Emmy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer Jason Blum has produced over 80 films and TV series throughout his career. As the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions; a multimedia production company that has pioneered a new model of studio filmmaking, he’s someone who produces high-quality films on a micro budget.

Lucy Hale leads the cast of Truth Or Dare

Lucy Hale leads the cast of Truth Or Dare

Blumhouse has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures and has produced the highly-profitable Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious, and Sinister franchises which have grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide on combined budgets under $40 million.

Blumhouse’s model began with the original Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000 but grossed close to $200 million worldwide, making it the most profitable film in Hollywood history.

Truth Or Dare is Blumhouse Productions’ latest chilling supernatural thriller, coming to UK cinemas on Friday, April 13. Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) lead the cast, in a story where a harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone – or something – begins to punish those who tell a lie, or refuse the dare.

Ahead of the movie’s official release, we’ve decided to take a look at Blum’s top six films to-date and what makes them so successful…

Get Out

Critically-acclaimed Get Out won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Achievement in Directing, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leader Role, and Best Motion Picture (a rare accolade for a horror film). It was named the best-rated film of 2017 on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason.

Due to the film’s success, director Jordan Peele became the first African-American writer, producer, and director to earn more than $100 million in a debut film.

Chance the Rapper was so impressed by the movie that he bought all of the movie tickets from Chicago movie theatres just so people could go see the film for free. In one of his tweets talking about the film he said: “Just pull up with an ID and enjoy the movie.” What a guy!

Whiplash

Triple Academy Award-winning Whiplash was director Damien Chazelle’s predecessor to the immensely successful La La Land. He directed Whiplash at just 29-years-old.

Filmed in merely 19 days, the film is one of the lowest grossing movies ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Miles Teller, who has played the drums since he was 15, received blisters on his hands due to the vigorous, unconventional style of jazz drumming. Some of his blood was on the drumsticks and the drum set as a result. Similarly, for the slapping scene, J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller filmed several takes with Simmons only miming the slap. For the final take, Simmons and Teller decided to film the scene with a real, genuine slap. This is the take that is in the film.

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity was a true cinematic experiment that paid off. The actors weren’t given scripts but were given guidelines on how to behave or what to discuss in their scenes. The entire film was shot on a home digital camera, in Oren Peli’s own home, over the course of 10 days. The film also contains no opening or closing credits. The film beat Saw VI (2009) to the top of the box office charts, proving that a brand new horror franchise was ready to take over.

The Purge

The fourth Purge film is releasing this summer, but the original starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey was released back in 2013 and grossed $89 million.

According to director James DeMonaco, a road-rage incident was the inspiration for The Purge. He and his wife were driving on the freeway when a drunk driver cut them off, nearly killing them. After both cars stopped, the other driver’s lack of remorse enraged DeMonaco enough to engage in a fist fight and police eventually had to get involved. After the incident was over, DeMonaco’s wife turned to him and commented how great it would be to have one free murder a year. He felt bad admitting this because she’s normally a “sweet woman”.

Sinister

There is very little blood, almost no cursing, and no sex in this film because the filmmakers were hoping for a PG-13 rating. However, they still managed to get an R, based on the terrifying content alone! In order to add to the authenticity of the old home movies and snuff films included in the movie, the Super 8 segments were shot on actual Super 8 cameras and film stock!

Insidious

To-date, there have been four films taking place within the Insidious universe. The original was directed by horror legend James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring), and remains one of the most-loved of the franchise.

Around 30 minutes into the film, when Josh is in his classroom, eagle-eyed audience members spotted the names James Wan on the chalkboard behind the character, as well as a drawing of Billy, the puppet from Wan’s Saw (2004), with the number 8 written under it.

One of the scariest things about the original Insidious film is the soundtrack and music used. 33 violins were used for the theme music in total, sending shivers down the spines of the majority of people watching! Ultimately grossing $97 million, the movie was a major success.

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Truth Or Dare is released across UK cinemas on Friday, April 13 from Universal Pictures.