Jason Blum has no interest in making a pandemic horror movie, thank you very much

Rory Cashin

Blum and his production house have been involved in some of the biggest horror movies of the last 15 years.

Three-time Oscar-nominee Jason Blum knows his horror.

While he isn’t solely known for creating scary movies (he’s also produced the likes of BlacKkKlansman, Whiplash, Sharp Objects, The Jinx, and loads more), his production company Blumhouse has also been behind some of the biggest horror movies of the last decade-and-a-bit.

Get Out, Paranormal Activity, Us, the Halloween reboot, The Invisible Man, Insidious, Happy Death Day, Split, Ouija, Sinister, Unfriended… he’s been behind them all.

Some of these modern classics have managed to tap into very present and topical fears, making them stand out from the horror crowd, and perhaps none more so than The Purge series.

Tackling the very real issues of violence and elitism in the States, it is all coming to a violent end with the upcoming fifth and final entry into the franchise, The Forever Purge.

In the run-up to the movie’s release, we had the opportunity to chat to Blum about the new horror:

Throughout the interview, we talked about The Purge franchise and the twisted mirror it seems to hold up to the world, and Blum’s CV of having some very topical issues raised in his scary movies.

But perhaps nothing is more topical right now than the pandemic, and while some movies have already tried to tackle the topic, we were wondering if Blum has been offered many scary movie scripts set in and around a Covid-19 world?

Blum told us this:

“I have. I’ve been inundated. And I can’t imagine anything I’d like to do less than make a pandemic movie. I don’t want to! The idea of a horror movie set in the pandemic… That is a horror movie! That pandemic has been a horror movie. The last thing I need to do, or I want to make, is a horror movie about the pandemic.

“So, I don’t know why… I mean, I do know why they did it, but I don’t know [why]. We’re not doing one, and I’m not going to see one. I lived it, I don’t need to do it or see it. But yes, the answer to your question is I’ve seen a lot.”

The Forever Purge is released in Irish cinemas on Friday 16 July, and we also interviewed the movie’s star Ana de la Reguera, which you can check out right here.