Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
are even afoot to murder the top spot at the box office.
Easy enough to overlook, then, that the little indie almost never got made.
They didnt like that the movie resets on page 50.
They didnt like that theres a character whos part of Hollywood.
And they said nobody wants to follow a rapist for 30 pages.
Lifshitz and Raphael Margules, purveyors of micro-budget horror and genre movies such asBeckyandWild Indian.
Its a weird movie on paper, but its never not funny, scary, thrilling, entertaining.
He adds, The very reasons people passed on it is why we wanted to do it.
Roy called me and said, I really love the script.
My company passed on it a year ago.
I read your script.
I think its really good, Cregger, 40, recalls.
And I was like, I dont know you.
Hes like, Oh, I have a company called Vertigo.
We madeItandThe DepartedandThe LEGO Movie.
And hes like, No, they gave me the movie!
I want to make it with them.
So from that moment with Roy onboard, we were off to the races.
That was really tragic and sad, says Margules.
If everybody gets word we just lost our financing, its going to fall apart.
On a Friday, we were dead, Cregger says.
During the films 24 hours in limbo, a line producer had firedBarbarians Bulgarian crew.
But after New Regency wired over a quarter-million-dollar down payment, they were quickly rehired and preproduction continued apace.
I aged like ten years!
Alls well that ends well.
But it was wild.
Margules and Lifshitz are lifelong friends from Long Island, New York.
Blum himself evenco-signed them on Twitter.
I get asked a lot who will be the next Blumhouse?
he wrote in a 2019 post accompanied by a photo of himself with Lifshitz and Margules.
Who is a good example of someone on the path to success in Hollywood today?
The answer to both is the 2 guys pictures [sic] below.
They talked about how they want this movie to feel like a discovery.
They implanted that sense of creating something in the audience.
Cregger, for his part, maintains a healthy disbelief thatBarbarianclaimed the No.
Not that hes been letting any of it get to his head.
And then most of the time, it doesnt feel real.
Im afraid to celebrate it, because what if theyre all making a mistake?
Most of the time, this feels like a dream that Im going to wake up from.
