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Two years ago this month, horror titan Blumhouse set out to do something unheard of in their entire history of fear pioneering: make video games. Blumhouse Games, as their new division was appropriately (if perhaps unoriginally) called, sought to bring the philosophy of Blumhouse as a studio into the world of gaming production. A full 24 months later, it's about time we ask: just how successful have they been?

As with any entertainment project, success is of course, subjective. However, we'd argue that there is such a thing as "Blumhouse success," and that it's worth considering whether or not their gaming division meets that criteria. But in order to understand what that criteria is, we're going to have to ask...

Why is Blumhouse so successful?

As we discussed in article on every upcoming horror movie from Blumhouse (The Woman in the Yard is up next, as of this writing), Blumhouse's success in recent years might look like things that are all over the Oscars, such as Get Out, or reams and reams of merchandise, such as Five Nights at Freddy's. But before they could get there, Blumhouse became a horror mainstay by following a simple philosophy: make challenging, original horror stories that required very small budgets.

You can see this philosophy early Blumhouse hits such as The Purge or Paranormal Activity, both films that provided unique scares to horror-hungry audiences, at a shockingly low cost in Hollywood terms, and that spawned entire franchises to follow them. It's that same low-cost, high-concept strategy that Blumhouse Games is taking into their new medium; specifically, BG will focus on indie games that stay under $10 million in budget, as reported by FandomWire.

(Yes, I know, $10M is a lot of money to you and me, but to a game-maker, that's pennies.)

Nine months after the founding of Blumhouse Games, the division added Jo Lammert to their team to lead production and brought on Clint Brewer as technical director (per VentureBeat). With their proverbial ship manned and their course set, they were free to seek out their first port: a retro, indie-survival project called Fear the Spotlight.

How scary is Fear the Spotlight?

In Fear the Spotlight, players take on the role of Vivian, a student of the seemingly-mundane Sunnydale High. Vivian and friend Amy sneak into their unassuming high school to conduct a séance at night, but something goes terribly wrong, and Amy disappears. Now Vivian must not only find her friend, but survive the strange and sinister halls of the school she calls her own, all while avoiding an otherworldly being with a blazing gaze.

After a limited release in 2023, Fear the Spotlight launched officially in October of 2024, and reviews were largely positive. Metacritic scores the indie chiller with an 83%, Gamespot puts it at a 7 out of 10, and Eurogamer gives it 3 out of 5 stars. All of those reviews praise the original, emotionally resonant story, as well as the retro, PS1-inspired graphics which, though they're excellently made and effective emotional triggers, were doubltess cheaper to make than the average hi-res game. In other words, Fear the Spotlight successfully came across as original horror with a remarkably small operating budget. 

We'd call that a Blumhouse success if there every was one.

What games is Blumhouse making next?

Of course, the real test as to whether or not Blumhouse will be as successful a horror game maker as they are horror film maker comes not with a single win, but via a winning streak. As of this writing, it's impossible to judge how well their future releases will do since, well, only one release exists at the moment, but what we can do is tell you where to look for their future success. Listed in no particular order, here are the future games Blumhouse will produce:

• Sleep Awake - Set in a far-flung future in which falling asleep may mean eternal damnation
• Crisol: Theater of Idols - A dark fantasy RPG in which evil lurks and your only defense is your own blood
• Grave Seasons - An agriculture simulator set in a town bordering of a world of horrors
• The Simulation - A point-and-click mystery surrounding a lost horror video game (meta, we know!)
• Project C██████ - Little about this game is known, but Possessor director Brandon Cronenberg is attached

Unfortunately, we can't tell you when teh next test of Blumhouse's success as a game developer comes out, as none of the release dates for the game above have been announced. Still, we'll be keeping you updated on everything we find out, just as much as we're rooting for Blumhouse to have the same kind of wins that their movies (and indeed, Fear the Spotlight) have proven they're capable of achieving.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we've cobbled together a couple pieces to send a chill up your spine. Join Popverse as we explore:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.