It's been a great few years for the horror genre. With the trend of torture porn and found footage behind us, a variety of new and original horror franchise and one shot films have hit theaters on a regular basis. And the majority of these exciting new properties were produced by Blumhouse, which has become the go to place for fantastic scary movies. Jason Blum and his team know their horror, and consistently deliver scares that cause entire movie theaters to jump. And he's now listed the definitive 19 ways to scare people. Spoiler alert: you've seen them all done before. Check it out.
Door swings closed, someone is now standing behind you in the room. Refrigerator door swings closed revealing something scary. Is that something in the mirror/reflection? Someone knocks on the car window and he's standing right behind you. What is that shadow in the dark? Something attracts your attention in the background and then foreground jump. Someone walking onto an empty road, then unexpected car hit. Cat leaping out of the darkness or a high shelf (yes, it's still used). Objects suddenly flying off shelves. Did I just see that thing (mannequin, doll, statue) move? Camera follows someone across room when they walk back --- someone's there, big scare! Lights off, lights on --- big scare. Someone looking down hall --- something runs across from room to room. Characters driving, then unexpected car crash. Looking into a mirror or water --- something jumps out. The nightmare within a nightmare sequence. Seeing someone contort their body in an odd way suddenly -- bending over backward, jaw coming unhinged. Something rolls out of the darkness of a doorway or basement toward our main character --- a ball, toy car. Spooky sounds or voices on a recorder or message punctuated by a loud scare.
This is some Scream level geeking out about the horror genre. Jason Blum has just listed all the good scares in the book, which prove how easily formulaic some scary movies can be. But both Blum and the various projects produced by Blumhouse still manage to be wholly original and independent from each other.
Jason Blum's fantastic horror monologue comes to us from his recent conversation with the New York Times. In the piece, he was presented with rapid fire questions about both his career and the genre in general. They were apparently privy to Jason Blum's idea of the 19 things that will always scare audiences, prompting him to list each one in succession.
Blumhouse has a bunch of exciting horror films coming down the pipeline that will no doubt contain these scares. Next year will see new installments of both the Insidious and Purge franchises, as well as the highly anticipated new Halloween sequel starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Judy Greer.
Be sure to check out our 2018 release list to plan your trips to the movies in the New Year.
