Blumhouse of Horrors Debut: Jason Blum Video Interview & Preview
In honor of the debut of The Blumhouse of Horrors, we offer a video interview with producer Jason Blum, which includes glimpses of the insidiously sinister paranormal activity taking place within the Variety Arts Theatre this Halloween. Blum’s company, Blumhouse Productions, is responsible for the Paranormal Activity films, Insidious, and the upcoming Sinister, which opens next week – films that eschew the modern torture porn approach to horror in favor of supernatural shivers.
Some of that subtle approach is on inside Blumhouse of Horrors, but gore fans will find a drop or two of that as well. The haunted attraction is based on the back story of a magician’s assistant who literally disappeared on stage in the 1930s, never to be seen again. Since then, the theatre has been closed, until now. Visitors weave their way through the venerable building from top to bottom, encountering scares provided by a cast of 50 actors. With a 25-person behind-the-scenes crew, the Halloween haunt cost several hundred thousand dollars to produce.
After the interview, you will find our initial assessment of Blumhouse of Horrors, which we are calling a “preview” rather than a “review,” because the haunt was not fully complete on media preview night. Although our reactions were mixed, psychic investigators need not be intimidated from making the trek to downtown Los Angeles. Despite opening night jitters, the cast and crew seemed to be learning their lessons, and the extensive tour (which takes you outside, into the basement, through the theatre, and behind the scenes) improved each of the three times we walked through, and a return visit later in the season proved that Blumhouse of Horrors had gone from being an initial disappointment to being one of the best haunted attractions of the Halloween season.
Blumhouse of Horrors: Jason Blum Video Interview & Transcript
Below, is a partial transcript of the interview – which is to say, our rambling questions have been shortened, while Mr. Blum’s answers remain intact.
Question: How did you make the transition from producing horror movies to producing a live Halloween event?
Jason Blum: We make almost all of our movies in Los Angeles. We use the same crew from movie to movie. A couple of years ago, we were on the set at launch, and we were talking about, “Wouldn’t it be fun to do all these scares that we do in our movies – to try and do them live. That conversation resulted in where we are today. It was a long road to get here, but we finally made it.
What are the lessons you learned from horror films that you can apply in Blumhouse of Horrors?
Jason Blum: You scare people in the same way, whether it’s a movie, a tv show, or a live event – which is, you distract them over here, and come at them with a jump scare [from another direction]. Secondly, we rely in our movies very much on narrative. I think the story is really important. I think scares are scarier if the audience is involved with a story, so with the haunted house, we tried to come up with a story first and build the scares around it. Hopefully, people will experience it that way.
Are there certain kinds of scares that work better in a live situation, when the audience is not separated from them by a movie screen?
Jason Blum: There are good and bad things about live. The bad thing is when you mess up, you don’t get another try. In a movie or a tv show, you can either re-edit it or shoot it again. But the good things are that the scares are three-dimensional, and we can do them and watch people’s reaction, and change our story or change our scares a little bit, and keep going. That’s very gratifying as someone who is a scare-maker.
What was it like for you to talk through the Blumhouse of Horrors the first time? Did some thing work better than expected, or not as well?
Jason Blum: There are surprises in both directions. That’s a really fun thing about this: there are certain things that do work way better than you expect. And certain things that when we were describing it – “Oh this is going to be the best thing!” – don’t work at all. That’s been a fun kind of discovery process.
So, will this be a work in progress – tinkering all month long?
Jason Blum: Yes, it will. I hope that we’ll do more of certain things and less of others, and learn from the people who go through. Hopefully people will come back and see something they didn’t see before or experience something new.
Chicken and the egg question: Which came first, the story or the location?
Jason Blum: The idea to do a haunted house came first; building came second; story came third. But the story came from looking at the building and working a story in that would work in this location.
Did you develop the story on your own or work with others?
Jason Blum: I didn’t come up with anything in here on my own. Our company provides a framework for people who are more creative than me, who are great at what they do, and we let them do it and encourage them to do it. Jennifer Spence and Tom Spence, are a production designer and an art director who have worked on many movies for us, and they were the creative forces behind this.
With INSIDIOUS, SINISTER, and now Blumhouse of Horrors, what lessons have you tried to carry through from the first PARANORMAL ACTIVITY?
Jason Blum: What I learned from the first Paranormal Activity, and what we’ve tried to recreate in Insidious, Sinister, and now this haunted house, is how important story-telling is to horror. Most people think horror is about scares; most people put scares first and story second. We really put story first and scares second.
Is there a concern that you have set yourself a high hurdle to clear? Some people are afraid to make a special trip downtown, so perhaps “good” won’t be good enough to draw an audience?
Jason Blum: I think we have to be great to get people to come here. I didn’t want to lose money doing this, but profit was not the main reason we did this. We did this to develop a muscle in a different medium for the company. I think it’s a challenge. We have a guess how many people we hope to get in here, and if you ask me in a month I’ll tell you if we hit it or not.
Are you planning to resurrect Blumhouse of Horrors next year?
Jason Blum: I can’t think that far ahead. I’m just trying to make it to November 3rd right now.
Blumhouse of Horrors Preview
Rating Scale
0 – Awful
1 – Poor
2 – Mediocre
3 – Good
4 – Great
5 – Excellent
Is the much-anticipated Blumhouse of Horrors this Halloween’s Delusion or this Halloween’s Ghost Ship? To find out, come along with us…if you dare!
