Will Blumhouse Be the New Hammer Horror?

In the 1930s, Universal Studios launched their legendary Universal Monsters film series. In the 1950s, British film studio Hammer kicked off a rebirth of sorts, entering into an agreement with Universal to reinvent the icons for a modern audience. Is Blumhouse lined up to do the same for the 21st Century?

Blumhouse found out-of-the-box success of 2020’s The Invisible Man, adapting the H.G. Wells novel with a modern spin tapping into contemporary fears. Now, the independent studio behind Get Out, The Hunt, and Happy Death Day is working on a new version of Dracula. And there are rumblings of more Universal/Blumhouse pairings on the way.

British newspaper The Guardian examines the case for Blumhouse being the new Hammer:

For Alan Jones, horror film expert and co-director of horror festival FrightFest, the comparison between Blumhouse and Hammer is a valid one, but there are certain key differences. “[Blumhouse CEO] Jason Blum is very clever: he surrounds himself with superfans and genre fans. Hammer never did that: I’ve met quite a few of the original people, and to be honest they had no real love for the genre; it was just a business. Obviously it’s a business for Blum too, but there is a bit more fandom in the background at Blumhouse and they are trying to do right by the properties. That’s the main difference.”