Eli Roth’s ‘Green Inferno’ Lands Under New Genre Label, Blumhouse’s BH Tilt

Producer Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions have become something of a phenomenon as of late, not only have they managed to redefine the current state of horror with low budget films such as Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Insidious and Sinister grossing over $1.4 billion worldwide, but Oscar winner Whiplash and Emmy and Golden Globe winner The Normal Heart were also released under the Blumhouse label. Now Blum is dipping his toes in distribution with a new genre label BH Tilt set up at Universal Studios where the production company has a first look deal and the first release will be Eli Roth‘s cannibal horror feature The Green Inferno.

Previously set up at Open Road, The Green Inferno was originally going to hit theaters this past September when financier Worldview Entertainment didn’t live up to their P&A commitment. That September release date was going to be almost a year after the film bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival, now in the hands of BH Tilt, it will actually arrive just a shade over two years after that bow, on Sept. 25 on approximately 1,000 screens. Promotion will include a targeted digital campaign focused on creating awareness and engagement among genre fans.

“The Green Inferno is a wild, fun ride that took us deeper into the Amazon than anyone has ever taken a film crew,” said Roth. “BH Tilt is a forward thinking label that is helping to redefine how genre movies can be released. I want to express my deep gratitude to the fans for their incredible support of this movie and to everyone at Blumhouse and Universal for making sure fans can experience the film in theaters across the country.”

It will be interesting to see just how long BH Tilt lasts and to what degree they continue releasing films. Two Blumhouse horror franchises at Universal are seeing sequels soon including The Purge 3 and Ouija 2, will they become BH Tilt releases to help pad the stats? The Green Inferno, based solely on the fact it’s a film about cannibals, is likely to play strong with hardcore genre audiences, but won’t hit mainstream appeal like so many of Blum’s horror features.

Discussing the origins of the distribution house Blum said in a press release, “When we launched BH Tilt we said our goal was to be part of the continuing evolution of distribution, whether it is through changing marketing strategies, changing revenue sources or changing windows. We are excited to capitalize on new developments in distribution and marketing to bring Eli’s movie to horror lovers across the country.”

It will be interesting to see if this grows into something bigger or if it fades as quickly as Paramount Insurge did despite finding success with The Devil Inside, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Katy Perry: Part of Me. The most recent release was the flop Project Almanac and the recent dumping of Area 51 and Drunk Wedding… you’re excused if you’re completely unaware of those last two.

The Green Inferno stars Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy and Daryl Sabara and centers on a group of student activists who travel to the Amazon to save the rain forest and soon discover that they are not alone, and that no good deed goes unpunished.