ethan Hawke's disturbing performance as "The Grabber." (Oh yes, this is a full-blown "Sinister" reunion.)
Universal will release "The Black Phone" in theaters on February 4, 2022.
Halloween Ends
"Halloween Kills" was far more divisive than 2018's "Halloween." Some critics saw it as a bloody mess that lacked its predecessor's focused plot and clear themes, while others mostly enjoyed watching Michael Myers murder as many people in the face as he could over Halloween night in Haddonfield. Will the third entry in David Gordon Green's slasher trilogy, "Halloween Ends," have better luck in unifying people (preferably in their approval and not their hatred)? Your guess is as good as mine.
At the very least, "Halloween Ends" promises to give some real closure to Green's saga of the Strode women's generational trauma and, one way or another, pay off the big showdown between Laurie and Michael that "Halloween Kills" teased with its shocking final scene. The film will also feature a four-year time jump, which is good because I don't think anyone wants another "Halloween" sequel where Laurie spends the entire runtime chilling in the hospital while Michael plays Stab-A-Mole. (Okay, maybe Jamie Lee Curtis does; it probably made for a more relaxing shoot.)
"Halloween Ends" will open in theaters on October 14, 2022.
Firestarter
Remember Joe Hill's dad? Blumhouse is adapting his 1980 sci-fi horror novel "Firstarter" into a film. It's the second big screen adaptation of the book after the 1984 movie starring Drew Barrymore as Charlie McGee, a girl whose newly developed pyrokinesis draws attention from a secret government agency hell-bent on capturing her. Ryan Kiera Armstrong ("American Horror Story") is portraying Charlie in the new "Firestorm" from Blumhouse, with Zac Efron playing her father and Michael Greyeyes ("Rutherford Falls") co-starring as John Rainbird, a skilled hitman recruited by the government to find Charlie and her pop.
Given that the 1984 "Firestarter" failed to impress most critics and disappointed at the box office, this specific Stephen King story is arguably fair game for a second movie re-adaptation. What's more, it's helmed by Keith Thomas, an up-and-comer who earned strong reviews for his feature directorial debut on the 2019 religious horror thriller "The Vigil." Blumhouse's "Firestarter" was also penned by "Halloween Kills" co-writer Scott Teems, so take or leave that as you will.
"Firestarter" doesn't have a release date yet, but it wrapped production last summer and should arrive in 2022.
M3gan
"M3gan" is an original horror thriller about a toy engineer who creates a realistic doll that takes on a life of its own, and not in a cuddly way. And if that vague description seems derivative to you of the premise for the 2019 "Child's Play" remake or any of the many other films about evil dolls out there, you're not alone. So why mention it?
Well, "M3gan" hales from writer Akela Cooper, who just made a big splash with her script work on James Wan's splendidly wild love letter to the Italian giallo sub-genre, "Malignant." Calling the shots this time around is Gerard Johnstone, a filmmaker who similarly got a lot of love from critics with his feature debut on the 2014 horror comedy "Housebound." And if that's not enough to pique your interest, "M3gan" stars "Get Out" and "The Perfection" veteran Allison Williams, an actor who seems to have a knack for appearing in twisted thrillers that leave an impression.
Blumhouse has yet to secure an official release date for "M3gan," but it's well into post-production and looks to reach theaters in 2022.
Whistler Camp/Untitled John Logan Film
John Logan, the creator of Showtime's splendidly Gothic "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"-style series "Penny Dreadful" and Oscar-nominated co-writer of films like "Gladiator," "Skyfall," and "Alien: Covenant," is teaming up with Blumhouse for his feature directorial debut: an original horror thriller that was initially called "Whistler Camp" but is going untitled for the time being. And while that's intriguing enough on its own, it's the movie's premise that really makes one sit up and take notice.
Early reports describe Logan's film as "a queer empowerment story" set at an LGBTQ+ conversion camp. These all-too-real and horrifying institutions, which cruelly use pseudoscience to try to force queer people into changing their sexual orientation, are still legal in an alarming number of states in the U.S. and were the basis for Blumhouse's "Pray Away," a critically acclaimed documentary that's now available for streaming on Netflix. This is also what drew Blum to Logan's movie, which the producer hopes will reach a wider audience than "Pray Away" and shine more light on what he described as "a topic near to my heart."
Logan's film, which has already begun shooting, will premiere exclusively on Peacock.
The Exorcist Sequel
Did you think David Gordon Green and Blumhouse would stop reviving classic horror IPs after their "Halloween" trilogy? Guess again! They're now developing an as-yet untitled legacy sequel to "The Exorcist." And just like he got Curtis to reprise her iconic horror role for those films, Green is bringing Ellen Burstyn back as Chris MacNeil, the actor whose daughter, Regan, came down with a terrible case of demonic possession in the original "Exorcist" movie released in 1973.
"Hamilton" and "One Night in Miami" standout Leslie Odom Jr. is starring in Green's "Exorcist" film as a father who seeks help from Chris when a wicked entity possesses his daughter. As fans of this franchise are well aware, this is actually the third movie sequel to the original "Exorcist" after John Boorman's "Exorcist II: The Heretic" (which critics mostly laughed at) and William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist III" (which, as /Film's Chris Evangelista will tell you, is actually pretty great). Green has already found a way to make one 1970s horror property culturally relevant again, but we'll just have to wait and see if he can repeat that trick again.
Green's "Exorcist" sequel will hit theaters on October 13, 2023, with two more films already planned after that (assuming it doesn't fall flat on its face).