Although it hasn’t been greeted with the same rapturous critical attention that’s been lobbed at fellow newcomer studio A24—and its founder, Jason Blum, has come under occasional fire for his purported struggles in finding female horror filmmakers, apparently the rare truffles of the movie-making world—Blumhouse has carved out a solid niche for itself in recent years. Between more traditional franchises like the Paranormal Activity movies, and politically conscious genre films like Get Out and The Purge, the studio has steadily prodded at the holes in the American psyche (i.e., the places where horror lives) while keeping its bottom line intact.
The studio seemed to prod a bit too hard recently, though, when Universal announced that it was shelving its controversial Most Dangerous Game riff The Hunt. Promoted with a trailer that emphasized its “bad, rich liberals hunt good, poor conservatives for sport” premise, the film ran smack into the perfect storm of shitty action movie release timing in the wake of several mass shootings, capping it with a run-in with the biggest, loudest, dumbest hurricane of all: Donald Trump.
And yet, Blum says he’s still game to see the film see the light of day eventually. This is per a new interview he gave with Vulture this week, mostly focused on David Oyelowo’s upcoming Don’t Let Go, and discussing Blumhouse’s approach to race, politics, and more. Eventually, though, it gets around to The Hunt, with Blum admitting that the marketing for the film was a mistake. But:
If I was offered the choice to make the movie again, I would say yes. We definitely made marketing mistakes, and we made plenty of mistakes along the way. So I’ve learned a lot. It might change how I would position movies and how I would consult on the marketing of the movies. But actually the making of the movies?
And when asked if he still thinks the film has a chance of release: “Definitely a chance. I hope so.”