Blumhouse Productions is a studio of many extremes. For every Whiplash, Get Out, and M3GAN, there’s a Night Swim, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Firestarter to square up to it.
The highs hit much harder than the lows, thankfully, but the true elephant in the Blumhouse room is its somewhat dire history of trying to reboot some of the most iconic films in the entire horror genre. Indeed, having ultimately faceplanted with its Halloween trilogy before delivering moviegoers a swift kick to the nethers with The Exorcist: Believer, it might be a while before we trust Blumhouse with another horror classic again.
To be fair, Blumhouse is far from the only company to have made mincemeat of Michael Myers and Pazuzu. Maybe, just maybe, Friday the 13th would be a case of the “third time’s the charm” that Jason Blum and company are looking for. Especially if resident horror maestro James Wan (Malignant, Saw) gets involved.
Speaking recently to Collider, Blum riffed on Blumhouse’s wish to acquire the Friday the 13th IP, naming Wan—who’s masterminded the likes of the Insidious, The Conjuring, and Saw franchises—as his champion for such a task should Blumhouse ever be given the blessing.
“Friday the 13th is what I would do. It’s not a Blumhouse project, but I’m trying to will it into being one. It’s just a piece of IP I’ve always loved. And James Wan and Atomic Monster are very passionate about it, and I think we would have them shepherd it for us. That would be a lot of fun.”
And just like that, we have the makings of the horror cage match of the century lingering in our daydreams: The two-time IP-wasting champion of Blumhouse’s history with Halloween and The Exorcist versus James Wan, a filmmaker with the horror know-how necessary to birth three beloved franchises, and the grit to keep going in this business after being burdened with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Good luck, Blumhouse. If anyone’s going to make this happen, it might as well be you.
(featured image: New Line Cinema)
