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Revision as of 22:58, 19 April 2015 by Ryanlovesyou21 (talk | contribs) (Fixed typo)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the film. For the phenomena of paranormal activity, see paranormal. 2007 American film
Paranormal Activity
Theatrical release poster
Directed byOren Peli
Written byOren Peli
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyOren Peli
Edited byOren Peli
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • October 14, 2007 (2007-10-14) (Screamfest Film Festival)
  • September 25, 2009 (2009-09-25) (United States)
Running time88 minutes
99 minutes
(Unrated cut)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15,000
Box office$193.4 million

Paranormal Activity is a 2007 American supernatural horror film written, co-produced, photographed, edited, and directed by Oren Peli. The film centers on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home. It is presented in the style of "found footage", from cameras set up by the couple in an attempt to document what is haunting them.

Originally developed as an independent feature and given film festival screenings in 2007, the film was acquired by Paramount Pictures and modified, particularly with a new ending. It was given a limited U.S. release on September 25, 2009, and then a nationwide release on October 16, 2009. The film earned nearly $108 million at the U.S. box office and a further $85 million internationally for a worldwide total of $193 million. Paramount/DreamWorks acquired the U.S. rights for $350,000. It is the most profitable film ever made, based on return on investment, although such figures are difficult to verify independently as this is likely to exclude marketing costs.

A parallel sequel, Paranormal Activity 2, was released on October 22, 2010. The success of the first two films would spawn additional films in the series: the prequel Paranormal Activity 3, released on October 21, 2011, and sequel to 2 Paranormal Activity 4 released on October 19, 2012, a spin-off titled Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones released on January 3, 2014 and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension planned to be released on October 23, 2015.

Plot

Young couple Katie and Micah move to a new house in North West London. Katie claims an evil presence is haunting her, so Micah sets up a camera in their bedroom to record any activity that occurs while they sleep. Katie hires psychic Dr. Fredrichs, who assesses that Katie is haunted by a demon who feeds off of negative energy, and is intent on tormenting Katie. He advises them not to communicate with the demon and to contact demonologist Dr. Johann Averies if needed. Katie seems interested, but Micah does not take this seriously.

The camera manages to capture multiple supernatural phenomena, such as noises, flickering lights and doors moving on their own. On the 13th night they awaken to the sound of the demon screeching. During the 15th night, Katie, in an apparent trance, stands beside the bed and stares at Micah for two hours before going outside. Micah tries to convince Katie to go back inside, but she refuses and appears to remember none of it the next day.

One day Micah brings home a Ouija board, which infuriates Katie and she yells at Micah to put it away. When they leave the house, cameras record an unseen force moving the planchette to form an unknown message on the Ouija board, which then spontaneously catches fire. Katie sees the video and pleads with Micah to contact the demonologist, but again he refuses. During the 17th night, Micah sprinkles talcum powder in the hallway and bedroom. The couple are awakened by creaks, and they find non human footprints leading to the bedroom from the attic, where Micah finds a burnt photograph of a young Katie, previously thought to have been destroyed in an unexplained house fire. Katie finally calls the demonologist, Dr. Averies, but he is unavailable.

They eventually call Dr. Fredrichs back to the house, but he is overwhelmed by the demonic energy upon entering. He apologetically leaves despite their pleas, stating that his presence only makes the demon angrier. During the 20th night, Katie is pulled out of the bedroom by an unseen force. When Micah rushes to help, the demon slams the door on him. Micah eventually rescues her but feels that the demon's presence still lurks upstairs, so they head downstairs to sleep on the couch. The following morning Micah discovers bite marks on Katie's back. Later, Micah finds a catatonic Katie sitting in the hallway, gripping a cross so tightly that it bloodies her palm. He angrily burns the cross and photograph in the fireplace, and packs to head for a motel. Just as they are set to leave, Katie, seemingly out of touch with reality, insists they will be okay now.

