10 Films That Helped Blumhouse Take Over Cinema
4. Insidious
The early days of Blumhouse saw two franchises at the centre of the studio's output. One of those franchises, Paranormal Activity, has now fallen by the wayside, but Insidious is still going strong. This year, Blumhouse released The Last Key, which is the fourth entry in the series, bringing the story of medium Elise, played by Lin Shaye, full circle. The new film earned $167m at the global box office, which is the highest total of any of the movies, all but guaranteeing a fifth film.
Given the success of James Wan, who has directed a Fast & Furious movie and a major DC comic book film since Insidious, it's easy to forget how significant the movie and, by extension, Blumhouse has been in his career. When he made the first, Wan had achieved little acclaim or financial success since he birthed the Saw franchise in 2004.
That all changed with Insidious, which was a bona fide box office hit and seemingly spawned a whole new slew of haunted house films. Any movie that can revitalise part of a genre in the way that this did, in tandem with subsequent Blumhouse movie Sinister, has to be considered a great bit of innovation.