Horror producer Jason Blum declares himself a giant cheeseball

Perhaps Singapore film-maker Glen Goei ought to buy American horror film-maker Jason Blum a drink.

“I actually bought the first movie that was made in Singapore and shown in the United States,” Blum said proudly. “It was 15 or 20 years ago, made by a Singaporean director called Glen Goei. The movie was called Forever Fever. Did you see it? Did you not like it? Oh my god, I loved it! It was very cheesy, but I loved it.”

Could Blum, the guy responsible for the Insidious and Purge series of horror flicks, be a giant cheeseball? “Totally!” he howled. “I cried at The Notebook, are you kidding? I even cry at AT&T commercials. Those Solvil et Titus commercials really do it for me too.”

But Blum adopts a less soppy approach to making horror movies. Also the founder of Blumhouse Productions, he has produced a series of visually seductive horror films dealing with the occult. Likewise, Blum’s latest film, The Purge: Anarchy, had superseded its 2013 counterpart, being swaddled in political fury and swathed in new alternatives to the art of execution.

And given that many of Blum’s films are laced with twisted narratives and rooted in sinister conspiracy theories, the source of inspiration for the Purge series came across as slightly blase. “Well, the film’s director James DeMonaco and his wife were stuck in a traffic jam in New York, when someone cut him off. James said ‘I would kill that guy!’ and his wife replied ‘What if you could?’ That’s actually how it started,” said Blum.

“We always aspire to be different,” he continued. “And sometimes we succeed, and others we fail, but I always urge the directors to try different things that people won’t expect.”

Speaking of expectations, horror fans have long been struggling with the cliffhanger ending of Insidious 2, with actress Lin Shaye’s face pulled into a horrified countenance, lending no indication of the ghouls that her character’s third eye glimpsed in the blackened corner of the room.

“I’m happy to tell you that the third movie is finished and we’ve been editing it for the past three weeks. I’ve seen a bunch of it and we’re really in for a treat. I think Leigh (Whannell) did an even better job than I thought he was going to do!”

To say anything more about the plot of Insidious: Chapter 3 would be saying way too much — Blum guards these secrets protectively. We do know that the film will be a prequel to the first two instalments, starring Dermot Mulroney and Stefanie Scott, and beginning a new twisted tale of terror predating the haunting of the Lambert family — oh, yes, and there’s possibly a return of the chilling Bride In Black.

For Blum, the topic of horror movies is one that he’s fully invested in — and he’s keen to see how its development will pan out. “Horror will become more grounded. We will be seeing less supernatural and more real-world situations. I think there’s enough of supernatural. People are ready for a different way to be scared,” he mused.

Blum said his storytelling process is rooted in his own “horror-thriller” influences, with his favourite films being those of Alfred Hitchcock, citing him as his “favourite master of horror”.

“I really love his movies,” Blum gushed, adding that Psycho is one of the best from the late maestro. “It’s just the way it makes you feel when you watch it. And it’s so simple too, just a woman getting stabbed in the shower. If 99 people shot that scene, it would be really boring or just graphic and bloody for no reason. But you watch that in Psycho and it’s awesome.”

However, when we asked him to select his favourite scene from the horror films he has produced, you could almost see him recoil.

“I can’t do that! That’s like picking a favourite child! I like different aspects of all of them, so I don’t have a favourite one. A producer’s relationship with a movie lasts for years, and you have highs and lows with it, just like any relationship.”

How romantic.