The following night, Katie gets out of bed and stares at Micah for two hours before going downstairs. After a moment of silence, Katie screams Micah's name along with another inhuman voice; he abruptly rushes to her. Katie's screaming stops and heavy footsteps are heard coming up the stairs. Micah's body is violently hurled at the camera, which is knocked off the tripod, revealing Katie in the doorway. She slowly walks into the room, stained with blood. Crouching and crawling, she goes to Micah's body and then looks up at the camera with a grin. As she lunges toward the camera, her face takes on a demonic appearance just as the scene cuts to black. An epilogue text states that Micah's body was discovered by the police on October 11, 2006, and Katie's whereabouts remain unknown.

Alternative Endings

Original

In its original version, the film featured a different ending. After going downstairs on the final night and waking Micah with a scream, only Katie is shown returning to the bedroom, covered in blood and holding a large bloody kitchen knife. She sits beside the bed, holding the knife and rocking herself for hours. The next day, her friend Amber calls and leaves a message, expressing concern. That night, Katie is still sitting and rocking by the bed, and Amber can be heard entering the house. During this short period, Katie stops rocking, but when Amber screams (evidently after finding Micah's body) and runs out of the house, she resumes her motion.

Half an hour later, police enter the home and discover Micah's body as well. They find Katie and call to her. She wakes from her catatonic state and seems confused. As she approaches them with the knife in hand, they ask her to drop the weapon, but then a nearby door slams shut, startling one of the policemen who shoots and kills Katie. As she collapses to the floor, and the police discover the camera, still running. The original ending for the film was available for a time for viewing on the Internet before Paramount exerted a claim of copyright on the material.

Paramount alternate ending

Once Paramount acquired the film, the original ending was scrapped, and two new endings were developed for the film, one of them being the one seen in theaters (the scrapped ending was shown at only one public viewing). In this ending, available as alternate ending on the home releases of the film, Katie gets out of bed and stands staring at Micah, as she did in the theatrical ending, except she does not move to Micah's side of the bed. After three hours, she goes downstairs and screams, waking Micah, who runs downstairs. The same screams and heavy footsteps are heard. After a moment of silence, Katie re-enters the room covered in blood with a kitchen knife. She approaches the camera and promptly slits her own throat, before collapsing dead. The scene then fades to black.

Cast

Production

Attempting to focus on believability rather than action and gore, Peli chose to shoot the picture with a home video camera. In deciding on a more raw and stationary format (the camera was almost always sitting on a tripod or something else) and eliminating the need for a camera crew, a "higher degree of plausibility" was created for the audience as they were "more invested in the story and the characters". Peli says that the dialogue was "natural" because there was no real script. Instead, the actors were given outlines of the story and situations to improvise, a technique known as "retroscripting" also used in the making of The Blair Witch Project. In casting the movie, Peli auditioned "a few hundred people" before finally meeting Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. He originally auditioned them individually and later called them back to audition together. Peli was impressed with the chemistry between the actors, saying, "If you saw the footage, you would've thought they had known each other for years." During a guest appearance on The Jay Leno Show on November 3, 2009, Sloat and Featherston explained they each saw the casting call on LACasting. Featherston noted they were originally paid $500 for their work.

The film was shot out of sequence due to Peli's self-imposed seven day shooting schedule, though Peli would have preferred the story unfold for the actors as he had envisioned it. Sloat, who controlled the camera for a good deal of the film, was a former cameraman at his university's TV station. "It was a very intense week", Peli said, stating that the film would be shot day and night, edited at the same time, and would have the visual effects applied to it as the acting footage was being finalized. Multiple endings were conceived, but not all of them were shot.

The film was screened at 2007's Screamfest Horror Film Festival, where it impressed an assistant at the Creative Artists Agency, Kirill Baru, so much that CAA signed on to represent Peli. Attempting to find a distributor for the film and/or directing work for Peli, the agency sent out DVDs of the movie to as many people in the industry as they could, and it was eventually seen by Miramax Films Senior Executive Jason Blum, who thought it had potential. He worked with Peli to re-edit the film and submitted it to the Sundance Film Festival, but it was rejected. The DVD also impressed DreamWorks executives Adam Goodman, Stacey Snider, and finally Steven Spielberg, who cut a deal with Blum and Peli.

