WHY PARANORMAL ACTIVITY WILL NEVER DIE
It's no surprise to anybody that "Paranormal Activity" made nearly $30,000,000 this past weekend. The shaky cam found footage film series has been destroying box office numbers since 2009. I'm going to try to dissect this...this bizarre film phenomenon.
First, for those unable to recall the hype of "Paranormal Activity," boy that was something else. People usually only buzz about superhero movies, the Harry Potter series, Twilight, etc. You know: big movie franchises. All of a sudden, this tiny movie with a budget of $15,000 comes out freaking people out in theaters. The famous trailer accompanying it with people's erratic, horrified reactions to the movie, said to scare the pants off you. I partly think this works psychologically as people went to see "Paranormal Activity" because it was a challenge of nerve: will I become as scared as these people are? Will I be more scared? I bet it won't scare me! I vividly remember being in 8th grade, wondering how all my peers were able to see it because of its R-rating.
But the feedback I got was excellent: people got scared out of their minds. It would be early 2012 before I ever even saw my first horror movie in theaters: "The Woman in Black," and retrospectively, it was weak sauce. The PG-13 haunted house flick freaked out everybody in the stadium I was in, but it wasn't gross. The horror movies they conjure up nowadays are oozing with blood and broken bones, see "Paranormal Activity's" gross cousin "Saw," and I'll get to that travesty later. The main point is that "Paranormal Activity" was that R-rated horror flick people could say they got scared by, but it was never nightmare inducing. It was shiver inducing, the type of movie that makes you scared to go to bed, because of the demon under your bed. The best horror movies leave you scared out of your mind psychologically, the lamer ones leave you grossed out for maybe a weekend.
When "Paranormal Activity 2" hit the buzz was gargantuan, but this time it was understood. This time around, however, it didn't reach the critical acclaim the original mustered. That's another thing: "PA1" seemed like that rare combination of good critical reviews and word of mouth from audience members. The found footage resurgence, however, didn't hit until the release of the third installment, which garnered better reviews from the second one. That saw the release of "Apollo 18," and early 2012 saw the lauded "Chronicle," and even the teen comedy "Project X." I could see critics getting fed up with the genre, and it was dismissed as a passing fad. Of course, the grandfather found footage films "Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield" deserve recognition, but "Paranormal Activity's" release seemed to cements its place in cinema.
This of course leads to what we have now: "Paranormal Activity 4," and the now inevitable comparisons it'll start receiving to the "Saw" torture porn franchise. They couldn't be more different content-wise (that is what I'm assuming, I haven't seen a single one of either franchise) but it seems to me "Saw" was more "let's see how high we can get the body count" and PA is more jumpy, and psychological. The similarities will be in how far "Paranormal Activity" is going to take it numbers-wise, thankfully "Saw" only went up to 7. But there's just been an announcement that there will be two more done, at least. That's more shaky-cam demon children until 2014. But here's why: the combined budget of all four is a little over $13 million. The return worldwide is over $576,000,000. That is an enormous profit for the studios. They'll go to Paranormal Activity 35 if they have to, it's all about that cherished opening weekend, where teenagers go with cliques to see it around Halloween for a thrill. The drop of the "PA" movies is huge, watch when the numbers come out this week. But as long as they have that 9-digit gross with a 7-digit budget, "Paranormal Activity" is gonna be haunting people for a long, long time.
First, for those unable to recall the hype of "Paranormal Activity," boy that was something else. People usually only buzz about superhero movies, the Harry Potter series, Twilight, etc. You know: big movie franchises. All of a sudden, this tiny movie with a budget of $15,000 comes out freaking people out in theaters. The famous trailer accompanying it with people's erratic, horrified reactions to the movie, said to scare the pants off you. I partly think this works psychologically as people went to see "Paranormal Activity" because it was a challenge of nerve: will I become as scared as these people are? Will I be more scared? I bet it won't scare me! I vividly remember being in 8th grade, wondering how all my peers were able to see it because of its R-rating.But the feedback I got was excellent: people got scared out of their minds. It would be early 2012 before I ever even saw my first horror movie in theaters: "The Woman in Black," and retrospectively, it was weak sauce. The PG-13 haunted house flick freaked out everybody in the stadium I was in, but it wasn't gross. The horror movies they conjure up nowadays are oozing with blood and broken bones, see "Paranormal Activity's" gross cousin "Saw," and I'll get to that travesty later. The main point is that "Paranormal Activity" was that R-rated horror flick people could say they got scared by, but it was never nightmare inducing. It was shiver inducing, the type of movie that makes you scared to go to bed, because of the demon under your bed. The best horror movies leave you scared out of your mind psychologically, the lamer ones leave you grossed out for maybe a weekend.
When "Paranormal Activity 2" hit the buzz was gargantuan, but this time it was understood. This time around, however, it didn't reach the critical acclaim the original mustered. That's another thing: "PA1" seemed like that rare combination of good critical reviews and word of mouth from audience members. The found footage resurgence, however, didn't hit until the release of the third installment, which garnered better reviews from the second one. That saw the release of "Apollo 18," and early 2012 saw the lauded "Chronicle," and even the teen comedy "Project X." I could see critics getting fed up with the genre, and it was dismissed as a passing fad. Of course, the grandfather found footage films "Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield" deserve recognition, but "Paranormal Activity's" release seemed to cements its place in cinema.
This of course leads to what we have now: "Paranormal Activity 4," and the now inevitable comparisons it'll start receiving to the "Saw" torture porn franchise. They couldn't be more different content-wise (that is what I'm assuming, I haven't seen a single one of either franchise) but it seems to me "Saw" was more "let's see how high we can get the body count" and PA is more jumpy, and psychological. The similarities will be in how far "Paranormal Activity" is going to take it numbers-wise, thankfully "Saw" only went up to 7. But there's just been an announcement that there will be two more done, at least. That's more shaky-cam demon children until 2014. But here's why: the combined budget of all four is a little over $13 million. The return worldwide is over $576,000,000. That is an enormous profit for the studios. They'll go to Paranormal Activity 35 if they have to, it's all about that cherished opening weekend, where teenagers go with cliques to see it around Halloween for a thrill. The drop of the "PA" movies is huge, watch when the numbers come out this week. But as long as they have that 9-digit gross with a 7-digit budget, "Paranormal Activity" is gonna be haunting people for a long, long time.
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