I am Jason Blum, producer of Paranormal Activity, The Purge and Insidious: Chapter2.

So pumped for Insidious 2! It's the only horror movie that's gotten to me, mainly because it avoided gore and isolated the viewer within the "astral plane" and what-not. I also noticed Night Owl from Watchmen in this new installment. It's kind of baffling after I saw the guy who played The Comedian in The Possession.

OK. Questions!

What's Rose Byrne like?

What's the scriptwriting process like for these movies? Are there visual artists and concept designers that flesh out the overall theme?

What's your company's motto, or formula when it comes to horror?

Rose Byrne is a great actress to work with. She was on the fence about doing the sequel for a long time but Leigh's script finally got her to say yes.

Unlike traditional Hollywood movies, we rarely have more than one writer and often times the writer is the director or co-writes the script.

Also, unlike Hollywood movies, the director's have complete creative control and they choose the visual artists and concept designers. Some movies have them, some movies don't.

Unlike other companies, we focus on what's between the scares as opposed to the scares. The character and story between the scares is what makes the scares scary.

Why do you mainly produce horror films? Huge Insidious fan btw; I've seen it a good 9 times and the scene where the Dracula-looking demon is in the window of the baby's room scares me every time.

I love all kinds of movies, including horror movies. But one of the reasons I mainly produce horror now is that I really enjoy making low-budget movies with total creative freedom and having a big audience watch them. It's harder to make an action movie or a period drama really inexpensively. And if you make the movies more expensively you necessarily give up a lot of creative control.

That scene scares the hell out of me too.

Is the "red face demon" back in Insidious 2?

Without giving too much away, all of us fell in love with the red faced demon and we went about making the sequel to answer a lot of the questions posed in the first movie. I wish we had done this more in the early Paranormal Activity movies so we did it a LOT in Insidious Chapter 2. There is a ton of crossover between Insidious and Insidious 2 - think Back to the Future 2.

how did you get into filmmaking? How did you get your first job, did you have any contacts etc and do you have any advice for a young girl wanting to start working in film?

My first job was selling cable TV door to door. It was a commission only job and it was some of the best training I had to becoming a producer. My job after that was as a real estate agent in NY - also great training. The first film I produced was Noah Baumbach's "Kicking and Screaming" - he was my roommate in college.

My first job was for a company in NY called Arrow Entertainment. I met Arrow because they were going to finance "Kicking and Screaming" Ultimately they decided not to, but they thought I was a good salesman so they hired me.

I'll tell you a funny story about contacts. My family knew Steve Martin. I sent Steve Martin the script of "Kicking and Screaming." I did not know Steve Martin, but he read it and he called me. When he called, the phone was shaking in my hand because I was so nervous. I was 22 at the time. He said that he liked the script and he offered to invest a little bit of money in the movie. I asked if he could send me a letter saying how much he liked the script, which he very generously agreed to do. I ripped the cover page of the script off, put the letter from Steve Martin on the script and I sent it to every movie company that existed. And that's how I got "Kicking and Screaming" financed.

My advice to you, is not to wait for others but to go out and make shorts as cheaply as you possibly can and keep making films. Do not wait for other people to help you, but go out and make stuff yourself. And of course do stories that can be told inexpensively, ideally set in your own home or front yard.

Hi Jason,

Thanks for doing this AMA! I don't have any questions. Just wanted to let you know that I first watched Paranormal Activity when my wife was out of town, I had a three-story house all to myself, and it was 2am. I didn't sleep well for a few months.

I'm really glad to hear this. It means we're doing our job!

hi :) what is your favourite pizza topping?

Very important question. I'm on a 5-2 diet right now that means that I'm allowed to eat pizza 5 days a week and then I fast for 2 days. Pizza happens to be one of my favorite foods and my favorite topping (which you can't get in most places) is actually pesto. And my favorite pizza is in New York on 8th Avenue and 32nd Street right by Penn Station. I also like Artichoke Pizza also in NY.

what scares you?

Earthquakes and carbs.

I was wondering if you could ever develop any creepypasta's into movies.

I think we've already done it! Insidious is James and Leigh's own creepypasta!

Was the monster/demon from Insidious based on Darth Maul?

That's a good question. I haven't the faintest idea, but I'll ask James and Leigh.

Do you believe in paranormal activity?

Generally, as a rule I do not. But I have seen 1 ghost in my life. I was living in the basement of a storefront apartment on Crosby St. in NYC. I believe the exact address was 37. In the middle of the night at the foot of my bed a figure appeared holding someone else in his arms. Now I know everyone will think I was dreaming, but I was not. I know for certain I was not and the next day, I moved from the basement to the ground level so I never slept there again.

As a side not, I might also add, and this is true, we caught large rats in this apartment. It was when I was a real estate agent. Three of us shared the apartment and my share of the rent was $300.

