Producer Jason Blum Talks 'Sinister' & The 'Paranormal Activity' Recipe For Success

Jason Blum had produced a dozen projects before he hit upon 2007's sleeper phenomenon Paranormal Activity, a micro-indie horror pic with no stars that in turn became the model for Blumhouse Productions, his own genre-leaning multimedia label. Fast forward just five years and Paranormal Activity 4 is set to continue the series' low-budget thrills (with webcam technology!) next week, while the Blum-produced Sinister, about a writer (Ethan Hawke) contending with a house haunted by insidious forces, opens today. (For a third new venture, The Blumhouse of Horrors, Blum & Co. take over a historic theater in downtown Los Angeles. More info here.)

Movieline caught up with the man behind many of the most profitable — and cost-effective — horror hits in recent memory for a peek behind the curtain: What's the Blum secret to success?
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'High-Concept, Low-Budget' Ouija Hatched at Universal

Just when it looked like we might dodge a movie based on Ouija (which even McG had the good taste and common sense to abandon at Paramount), along came Universal to pluck the Hasbro property out of turnaround like a dusky Goodwill relic. And now, with a release date looming, the studio has handed the project off to a new team that will get it in shape for 2013. But wait — it gets better.
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