Blumhouse Productions: The New House of Horror

by Todd K. Platts (Editor), Victoria McCollum (Editor), Mathias Clasen (Editor)

Overview

An in-depth exploration of one of the most prominent production companies in contemporary horror film.
 
Blumhouse Productions: The New House of Horror provides the first sustained academic inquiry into one of the biggest production companies currently working in horror film production. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines explore various facets of the company, which is known for such hit franchises as Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge, in addition to critically acclaimed works such as Get Out, and box office sensations such as Happy Death Day and Split. Balancing attention to the behind-the-scenes workings of the company and its productions with accounts of the films themselves, the book presents a thorough and detailed picture of Blumhouse Productions and its cultural footprint.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786838636
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	08/18/2022
Series:	Horror Studies
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Todd K. Platts is professor of sociology at Piedmont Virginia Community College.


Victoria McCollum is lecturer of cinematic arts at Ulster University, Northern Ireland.


Mathias Clasen is associate professor of English at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

List of Tables viii

Notes on the Contributors ix

Introduction Victoria McCollum Mathias Clasen Todd K. Platts 1

1 Blumhouse at the Box Office, 2009-2018 Todd K. Platts 13

2 'Those Things You See Through'

Get Out, Signifyin', and Hollywood's Commodification of African-American Independent Cinema Stefan Sereda 35

3 Haunted Bodies, Haunted Houses Racheal Harris 51

4 Gothixity

Evoking the Gothic through New Forms of Toxic Masculinity Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns 71

5 Space Invaders

Aliens and Recessionary Anxieties in Dark Skies Craig Ian Mann 91

6 The (Blum)House that Found-Footage Horror Built Shellie McMurdo 111

7 Insidious Patterns

An Integrative Analysis of Blumhouse's Most Important Franchise Todd K. Plates Victoria McCollum Mathlas Clasen 131

8 The Purge

Violence and Religion - A Toxic Cocktail Amanda Rutherford Sarah Baker 151

9 Happy Death Day

Beyond the Neo-slasher Cycle Sotiris Petridis 171

10 Haunted Networks

Transparency and Exposure in Unfriended and Unfriended: Dark Web Zak Bronson 185

11 Shirting Shapes

Blumhouse's Halloween (2018) and the New Ethos of Slasher Remakes Guy Spriggs 203

12 'Disobedient Women' and Malicious Men

A Comparative Assessment of the Politics of Black Christmas (1974) and (2019) John Kavanagh 219

13 What Lies Behind the White Hood

Looking at Horror Through a Realistic Lens in Spike Lee's BlacKhKlansman Allison Schottenstein 237

Bibliography 255

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

"As the first book to focus exclusively on the company, Blumhouse Productions: The New House of Horror (University of Wales Press, part of their Horror Studies series) has a lot of ground to cover. Editors Todd K. Platts, Victoria McCollum, and Mathias Clasen cleverly do so by grouping the chapters into one of three categories: 'the economic influences on Blumhouse’s productions; content themes that span across individual films and franchises; and key films and franchises.' This approach is doubly effective in that it both looks far beyond the close formalist readings that tend to dominate such publications and highlights the shared economic preoccupations between the company itself and the financial anxieties central to its unique brand of 'recessionary horror.'"

Film International

"The works of William Shakespeare have for centuries been adapted and retold in many different cultural contexts - all adding to the timeless nature of the English playwright’s repertoire. But a new collection brings the bard’s work closer to home - namely, to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera, readers are introduced to numerous retellings of Shakespeare’s works by Latino and Indigenous writers that place the stories in settings more familiar to the borderlands."

Texas Standard

"An impressively meticulous collection of essays written by established and emerging scholars, this book deepens our understanding of the role that Blumhouse has played in reshaping the contours of mainstream horror entertainment since the theatrical release of Paranormal Activity in 2009. Encompassing a broad array of approaches, topics, and texts, Blumhouse Productions: The New House of Horror will prove to be essential reading for film, media, and cultural studies scholars alike. A must read!"
 

William Proctor