What is your favorite horror film, and what was the movie that inspired you to pursue your career in filmmaking?

Rebecca is my favorite horror film. There was no single film that inspired me to get into filmmaking, but Hitchcock is one of my favorites or maybe favorite filmmaker. I studied his films in college and they are a big inspiration to our company.

Would you ever think of doing a purge 2 not based so specifically on one family and more on a city over the course of the night or something?

We're open to anything right now and thinking about many different things.

Thanks for doing an AMA!

Are you planning on producing a Purge 2 movie? I think the concept has a lot of potential for some interesting stories.

We are developing a sequel to The Purge. I think the first movie only touches on James DeMonaco's great, high concept idea. I think there are a lot more stories to tell in the world where the Purge exists and hopefully we'll come up with something good.

Is it difficult working with children in the horror genre? Is there a specific tactic used to help separate the work from reality?

It is always difficult working with children in film because of their limited hours. In the horror genre specifically, we always run what we are doing by the children's parents who are always with us on set. And they have the right to approve anything we do. The scares are usually done in a series of shots so that each individual shot is never frightening to the kids. Luckily in the first Insidious, Ty Simpkins spent most of the movie in a comma. However, he has a ton of great scenes in Chapter 2.

Paranormal Activity made me interested. Until you named the Mom Julie in PA3 and the demon Toby.

Insidious made me unable to sleep and go into a cold sweat when I finally did sleep.

My question is, is Insidious Chapter 2 just as freaky as the first? I was forced to watch it three more times after my first because my brother and friends refused to watch it alone.

I'm sad to say Insidious 2 is quite a lot scarier than the first movie. The budget was slightly higher, we had more toys to play with and when we have screened the movie audiences have said that they found the film scarier than the first.

Sorry about the names on Paranormal Activity, we'll try to do better next time.

Thanks for taking the time to do this AMA, Mr. Blum. Big fan of your films and looking forward to checking out the Purge. My question is what is the biggest challenge with making a low budget film? And were you surprised by the enormous monetary success of Paranormal Activity?

The biggest challenge is that you have very little time to tell the story (shooting days). I answered the Paranormal question previously, but YES. Very surprised.

Without any spoilers (of course), how did you go about using the same family for the sequel? At the end of the first film, things seemed pretty doomed and pretty wrapped up.

The sequel picks up right where the first story ends. At the end of Empire Strikes back things look pretty doomed, but they made another.

Do you have a submission process for queries for writers and/or directors?

Unfortunately, we don't take direct submissions. Material has to be submitted through an agent or lawyer.

Hey Jason, big fan of horror movies. I have a question for you, but this is coming from a 'wannabe' writer. I really want to know, what are key facts to making a perfect horror? Because coming from PA, that is aimed at "Recording Film" and "Chronological". And Insidious has great "Atmosphere" and a "Linear" story. Thank you for being here on Reddit, love giving questions related to horror films.

The key to making a great horro movie is thinking of a great/mysterious story first and then thinking of what the scares will be as opposed to the other way around.

Paranormal Activity is about a girl who sees ghosts and a guy who thinks she's full of shit and sets out to prove her wrong.

Sinister is about a guy choosing his career over his family.

The Purge is about a society that has embraced violence to a detrimental end.

Insidious is about a father trying to save his son.

Those could just as easily describe dramas as horror movies. They are all great high concept dramatic ideas.

James and Leigh seem wild. they're my favorite filmmakers! What is it like working with them?

James and Leigh are at the top of their game. They have such crazy imaginations that sometimes you listen to them and you think "this is bonkers" and then they'll tie up the idea in this really coherent way and it's totally genius. For instance, in the first movie I thought the humor of Specs and Tucker worked against the scares, but then we screened the movie for an audience and what James and Leigh made me understand is that laughing and being scared work well together and one enhances the other as they are both expressions of anxiety in different ways. This is why I produce these movies rather than write or direct them.

Were you surprised at all by the success of Paranormal Activity?

Have you seen any of the spoof or copy cat movies that have been made of it, and if so what do you think of them?

Is Paranormal Activity 5 the last planned film in the franchise?

Already answered about the success, YES, very surprised.

I loved the spoof Steve Martin did for the Academy Awards and I thought Haunted House was a funny movie. It's fun to be spoofed.

We try no to think past the current film we are working on, but I hope not!

Hi Jason! So happy to see that you're doing this AMA. I have seen all of your Paranormal Activity films and Insidious as well. I was just wondering, what was the thought process behind the creation of the Paranormal Activity films? The first one was a very bold idea so I'm interested to hear any responses.

Thanks for the AMA!

First of all, check out Sinister and The Purge too!

