Faisal Hashmi, a Dubai-based filmmaker born and raised in the UAE to Pakistani parents, has launched a new production company called Spine Drop Pictures. Modelled on the US studio Blumhouse, the company focuses on making horror and thriller films on budgets under $1 million.

Explaining the move, Hashmi said the film industry has long carried a bias against genre cinema: "There is a stigma against genre films. We've sort of believed that there are important films and that there are genre films." Pointing to examples such as Paranormal Activity and Insidious, as well as Obsession, which grossed more than $500 million worldwide on a budget of just $750,000, he argues that low budgets are not an obstacle to success but can actually make it easier for filmmakers and investors to recoup their money.

Spine Drop Pictures' inaugural slate includes Off Plan, an anthology of six interconnected horror stories set in Dubai; Cinder, a supernatural thriller set against the UAE's mountains; and Latching, a revenge-horror story set in Karachi, Pakistan. Alongside these, the company is also developing Fractal, an English-language time-loop horror thriller produced in partnership with Austria's Pont Pictures, with filming planned in Serbia next year.

Hashmi says one of the main reasons behind founding the company is the problem of inflated regional production budgets, which make it difficult to recover costs and discourage future investment. By focusing on low-cost, story-driven filmmaking, he hopes to build a more sustainable model for genre cinema in Dubai and the wider region — one that, if successful, could open the door to more investors backing this kind of production.