Posted in: Blumhouse, Games, Horror, Interview, Video Games, VR | Tagged: Blumhouse Horrorverse, Meta Quest

Blumhouse Horrorverse EP on Bringing Immersive Horror to Meta Horizon

Executive producer Rick Rey spoke to Bleeding Cool about the Meta Horizon's latest collaboration with NBC in Blumhouse Horrorverse.

As virtual reality becomes more the norm in our video games, companies are finding new and innovative ways to bring their classic IPs to the fan experience. Meta partnered with NBC Universal to bring one of their most unique IPs to Meta Horizon in Blumhouse Horrorverse bringing some of the most familiar places from the studio's films like M3GAN (2022), The Purge franchise, upcoming Wolf Man (2025), The Black Phone (2025), and Happy Death Day (2017). Launched on May 22nd, Blumhouse Horrorverse adds a new dimension to the fan experience. Meta executive producer Rick Rey spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with Blumhouse's Jason Blum on the project, the crossover possibilities, and expansion potential.

Blumhouse Horrorverse EP Rick Rey on Meta's Partnership with NBCU on Immersive Experience

BC: What's the inspiration behind creating the Blumhouse Horrorverse and collaboration with Meta?

RR: Meta has a partnership with NBC Universal, and part of that is looking at opportunities to work with NBCU properties and help extend them to the Metaverse. It was a couple of years ago that we started talking about Blumhouse. We love amazing immersive horror content, and so we immediately identified the opportunity with Blumhouse to do something exciting. As we research different creative things we could do, I recall reading some articles a few years back where Jason Blum was talking about the idea of creating a shared universe, which was inspiring.

It got us thinking, "Well, our Horizon Worlds platform would be an amazing place to be able to do something like that." We latched onto that and thought, "Okay, that's interesting," because when you think about the Metaverse, a lot of people think about like having something that has multiple IP that can come and coexist. There was that, and then there was also…I'm sure you've seen the Blumhouse motion logo, the graphic that plays in front of every Blumhouse movie, where you see glimpses of inside the Blumhouse itself.

We wondered, "What is this house, and could we bring it to life? Could we let fans actually explore that space? What if that space was like an unnatural space where elements from the Blumhouse movies were actually living inside of it?" That was the inspiration, and we worked collaboratively with the Blumhouse and the Universal teams to develop it out.

What went into deciding which characters would go into the initial set?

Great question. There's a lot of amazing IP, Blumhouse has worked on. We wanted to honor the current franchises, like what felt tightly aligned with the slate and the roadmap. We also wanted to look at fan favorite films and bring in some exciting easter eggs from the library. It's a combination of both, but you'll notice there is good representation there in the world from M3GAN, Black Phone, and there are sequels to those movies coming out this year. That was definitely top of mind. We also have the Wolf Man, which launched earlier this year. Our hope and ambition initially was, "How can we make this feel like a living representation of the Blumhouse slate?

I also noticed 'Happy Death Day' in there as well. Were there also plans to integrate the Blumhouse versions of the Universal Classic Monsters?

As part of our NBC Universal partnership, we have created multiple worlds together. One of those worlds is a classic movie monsters' world called 'Universal Monsters Arena.'

From what I've seen of the Blumhouse Horrorverse, it reminded me of seeing the open world gaming type established worlds, like Dead by Daylight, Evil Dead: The Game, and Friday the 13th, where we see all this cooperation and one enemy. Were any of those games inspired by what you guys want to accomplish in this Horrorverse?

There was definitely inspiration from survival games. We knew we wanted to allow players to embody the villains, and the question was, "What's it like?" and also, the Horizon Worlds platform. It's a social network, like it's a multiplayer-by-default platform. We knew that this world was going to be a place where players would meet other people and cooperate, or be in the same instance as other people. We wanted to ask, "How do you set it up in a way where some users can be villains and some users wouldn't be?" We felt that the survival mechanic, like one villain versus the rest of the people in the instance, felt like something that would be familiar to some players, but also made sense creatively with what we were trying to accomplish.

What would you say is the biggest hurdle as far as getting this executed, and how do you want to accomplish this?

Yeah, the biggest hurdle, whenever you're working with IP is how you want to do justice to it. Blumhouse is best in class when it comes to making horror content, and so to create like an embodiment of the Blumhouse brand on this virtual network, we wanted to make sure that it lived up to that. We put in an immense amount of focus on getting as much making this as quality an experience as we could, making sure that the character models were looking accurate, and making sure that the Blumhouse itself, like from the outside, felt like immediately recognizable to fans that it drew you into the inside of that house, and it's something that was truly engaging to explore.

We have, as I mentioned, these areas, which we refer to as "movie realms." There's "M3GAN's Playroom," and you can go into The Grabber's Basement (from 'The Black Phone'). Those areas, in particular, we wanted to make sure it felt movie accurate. We tried to replicate those sets so that when players came through, they were like immediately felt like they were in the movie.

There's so many different stuff and possibilities for expansions and whatnot. I know you mentioned Wolf Man, but there's also The Invisible Man, which there's a sequel being developed, the 'Insidious' franchise, and I saw the references to The Purge. As far as long-term plans, are we going to see them integrated over time?

What I can say is that it's been a great partnership with Blumhouse and the Universal team. It's something we hope to continue to grow in the future.

For more, you can check out Blumhouse Horrorverse on Meta.

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