The first Paranormal was wholly created, written and directed by Oren Peli. It was 100% his idea and I, like you, thought it was brilliant. The sequels are much more of a group effort. We have meetings once a week throughout the year to discuss story ideas.

Hey Jason, I've been really excited for you to do this AMA and I have a lot of questions for you but I've narrowed it down to just a few so here goes nothing.

1. How do you and your team option scripts and is there a sort of "wish-list" of directors that you have that you'd want to work with?

2. Do you only deal with popular writers and directors or do you ever accept unsolicited scripts that people send you in the mail? Have you ever passed on a script that soon became a popular film and, if so, how does that affect you?

3. What inspired you to start making horror that was based more in social and political issues than the average slasher, haunted house story, or torture porn movie?

4. I've been very interested in working for Blumhouse Productions for quite some time now and if that were even remotely possible, how would I go about doing that?

Thanks again for doing this AMA. I have so many more questions but this is the stuff I need to know!

First of all, these are great questions.

1.) We absolutely have a wish list of directors that we want to work with. Let me give you some examples of people on our list now: Juan Bayona, James McTeigue, Craig Brewer, Patty Jenkins, Jonathan Mostow.

2.) Unfortunately, we do not accept unsolicited material. I have passed on many things that have become successful. It is always painful, but it is something I love about our business. No one is right all of the time.

3.) Paranormal inspired me to start making horror movies as opposed to just enjoying them in the theater. I had spent half of my career in the independent film world and half of my career in the studio film world. And Paranormal was a perfect blend of both worlds. It was made completely independently and released by a studio. That has been the case with Insidious, Sinister and The Purge as well.

4.) So flattered that you are interested in working with my company. We typically post our job listings online so stay tuned.

What advice to do you give emerging producers about developing their careers? What were the major choices/victories early in your career that you feel set you on the road to becoming the producer you are today?

First of all, don't listen to too much advice from other people including me!

Find producers whose work you admire and offer to work for free or intern for them.

Believing in Paranormal Activity for 3 years when no one else did (except Oren). And using the success of Paranormal to continue in the model of Paranormal Activity as opposed to trying to make bigger budget films.

[deleted]

Luckily we work with filmmakers who have complete creative visions and do such a good job managing their movies and scripts. We also have a company bible that helps us keep track of everything.

Would love to have you on an episode of my podcast to nerd out about movies, tv, etc. Can we make this happen?

Direct message me and we'll figure it out.

If Insidious: Chapter 2 is successful do you think there could be a possibility for a third film? And how likely would that be?

I really hope so. A lot would depend on, as you said, how successful the second film is and whether or not James and Leigh thought there was more to tell.

I feel that I can really connect with your movies, especially paranormal activity and insidious due to the spiritual/demonic type of horror. It seems to me this is THE most scary type of movie, because you really have no control over those realms as a human. What type of horror, in your opinion, makes the scariest type of movie? Do you ever feel that in the hacker/slasher type movies you could just fight back, and that takes away from the terror?

I think that if you care about the characters and what happens to them, everything is inherently scarier. Again, we try really hard to make sure our movies have relatable and well developed characters. The drama is what distinguishes great scary movies.

The Purge is kind of a fight back type movie and I still find it terrifying.

What's your favorite Nicolas Cage movie?

Lord of War is my favorite.

Also, I really loved Ethan Hawke's answer about Nicholas Cage during his AMA. See below.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fq1h6/i_am_ethan_hawke_amaa/cacojck

what are all the references from the blumhouse productions logo thing?

are these classic movies, or just scary archetypes?

The latter. Aaron Becker did an amazing job designing our logo. He does the main titles for most of our movies including The Purge and he is currently working on Insidious: Chapter 2. He is brilliant. Check out his site: http://www.aaronbecker.tv/

Do you know who the "mater mortis" or "Mother of Death" the Insidious: Chapter 2 trailer alludes to is? Who? This has been driving me crazy!

First of all, huge props for figuring that out. Someone had to point that out to me! "Mother of Death" answers some questions about the villain int he film. I can't say more than that right now.

Hey Jason, Thanks for doing this! Question 1: Is "the song" in this one again? So very creepy.. Question 2: Do you have any favorite foreign horror films, directors or even sub-genres?

1.) The answer is... Yes. Wait, what's creepy about that song? 2.) Juan Bayona is one of my favorite foreign directors and I would love to make a movie with him. But I can't get a meeting with him!!

favorite morning radio show?

Howard Stern. Howard Stern. Howard Stern. Howard Stern.

Did you ever expect Paranormal Activity to be as successful as it has?

No one (except Oren) expected Paranormal Activity to be as successful as it was. It was a surprise to me, to Paramount, to our international distributors, to Katie and Micah and even to the people who own the theaters, the exhibitors. No one ever thought that there would ever be 1 sequel to Paranormal, let alone 5.