Jason Blum Opens Up About AI and the State of Horror

It must be kind of interesting to be Jason Blum. The guy found his niche producing horror movies in a world that was starving for them, and now has shifted the tide toward horror so much that he's now riding the tidal wave of horror that is sort of shifting away from the indie model and becoming more mainstream.

The producer has been on the inside of that dramatic shift, and the reason he and his company stay afloat is that they're incredibly adept at seeing those shifts and navigating them as the world evolves around them.

Currently, the world is undergoing rapid technological evolution. So, where does Blum think AI will fit into horror in the future?

The producer recently sat down with Variety for an all-encompassing interview where he talked about his career and what Hollywood wants from him now.

When the topic of AI came up, this is what Blum had to say:

"Whatever you feel about AI, it’s here to stay. It’s very important to use it ethically and legally, and for the studios and the guilds to protect the copyright of the artists. But if we in Hollywood stick our heads in the sand and don’t use it at all, we’re going to cede content creation to other people. The consumer does not care if what they’re looking at is AI. We’ve got to embrace it, but ethically and legally. "

Whether or not AI is here to stay is a little up in the air for now. There's a lot of debate on whether or not this is a bubble that eventually bursts or if AI can make that next big leap to something that's more useful.

I like how he emphasized the legality, though, as I think that's the current battle facing Hollywood all over, especially as it scrapes everyone's ideas.

Another hurdle coming down the lane is how these smaller horror movies Blum is producing fare in a world where studios are making larger budget horror movies now.

On that, Blum said:

"I thought the ideal thing would be to make movies independently and have them released by studios. No one was doing that at the time, and that’s what “Paranormal Activity” was. Then we came very fast out of the gate with “Insidious,” “Sinister” and then “The Purge.” All examples of super low-budget indie movies released by studios. It’s still in the DNA of Hollywood that if you have success, you need to then make way more expensive movies. Whether you’re a producer, an actor — especially if you’re a director. You had a hit with a $5 million movie at Sundance? You should do a $20 million movie for Searchlight! That never made any sense to me. I’ve made many mistakes in my career, but one thing I did right was not get tempted by this notion of making a more expensive movie after you had a huge hit."

It is interesting to see how Blum sort of invented the current horror model and now has to keep reinventing where it's going. But to his credit, his company is doing well. Sure, there have been hits and misses, but the thing he keeps doing that is so effective is keeping budgets low enough where those misses can't overtake the big hits.

There's a good lesson in that for every filmmaker.

Where do you think the future of horror filmmaking is going?