Variety Celebrates Spooky Storytelling at Inaugural Hollywood and Horror Event With Jason Blum, Shudder and More

Los Angeles's Trophy Room was the setting this Wednesday for Variety's inaugural Hollywood & Horror summit, which brought together a powerful group of producers, executives, and creatives to assess their role in shaping genre cinema. The evening featured a keynote from Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum, who reflected on his professional path to commemorate his company's 15-year milestone. Additional panels showcased insights from Shudder's SVP of Programming Samuel Zimmerman, Easterseals Disability Film Challenge founder Nic Novicki, and a roundtable of professionals shaping the sound of contemporary horror.

In a conversation with Variety’s Senior Entertainment & Media Writer Matt Donnelly, Jason Blum detailed his unconventional start in the industry. Before founding Blumhouse—the studio behind low-budget, high-impact phenomena such as "Get Out" and "Paranormal Activity"—he worked selling cable and real estate, yet always identified himself as a film producer. He linked this early self-invention directly to the company's famous financial model, which involves forgoing large upfront payments in favor of backend profit participation. "That personal ambition is the direct ancestor of our business model," Blum stated. "We don't pay big fees upfront, but if a movie is a hit, everyone shares in the success. If it fails, we just move on." Discussing the upcoming "Black Phone 2," he reiterated his dedication to horror, the one genre he feels allows filmmakers to "sidestep the conventional Hollywood machinery and release truly subversive movies" under a major studio banner.

Samuel Zimmerman detailed Shudder's evolution from a planned AMC Networks streaming service into an essential international destination for genre auteurs. Zimmerman, who started his career as an intern and editor at the iconic horror magazine Fangoria, has been instrumental in building the platform's unique library of thrillers, psychological horror, and global cinema. He advocates for a curation strategy driven by creative instinct, highlighting acquisitions like Argentina's terrifying "Terrified" and Guatemala's politically charged "La Llorona" as films that bypassed typical commercial reasoning to find critical and cultural success. This approach has established Shudder as a key incubator for directorial talent. Zimmerman pointed to the platform's early backing of directors like Coralie Fargeat ("Revenge") and Issa López ("Tigers Are Not Afraid"), who have since advanced to major projects such as "The Substance" and HBO's "True Detective: Night Country."

The integration of new technology into horror was a major focus, with Meta's Content Entertainment Lead, Rick Rey, outlining the company's collaboration with Blumhouse. Together they have created distinctive virtual reality experiences for franchises like "M3GAN" and "The Black Phone." The "M3GAN" VR project, for instance, uses the headset's sensors to map the user's actual room in real-time, making the horror feel immediate and deeply personal. Rey explained that Meta's goal as a technology company is to develop scalable tools that enable creators and studios to produce these intensely immersive narratives more efficiently, thereby expanding the genre's storytelling possibilities. This foray into immersive media is part of a wider industry shift; according to a recent report from PwC, the market for experiential and location-based entertainment is projected to grow by over 20% annually through 2028.

Nic Novicki founded the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, an initiative that has grown from a small gathering into a significant movement, having produced 850 films so far. By partnering in 2017 with Easterseals—a leading U.S. nonprofit offering disability and community services—the challenge directly addresses a stark industry disparity. While around a quarter of the U.S. population lives with a disability, studies show that up to 95% of on-screen disabled characters are portrayed by actors without disabilities. The 2025 challenge theme was thriller and suspense, a genre Novicki noted naturally complements the diverse realities of the disability experience. This focus yielded 123 unique genre interpretations, which are now being featured in horror programming blocks at international film festivals, helping these authentic narratives reach broader audiences.

A music-centered roundtable, moderated by Variety’s Chief Music Critic Chris Willman, assembled composers and supervisors to explore their 2025 projects. Jeff Russo, composing for "Alien: Earth," described the difficulty of honoring Jerry Goldsmith's legendary original "Alien" score while creating a new sonic identity for the franchise. Composer Chanda Dancy, who scored the latest "I Know What You Did Last Summer" sequel, drew from her thriller expertise, noting that classic 90s horror often calls for a large, dramatic orchestra with potent, iconic themes. Amanda Krieg Thomas, the music supervisor for "American Horror Story" and "Monster: The Ed Gein Story," stressed that the most successful collaborations are founded on a deep trust between the supervisor and director, ensuring the music genuinely serves the story's core vision.