Blumhouse Productions further reinforces its creative decline with abhorrent AI/Meta partnership

Blumhouse Productions really got off the ground in 2009 with the release of Paranormal Activity. This low-budget horror film from director Oren Peli initially cost just $15,000 to make and exuded a homemade ramshackle charm that endeared it to audiences across the globe. It was an original vision, a bold creative gambit that suggested audiences would show up for something fresh and original. New ideas gave Blumhouse its industry reputation, so naturally, the company has spent the last five years just sweatily exploiting every IP it can get its hands on. After 2018's Halloween, Blumhouse has embraced rehashes of the past like Fantasy Island, Black Christmas, The Exorcist: Believer, and the Speak No Evil remake. Fresh and new theatrical release visions from marginalized artists are now few and far between in the outfit's current slate. Blumhouse has instead reveled in giving white boys endless chances to produce rehashes of familiar brand names centered on upper-class suburban families moving into a new home only to find something spoooooky.

Blumhouse Productions has been running on fumes and chasing IP trends for years now while other more daring horror producers make actually meaningful new horror fare like Longlegs and The Substance. It's only natural then that Blumhouse head Jason Blum would team the company up with Meta to exploit the horrors of generative AI. Despite just releasing a movie called AfrAId about the perils of A.I., Blumhouse is getting in on the dangerous generative AI grift.

Generative AI is a scourge on the planet that adversely impacts the environment, exploits previously-existing work made by flesh-and-blood humans, and often engage in pronounced acts of racism and sexism, among countless other flaws. However, insufferable tech bros like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have plunged countless dollars into this technology instead of figuring out ways to actually help people. While countless non-profit organizations work to combat AI's horrors, Big tech companies are forcing it on people. This now includes generative AI companies trying to create good working relationships with movie studios like Blumhouse.

Blumhouse and Meta are teaming up to use Meta's new Meta Movie Gen technology that creates short films based on a prompt. The results look hideous, but Blum has conscripted directors Casey Affleck, Aneesh Chaganty, and the Spurlock Sisters to make works employing this text-to-video tool. The first of these shorts released is entitled i h8 ai from Chaganty. This short mixes home video footage of Chaganty's actual home videos (his earliest forays into filmmaking) with AI imagery. While Chaganty expresses hope that generative AI tools could've given him more creative freedom as a kid, this corporate-sponsored short film can't escape a creepy undercurrent.

To quote user adolynhd on Chaganty's Instagram post containing this short film, "Really admire your work and the sentiment but everything that we felt by watching your film and everything you felt when you were creating them, is what AI stands to rob us of."

Generative AI is filled with problems, including that it's being foisted on us by Silicon Valley knuckleheads rather than in response to actual working-class demands. However, when it comes to cinema, one thing that's especially dangerous is its ability to erase the rough charms that make creativity so fun. Think of the 2008 movie WALL-E, which enlisted cinematographer Roger Deakins to help Pixar animators recreate the tiniest imperfections of 1970s cinematography in computer animation. Those little "flaws" are what made those classic movies come to life. They made them feel real, you could tangibly perceive a human hand creating them. No wonder the Pixar animators wanted to mimic that sensation for WALL-E.

Jason Blum, who now has a net worth of $200 million and is one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood, has clearly been consumed by franchise and remake mania. Like so many other production companies, Blum's Blumhouse got put on the map because of bold risk-taking and resorted to stagnant creativity once it reached the top. Nothing better crystallizes this tragic descent than watching Blumhouse team up with Meta. Just the idea of the once rinky-dink horror company collaborating with a tech giant is weird. To have Blumhouse shilling for generative AI, though, is an eye-roll-worthy development. Now Blumhouse just slaps its product on dismal product demos, rather than supporting low-budget filmmakers trying to bring original ideas into the world. This is somehow even more cringe-worthy than the time Jason Blum proudly boasted of socializing with Glenn Beck!

Do not support generative AI. Period. If a technology's biggest supporters are Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Netflix executives, chances are it's something terrible It's also deeply amusing that studios like Blumhouse would even give a second glance to generative AI given that works made with it can't be copyrighted. However, the bourgeoisie moves in mysterious (and stupid) ways. Ironically, these tools would erase the kind of homegrown distinctly human filmmaking that informed titles like Paranormal Activity, which launched Blumhouse in the first place. Who needs distinctive homemade art, though, when you've got eerie ugly sterile AI art to stare at?