One of this season’s most anticipated Halloween events in Los Angeles is the Blumhouse of Horrors 2012 debut – a brand new haunted house from the producer of the Paranormal Activity movies. Last night, the Blumhouse of Horrors invited the media to the Variety Arts Theatre in downtown Los Angeles for a special preview of the haunt, including interview opportunities with producer Jason Blum . Hollywood Gothique was actually in the first group of outsiders to pass through the haunted hallways, along with Blum himself, who wanted first-hand look at how the scenes played to the audience. Because the event was presented as a “rough” draft of the finished version, which will be tweaked considerably before opening to the public on Thursday, October 4, we will withhold final judgment here.
The Blumhouse of Horrors shares some elements with Delusion: Presented by Haunted Play. Set within a real location, the lengthy tour attempts to tell a story – in this case, of a magician whose final performance ended with his mysterious disappearance from the stage, along with another man’s wife. The Blumhouse of Horrors is not as heavily scripted as Delusion: there are a few dramatic vignettes, but not all of them relate directly to the main story; the characters we see represent the souls of all who died within the premises, whether or not they have anything to do with the magician and his lover.
Blumhouse of Horrors 2012 Preview: Three Factors
We traversed the haunted premises of the Variety Arts Theatre three times, fortunately. We say “fortunately” because the first time was a tremendous disappointment, but each subsequent venture represented a noticeable leap forward in quality. What made the difference?
We think three factors were at play: size, experience,and awareness.The first two are up to the cast and crew; the second is up to the viewer. Which played the most important part in improving the haunt experience is difficult to ascertain with certainty, but we will try to analyze the variables here:
1. SIZE. Apparently, the plan is to send Halloween Haunt-Goers through in groups of 15 at a time. Quite frankly, this grouping is too large, and the Blumhouse of Horrors needs to rethink its approach if they hope to satisfy their audience. The problem is the usual one: with that many people, you miss half the scares if you are not in front of the line. In the case of the Blumhouse of Horrors, the problem is exacerbated because there is an attempt to present not just jump-scares but dramatic vignettes; if the first few people in line decide to stop immediately upon entering a doorway, you could easily miss something.
Almost as bad as the front of the line problem was the back of the line problem: scenes and scares would simply run out of gas too soon; in a particularly egregious case, one of the creepy characters depleted his gamut of grunts and groans before everyone had exited a room; he was left with nothing to do but stand around silently waiting for us to get out.
And simply in practical terms, there are a couple of tight places (not one but two elevators – one real and one a gag) where the crowd can barely fit.
On our two subsequent trips (each time in a group of four), we saw much that we had missed the first time; the scares were more immediate and effective – even the ones we had noticed during our first walk-through.
2. EXPERIENCE. The timing of the cast seemed off on our first trip through the Blumhouse of Horrors. Climaxes were weak; it was difficult to be sure when scenes had ended and it was time to proceed. We missed some of the action because it was not clear that we were supposed to follow an actor or move to a particular place. Being a real location, the Variety Arts Theatre is filled with staircases and hallways, not all of them used for the haunt, and it would have been fairly easy to take a wrong turn.
By the time of our second trip, the actors seemed to be improving with experience. They were better at sustaining a scene instead of letting it peter out, and the supporting cast were mastering the art of appearing precisely when a scene was over, directing us to move on and indicating, when necessary, what path to take.
3. AWARENESS. Frankly, once we knew what to expect, we knew where to stand in order to experience each new thrill up close and personal. By the time of our third jaunt through the Blumhouse of Horrors, we were getting the full effect every time. Obviously, this is not going to help a newcomer, who pays for only a single trip through the Blumhouse of Horrors. Fortunately, there seemed to be signs that the actors were adjusting their routines so that newbies would know where to look to savor all the blood-curdling thrills.
To cite one example: a memorable scene plays out with two characters arguing back stage and disappearing into a dressing room, after which shots ring out. As the hallway has multiple exits, it is hard to know whether you are supposed to follow the actors to the room or simply move on in another direction.
Well, you are supposed to see what happens, so do not be afraid to walk to the door and take a look inside. On our second trip, we were right on top of the action, instead of waiting down the hall. On our third trip, the staging has been rearranged: the angry gunman now stood outside the door, arguing with the woman locked inside, giving the audience more time to move in close and observe the lethal outcome.
The members of the second group who went through the Blumhouse of Horrors with us agreed with our assessment that the second trip was an improvement over the first. Our third group consisted of Blumhouse virgins, all of whom screamed on cue – including Mrs. Hollywood Gothique, who opined that the Blumhouse of Horrors is better than the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Cities Hollywood.
Blumhouse of Horrors 2012 Preview: Conclusion
If the Blumhouse of Horrors keeps improving before opening night, it could rank among the best Halloween events in Los Angeles. Currently, its greatest strength is the wonderful location – whose authentic atmosphere exceeds even that of Delusion 2012: The Blood Rite’s crumbling Victorian Mansion. (In fact, during our first trip through the Variety Arts Theatre, we found ourselves thinking: Walking through this place alone, in the dark, would probably be much more frightening than anything the show can achieve.) However, the story-telling at Blumhouse of Horrors falls short of Delusion, and the ending (at least last night) remained strangely anti-climactic. Here’s hoping the witch’s brew is fully double-boiled, toiled and troubled by opening night.
The Blumhouse of Horrors is set in the Variety Arts Theatre, 940 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Performances dates are October 4-6, 11-13, 18-20, 25-27, 29,31, November 1-3. Hours are 6pm to midnight. Tickets are $29 for general admission; $55 for VIP (front of the line).
