THE EMPIRE MASTERPIECE
Whiplash
THE DRUMMER EPIC THAT NEITHER RUSHES NOR DRAGS
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
JASON BLUM, founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, has effectively shaped modern horror with his low-budget approach to highconcept scares. Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister, Get Out, the Halloween retcons —he’s got a lot of nightmarish notches on his belt.
But arguably the best horror film on Blum’s CV isn’t even a horror film. Whiplash is a film about drumming in which there are blistered fingers, battered eardrums and bruised egos galore. But nobody gets killed. And yet, it’s as gripping and gruelling as it gets.
Of course, Jason Blum isn’t the creative driving force behind Whiplash, and would probably be the first to say that. That would be the film’s wunderkind director, Damien Chazelle, who was in his late twenties back in 2012, and getting frustrated with his inability to get La La Land off the ground in La La Land. In response, he fired off a script inspired by his own experiences as a wannabe jazz drummer at Princeton High School. It was vibrant, angry, vital, and unlike anything else out there.