The guy behind horror hits 'The Purge' and 'Paranormal Activity' has a new scary game show that's set in an abandoned slaughterhouse
GSNJason Blum is best known for his low budget horror movies."I can definitely tell you it was not in the micro-budget, typical Blumhouse category," Blum told Business Insider. "It was a much more traditionally budgeted show. You could say it was a very healthy budget, and it was a far cry from the typical Blumhouse budget."
Hosted by "The Twisted Twins" Jen and Sylvia Soska, "Hellevator" takes place in an abandoned slaughterhouse. It tasks a three-person team to face one of the most frightening scenarios they could imagine and then leave the relative "safety" of the hellevator to perform timed challenges for money. If a person doesn't make it back in time, the elevator moves on without them. Up to $50,000 are up for grabs if the team can complete the challenges and beat The Labyrinth - a terrifying mad-dash race to accumulate more money.
"It was very different," Blum explained. "We had more resources than we're used to working with and that was fun. I wanted to make sure our first foray into the game show delivered in every way possible, and also, we were learning about it in a real way."
Most of the money went into the game show's intricate set design while a big chunk of it would also go to the location.
"It was a pretty big location," said Blum. "We were taking up a lot of space because we had the whole building. It was a building in downtown LA, and then the construction and set design are elaborate and elaborate equals not cheap."
Fans of the horror movie impresario may think a game show is a strange fit for Blum. But the producer has been a longtime fan of the genre.
GSN"Hellevator" contestants can win up to $50,000."When I was a kid, I really loved game shows," the 46-year-old producer said. "For whatever reason, I was fascinated with them and watched them a ton... I do want to grow our company, so the way I've been doing that is moving scary to different things."
Blum's production company, Blumhouse, has gotten into the business of haunted houses, online content sites blumhouse.com and Crypt TV, and now TV game shows.
"I thought it would be a really fun thing to do a scary game show," Blum said.
"Hellevator" premieres on Wednesday, October 21 at 8 p.m. on GSN.