DreamWorks' plan was to remake the film with a bigger budget and with Peli directing, and only to include the original version as an extra when the DVD was eventually released. "They didn't know what to do with ", said Blum; they just wanted to be "in business" with Peli. Blum and Peli agreed, but stipulated a test screening of the original film before going ahead with the remake, believing it would be well received by a theatrical audience.

During the screening, people began walking out; Goodman thought the film was bombing, until he learned that the viewers were actually leaving because they were so frightened. He then realized a remake was unwise. Paramount Pictures, which acquired DreamWorks in 2005, bought the domestic rights to the film, and international rights to any sequels, for $350,000 USD. When the film was taken in by Paramount Pictures, several changes were made. Some scenes were cut, others added, and the original ending was scrapped, with two new endings being shot. The ending shown in theaters during the film's worldwide release is the only one of the three to feature visual effects, and it differs from the endings previously seen at the Screamfest and Burbank screenings. The theatrical release was delayed indefinitely because Paramount had put all DreamWorks productions on hold. Meanwhile, a screening for international buyers resulted in the sale of international rights in 52 countries. Only after Goodman became production chief at Paramount in June 2009 did the film finally get slated for a fall release.

Release

Paranormal Activity premiered at Screamfest Horror Film Festival in North America on October 14, 2007, was shown at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 18, 2008, and screened at the 36th Annual Telluride Film Festival on September 6, 2009.

The version with the new ending, made after Paramount acquired the film, had screenings on September 25, 2009, in thirteen college towns across the United States. On his website, director Oren Peli invited internet users to "demand" where the film went next by voting on Eventful. This was the first time a major motion picture studio used the service to virally market a film. Twelve of the thirteen venues sold out. On September 28, Paramount issued a press release on Peli's website, announcing openings in 20 other markets on October 2, including larger market cities such as New York and Chicago.

On October 3, it was reported that a total of 33 screenings in all 20 markets had sold out and that the movie had made $500,000 domestically. A day later, Paramount announced that the film would have a full limited release in 40 markets, playing at all hours (including after-midnight showings). On October 6, Paramount announced that the movie would be released nationwide if the film received one million "demands" on Eventful. The full limited release of the film started on October 9. On October 10, the Eventful.com counter hit over one million requests. Paramount announced soon after that the film would get a wide domestic release on October 16 and expand to more theaters on the October 23. By November, it was showing in locales worldwide.

Home release

Paranormal Activity was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 29, 2009. The home release media includes an alternate ending to the theatrical version. It was released in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2010, on DVD and Blu-ray with some specials. In the Netherlands the movie received a release on VHS in 2010.

Additionally, at the end of the film, 15 minutes' worth of names were added to the DVD release, as part of a special promotion: the fans who "demanded" the movie were asked by email if they wanted to have their name appear as a thank you for the movie's success.

Reception

Reviews

The film received generally positive reviews upon release. Based on 192 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 83%. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 24 critics.

Film critics James Berardinelli and Roger Ebert each awarded it 3.5 stars out of a maximum of 4 stars. Ebert stated in his review, "It illustrates one of my favorite points, that silence and waiting can be more entertaining than frantic fast-cutting and berserk f/x. For extended periods here, nothing at all is happening, and believe me, you won't be bored." Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman gave Paranormal Activity an A− rating and called it "frightening...freaky and terrifying" and said that "Paranormal Activity scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clichés." Bloody Disgusting ranked the film 16th in their list of the "Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade", with the article saying, "Peli deserves props for milking the maximum amount of tension out of the spare, modern setting—an ordinary, cookie-cutter tract home in San Diego. It doesn't sound very scary, but Peli manages to make it terrifying. If you aren't white-knuckling your armrest at least once or twice while watching it, you probably don't have a pulse.." However, David Stratton of the Australian version of At the Movies said that "it was extremely unthrilling, very obvious, very cliched. We've seen it all before." Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle called it "an excruciatingly tedious YouTube gag cleverly marketed to go viral".

