Bringing Back the Scares: Blumhouse’s Theatrical Encore
If it were up to production powerhouse Blumhouse, psychological horror movie fans would be well-versed in their belief that dread is a destination rather than an experience. Blumhouse has achieved market saturation through a combination of economic success and audience engagement, a feat that only an idea as pure as the pleasure of terror can accomplish.
Seven months before Halloween, a big release awaits—a dark theater, a hushed crowd, and unsettling scenes that leave an eerie feeling in the back of your mind. Blumhouse teases horror fans by re-releasing some of its most spine-tingling movies, a sign of optimism and resuscitation that turns to the genre’s dark history to reveal its bright future.
The Nightmares Return to The Big Screen
By now, any horror fan recognizes Blumhouse as the blueprint of fear, having produced franchise starters and cult favorites. The sinister film event, aided by AMC Theaters, is set for a five-day dominance, reviving classics such as ‘Split‘, ‘The Purge‘, and the chilling ‘Insidious‘, pulling cinephiles back into the art of collective terror.
The stage is set for a return, with a curated collection of Blumhouse classics such as ‘Split‘, M. Night Shyamalan’s psychologically thrilling masterpiece, ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil‘, which boasts its own brand of supernatural maliciousness, and ‘The Invisible Man‘, a modern retelling of a timeless horror legend. However, it is ‘Insidious‘ that marks the centerpiece, given its significance as the genre-defining film that marked the inception of the Blumhouse Atomic Monster alliance.
AMC Theatres will host the five-day event in more than 40 cities and on 100 of its locations, with tickets going for $8. The lineup includes ‘Split‘ (Friday, March 29th), ‘The Purge’ (Saturday, March 30th), ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil ‘(Sunday, March 31st), ‘Insidious’ (Monday, April 1st — which is the film’s 13th anniversary) and ‘The Invisible Man‘ (Tuesday, April 2nd).
The full list of cities participating can be found here.
A History of Cinematic Resurgences
Blumhouse joins a long line of films that have found new life through the miracle of re-release, a phenomenon that has proven profitable both financially and emotionally. While the era of re-releases may scream nostalgia, it also allows us to dissect the anatomy of what made a picture so frightening in the first place.
The event is more than just a ‘jump scare’ on the calendar; it is an indicator of normalcy for theaters, rebalancing the balances of cinematic experience post-pandemic. Blumhouse’s creative gambit may function as a model of recovery by modern filmmaking standards, since attendance acts not only as an advertisement for fans but also as a critical measurement for cinemas.
Halloween is still seven months away, but Blumhouse is hoping to hold horror fans over by putting some of its library titles back into theaters later this month so stay locked here at The Feature Presentation
