Delayed Horror Reboot Amityville: The Awakening Will Be Released, Says Jason Blum

A few of Hollywood’s biggest horror franchises seem to be having difficulty of late. The latest installments in the ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchises both had their release dates pushed back recently, and the next ‘Halloween’ movie seems to be taking its sweet time getting its act together.

And another notable new installment in a long-running horror franchise, ‘Amityville: the Awakening,’ was abruptly pulled by distributor Dimension Films (genre label of The Weinstein Company) from its original January 2015 release date late last year - and, to date, no new release date has been announced.

"So what?" you might say, if you’re one of the many who are sick to the back teeth of all these horror sequels, remakes and/or reboots - yet while we certainly understand that sentiment, we can’t deny a certain optimism about ‘Amityville: the Awakening,’ thanks in no small part to the presence of director Franck Khalfoun, who in 2012 made arguably the best horror remake (indeed, one of the best horror movies full stop) of recent years: ‘Maniac,’ with Elijah Wood.

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'Amityville: the Awakening' sees Bella Thorne take the lead as a young woman who unwittingly moves into the eponymous haunted house with her mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and comatose twin brother (Cameron Monaghan). Inevitably, strange and sinister phenomena ensues.

Those of us keen to see this latest offshoot of the supernatural series which began with 1979’s ‘The Amityville Horror’ may be pleased to see that the film’s producer, Jason Blum, has given a little update on where things stand - though it isn’t necessarily the most inspiring news.

Blum tells Arrow in the Head, “We’re still in post on it. I’m very, very happy with it. We’re continuing to have conversations with Dimension and Weinstein about how it’s going to come out, but it’s definitely going to come out.

"I think people are going to like it, Jennifer Jason Leigh is great in the movie. I’m hoping to do another movie with Franck. I’m really pleased with it, my guess is we’ll announce when it’ll come out sometime in the next twelve months."

As long as a year would seem quite a wait for a major film that’s already as good as finished, particularly given how fast Blum’s production company Blumhouse tend to get their movies made and distributed.

There has been speculation that the sticking point may be Dimension/The Weinsteins, who do have a reputation for meddling with films somewhat, oftentimes to the chagrin of fans and filmmakers alike. Quizzed on whether such interference was occurring on ‘Amityville,’ Blum’s response was diplomatic.

"Like a lot of the movies that we do, we’re just tinkering with it and trying to make it better. We’re pretty close now. We went back and forth over the cut of the movie, which we’re happy with now. We’re just tinkering with the movie in post-production."

Blum is probably the biggest player in horror cinema right now, producing such hits as the ‘Paranormal Activity,’ ‘Insidious’ and ‘The Purge’ franchises, as well as ‘Dark Skies,’ ‘Area 51,’ ‘The Bay,’ ‘The Lords of Salem, ‘Sinister’ and its upcoming sequel, and more besides.

On top of which, Blum has many notable non-horror credits to his name, including Oscar winners ‘The Reader’ and ‘Whiplash,’ and - curiously - the upcoming big screen adaptation of cartoon series ‘Jem and the Holograms.’

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Picture Credit: Dimension/TWC