Box office

The film opened on September 25, 2009, to twelve theaters and took $36,146 on its opening day and $77,873 on its first weekend for an average of $6,489 per venue. It had more success when it opened to 33 theaters on October 1, 2009, doubling the box office reception, grossing $532,242 for an average of $16,129 per venue, bringing the 10-day total to $776,763.

As it expanded to 160 theaters on the October 9–11 weekend, the film grossed $2,659,296 on that Friday, having a per-theater average of $16,621. It went on to gross $7,900,695. Over the weekend, the film reached the week's highest per-theater average of $49,379, coming in at fourth for the weekend, behind Couples Retreat, Zombieland, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Over the weekend of October 16, 2009, Paranormal Activity expanded to 600 more theaters, grossing $19,617,650 with $25,813 per theater average gross, and bringing the total gross to $33,171,743. On the weekend of October 23, 2009, Paranormal Activity rose to first, beating out Saw VI, earning $21,104,070, expanding to 1,945 theaters for an average of $10,850 per theater, compared with the $14,118,444 gross from 3,036 theaters, and $4,650 average for Saw VI. The film has grossed $107,918,810 domestically and $85,436,990 in foreign markets, with a total gross of $193,355,800.

Accolades

The film was nominated for "best first feature" in the Independent Spirit Awards 2009.

In media

Remakes

In Japan, a remake entitled Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night was released in 2010.

Mockbuster group The Asylum created a remake which spawned a series of its own, titled Paranormal Entity in 2010.

Digital comics

In December 2009, a short digital comic entitled Paranormal Activity: The Search for Katie was released for the iPhone. It was written by Scott Lobdell and features art from Mark Badger.

Parodies

On March 7, 2010, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin performed a spoof of the film as part of the 82nd Academy Awards.

References

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  9. ^ Goss, William (10/11/09). "So What Was 'Paranormal Activity's Original Ending?". Horror Squad. Retrieved 31 January 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. Hall, Peter (2009-10-09). "Interview: Oren Peli, Writer-Director of 'Paranormal Activity'". Cinematical. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  11. ^ Turek, Ryan (2008-03-09). "Exclusive Interview: Oren Peli". Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  12. ^ Horn, John (2009-09-20). "The haunted history of 'Paranormal Activity'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  13. Schwartz, Missy (2009-10-30). "'Paranormal Activity': Three super-scary alternate endings (SPOILER ALERT!)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  14. Ben Fritz (2009-10-25). "Paramount may produce 'Paranormal Activity' sequel". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  15. Outlaw, Kofi (2009-10-21). "Paranormal Activity: Alternate Endings & Recut Scenes". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  16. Breznican, Anthony. "'Paranomal' has 'magical elixir' for horror: Realism, subtlety but not gore". USA Today. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  17. The 36th Telluride Film Festival Draws to a Close
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  23. Finke, Nikki (2009-10-04). "UPDATE: 'Paranormal Activity' Set For Oct. 9 Normal Release After It Gets Freakishly Good Gross Playing Only After Midnight". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  24. Miska, Brad. "Full Limited Release for 'Paranormal Activity' on October 9th". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2009-10-04.
  25. Rosenberg, Adam. "'Paranormal Activity' To Open Nationwide After 1,000,000 Demands Are Received". MTV. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  26. Miska, Brad (2009-10-10). "Horror Victory! 'Paranormal Activity' Hits One Million Demands, Opens Wide!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
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  29. Jones, Gareth (2010-02-20). "Paranormal Activity to Haunt UK Homes This March with Some Exclusives". Dread Central. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
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  45. Miska, Brad (2010-03-08). "Horror Invades the 2010 Academy Awards". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
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External links

Paranormal Activity film series
Films
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