As the demon stalks Katie, Micah stalks the entity-even at the expense of their relationship. Micah’s desire to save Katie and drive out the demon overwhelms his thinking. Where the creature is obsessed with Katie, Micah is obsessed by the demon. This is mirrored in the character of Micah. Although the identity of the unseen force is never revealed, there seems to be a sense that this demon is gendered and is a “he.” The entity does exhibit traditionally masculine traits: obsession, violence, and a desire to take what he wants. This twist on old and maybe even hackneyed foundations of horror delivers another thematic device to Paranormal Activity. His idea may have inspired Leigh Whannell’s (of Saw franchise fame) Insidious, where a boy is haunted and subsequently possessed. Peli’s premise is refreshing on its own, and the story has little in common with ghost tales or cases of outright possession. The entity is a demon attracted to Katie, and has stalked her since early childhood. The supernatural element within the movie is far from a simple ghost or even a poltergeist that Micah and Katie could drive out. This leads to a disintegration of his relationship with Katie, and the entity’s visits and mischief escalate to horrendous proportions. He wants more footage, however, and, out of a desire to protect his home and his girlfriend, he calls out the entity to show “it” who is boss. In short order, he starts to capture a moving door here and a shadow there. Wanting to capture whatever may be lurking, Micah rents a video camera and gets to work. In the found-footage film, which begat a significant subgenre in the horror market, Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) live in a small California home where things go bump in the night. Williams did not care for the film because “nothing happened,” many audiences felt differently: the suspense never let up. Although award-winning screenwriter/ director Paul J. What Peli captured on-screen were my childhood nightmares: detached noises, footsteps in the dark, and something unforeseen and malevolent trudging patiently out from the abyss. When we watch any film, supernatural or otherwise, we bring our life experiences to that project. I had hoped it would not be a bust since I was among the many thousands who had petitioned Paramount for a national release. In 2009, I sat in a theatre waiting for the much-hyped Paranormal Activity to begin. For Paranormal Activity, the worldwide gross was $195 million, and Peli received an office at Paramount. Like the previous found-footage phenomenon of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s The Blair Witch Project (1999), the initial, minimal investment led to remarkable profits, thanks to an exceptional word-of-mouth campaign that went viral. Spielberg recommended a new ending, and the movie was ultimately distributed through Paramount. After some festival appearances, which generated a lot of love for the film, DreamWorks became interested. He learned how to edit digital footage, came up with a story, rented a camera, got some friends together as cast and crew, hired make-up artist Crystal Cartwright, and shot the movie in seven days on a $15,000 budget (Hall), Half of the money went towards remodeling his own home, as the house served as the single location and he felt that the place did not offer the right aesthetics. Originally, Peli, a software programmer, had an idea for a horror film based on the quirky noises from his new home. Writer/director Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity franchise seems to have suffered the same fate. As with most horror franchises, where the first installment captures the imagination and intrigue of the audience, the subsequent sequels usually fall short, become repetitive, and never live up to the verve of the original. Though Hammer Films revamped the Dracula mythos in the 1960s, moviemakers did not bombard audiences with a multitude of sequels until Friday the 13 th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street came along, followed by Alien, Hellraiser, Final Destination, Feast, Saw, and what-have-you. Early on, Universal delivered Dracula (1931), followed by Dracula’s Daughter (1936)-without Bela Lugosi-and after Frankenstein (1931), they brought audiences back for more with Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939). Hollywood and independent filmmakers are no strangers to the horror franchise.
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