Filmmaker James Wan, the creative force behind the Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring Universe franchises, has declared that horror movies continue to be the lifeline of a struggling film industry — a conviction he shared at the Produced by Conference on the Universal Lot in Los Angeles on 1 June.

Wan's Case for Horror

Drawing on a childhood steeped in genre cinema, Wan credited filmmakers like John Carpenter and Wes Craven as the inspiration behind his own career trajectory. 'I've been a horror fan since I was a kid, and so naturally I grew up on a steady diet of horror movies through the '80s and '90s, inspired by great filmmakers like John Carpenter and Wes Craven,' he said. 'I look at them and think, 'You know what? I kind of want to do what they did.' Today we kind of mimic that model. And here we are. I say this to anyone who will listen: The horror genre keeps saving our industry.'

A New Wave of Horror Creators

Wan's Blumhouse-Atomic Monster collaborator Jordan Blum spotlighted a new generation of horror filmmakers — content creators Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, who are helming upcoming horror films Obsession and Backrooms, respectively. Both directors built their reputations online before transitioning to theatrical features.

Blum described the pair's work as a cultural reset for cinema. 'Since COVID, there's been this lethargic feeling around theatrical, and is it relevant anymore, and is it going to survive?' he said. 'What I think is so incredible about Obsession and Backrooms is that they're a new kind of movie. They're made by non-traditional directors, directors who really honed their skills as creators online. Their hope and desire and dream is to make cool movies. Backrooms and Obsession are edgy and weird and …. nuts.'

The '70s Parallel

Blum drew a striking historical parallel, comparing the current moment to the counter-cultural cinema explosion of the 1970s. 'There's almost this feeling of the '70s, of a new generation of young people making edgy movies that are connecting in theaters in a crazy way,' he said. He noted that a generation of young audiences grew up during the pandemic unable to attend cinemas, and argued that Obsession and Backrooms are among the first films made specifically for them — designed to pull them away from screens and into theatres. Wan added simply: 'Suddenly they have two movies.'

Blumhouse-Atomic Monster's Bigger Ambitions

Beyond film, Blumhouse-Atomic Monster is expanding into TV, gaming, and live events, with both Wan and Jason Blum expressing intent to grow the company in step with shifting audience behaviour. Blum articulated the long-term vision plainly: 'What's the aspiration? The Disney of horror is the aspiration in five years.'

With two unconventional horror titles on the horizon and a diversified content strategy in motion, Blumhouse-Atomic Monster appears to be betting that the genre's grassroots energy — now amplified by online creators — can sustain theatrical cinema through its post-pandemic identity crisis.