Two masters of horror are better than one. Per The New York Times, Hollywood horror super-producers Jason Blum and James Wan are in advanced talks to join forces and merge their companies, Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster, into one mega house of horrors. 

Blum’s Blumhouse currently has a first-look deal with Universal Pictures, which would continue if the deal closes. Atomic Monster’s first-look deal with Warner Bros. expired early this year after seven years. “James is probably 70–80% artist and 30 to 20 percent business person, and I am the reverse,” Blum told the Times in a joint interview with Wan at Universal’s headquarters. “We really do complement each other, yin and yang, which is part of what makes this so exciting,” Wan added. 

Known for its low-budget horror films, Blumhouse—the production company behind successful horror films like Halloween Ends, Paranormal Activity, and The Purge—has generated over $5 billion at the box office, the Times notes. Wan is the creative force behind The Conjuring and Saw series, and his Atomic Monster has reportedly generated at least $3.5 billion in ticket sales. If the merger goes through, it’s expected that Atomic Monster would become a creatively autonomous label inside of Blumhouse, with each entity maintaining its own brand identity, Blum and Wan told the Times. Wan would also be able to continue his working relationship with Warner Bros as a director, where he’s currently in postproduction on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Both Blum and Wan said that the merger would be mutually beneficial for both production companies. Blumhouse’s team of about 80 employees is looking to make even more content, and Blum said he wants to make at least eight films a year—a stark increase from their current offering of three to four. “I don’t have one idea to turn into a horror movie,” Blum told the Times. “Not one. I built a business by recognizing great ideas from other people.” Luckily for Blum, that isn’t a problem for Wan, who’s looking to scale up his nine-person team at Atomic Monster in the merger. “I have so many ideas—so many ideas—more than I can handle by myself,” Wan said. “It really allows me a bigger canvas to paint on, if you will,” he said of the potential merger. 

Wan and Blum have collaborated in the past. They produced the haunted family feature Insidious, which led to four sequels. They also collaborated on Blumhouse’s highly anticipated forthcoming feature M3GAN, a horror film about a robot doll with artificial intelligence and some killer dance moves. The project is so buzzy that Blum dressed up as M3GAN for Halloween, and there are already talks of a sequel, according to the Times, even though the film doesn’t hit theaters until January 6, 2023.