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Revision as of 22:46, 21 October 2009 by 74.248.93.105 (talk) (unencyclopedic)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 2009 Template:FilmUS film| Paranormal Activity | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Oren Peli |
| Written by | Oren Peli |
| Starring | Katie Featherston Micah Sloat |
| Edited by | Oren Peli |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Pictures |
| Release dates | September 25, 2009 (limited) October 16, 2009 (wide) |
| Running time | 86 min. |
| Country | Template:FilmUS |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15,000 |
| Box office | $36,925,510 |
Paranormal Activity is a Template:Fy mockumentary, fictional, horror film written and directed by Oren Peli. The movie premiered at the Screamfest Film Festival in US on October 14, 2007, and at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 18, 2008. The movie received a limited release in several U.S. cities on October 9, 2009 and had a nationwide release on October 16, 2009. The movie centers on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home. The movie is presented through the camera set up by the couple to capture what is haunting them, similar to The Blair Witch Project, and The Last Broadcast.
Synopsis
The movie begins with Micah testing out and playing with his camera. He wishes to film the strange and paranormal things that have been happening in the house. They discuss at length about what it could be and they mention that they called a psychic in to help assess what is happening. The psychic arrives that day and learns from Katie that she has been haunted by a ghostly entity since her youth. The psychic informs the couple that they are being plagued, not by a ghost, but by a demon. He says that no matter where they go the demon will follow as it is haunting Katie herself. The psychic explains that the demon feeds off negative energy, so the couple must do their best not to antagonize it or give it more power by fighting with each other. Micah suggests getting a Ouija board, which the psychic immediately dismisses, saying that communicating with the demon will invite it in.
Micah decides to continue his project by setting up a camera in their bedroom, and every night it captures what happens as they sleep. On the first night, a few footsteps are heard. After this, increasingly strange things occur. The bedroom door moves by itself and the lights turn on in the hallway on their own. Each night, when the incidents occur, a low droning noise is heard on the camera.
One morning, Micah goes around the house with his camera and a microphone and openly asks the demon if he should get a Ouija board. When he plays back the audio on his computer, a low inhuman growl is heard after he asks the question. Katie protests his intentions of getting a board and Micah reluctantly promises not to buy one. Against Katie's wishes, Micah borrows a Ouija board to speak with the demon. He sets it up in the living room but Katie yells at him and they argue and go out for a couple hours before Micah can begin talking with the demon. While they're gone, a strange "wind" blows through the living room and the board begins to spell words on its own and catches on fire. A strange image is burned into the board when Micah and Katie return.
Strange things continue to happen to Katie at night, usually between 1:30 A.M. and 3:15 A.M. One night, Katie gets out of bed and stands next to it for hours, doing nothing but staring at Micah. After this, she proceeds downstairs. Micah wakes up, goes down, and finds her sitting outside on a swing. The next morning she does not recall doing this.
The strange occurrences begin to escalate. One night, the couple hears a loud bang and then a door slams. They find nothing out of place except that a chandelier downstairs is swinging very slowly. After this, Katie then agrees to let Micah try one more experiment. Should it fail, she will call a demonologist that the psychic recommended to them. Micah lays down several patches of baby powder to catch the demon's footprints. During the night the couple awakens to the sound of something walking down the hall and into their room, they find the demon has left several footprints within and near the powder, footprints that are distinctly not human. Going further into the hall, Micah finds the attic door open. He goes up to the attic and finds a photo of Katie from when she was young that is charred at the edges. Katie is shocked to see the photo and says it's impossible for that photo to be in the house because it was burned to ash years ago in a fire that consumed the house she was living in with her family when she was a child. She then asks Micah where in the attic it was found and he says it was laying above where their bed would be.
The next morning Katie calls the demonologist, but finds that he is out of town. She then sets up another appointment with the psychic for the next day. The psychic arrives and upon entering the house, is overwhelmed by the negative energy from the demon. He quickly departs saying that his presence only angers the demon and there is nothing he can do. The nights become more chilling as the sheets on their bed begin moving by themselves. One night, Katie is yanked and dragged screaming out of bed and into the hall by an invisible force. Micah awakens, gives chase, and forcibly takes her back. The next day, Micah has Katie show bruises on her skin and a large mark on her back that resembles a bite.
The activity soon begins to occur during the day, indicating the presence in the home is getting stronger. During one afternoon a photo of Micah and Katie is smashed, with glass cracks and what appears to be claw marks going through Micah's side of the portrait. While investigating, Katie senses a presence next to her, and the camera captures the demon's breath fluttering her hair. They make plans to go to a hotel that night, hoping the demon will not follow them immediately. But later that day, Micah finds Katie sitting on the floor in a daze with her back against the wall, gripping a crucifix tightly in her hand. In helping her up, Micah notices blood on her hands and leg from the crucifix. He then lights the fireplace and burns the cross and the scorched photograph of Katie that he found in the attic. Later, Micah tells Katie, who is lying in bed, to get their things together so they can leave the house. Katie now refuses, saying that she wants to stay. She tells Micah to trust her. He leaves the room in anger and she whispers that "everything will be fine from now on," and the sound of a second voice coming from her at the same time and saying the same thing suggests that the demon has taken control of her. She closes her eyes and gives a disturbing smile to the camera.
That night they are seen sleeping and the droning noise starts again in the background. Katie suddenly sits up, then gets out of bed and stares at Micah. She stands there, unmoving, when suddenly the sheet slowly pulls off Micah; Katie moves around the bed and stares at him for two more hours. At about 3:35 a.m. she moves to the bedroom door and exits, going down the stairs into the darkness. Suddenly, Katie screams for Micah, who jumps out of bed. As he hits the staircase, the droning noise becomes increasingly lower pitched and demonic. The camera sees nothing but the bedroom and the dark hallway, but the activity downstairs can be heard. Katie continues to scream; some struggling is heard, Micah is heard screaming in pain, followed by dead silence. Moments later, heavy footsteps can be heard coming up the stairs. Unexpectedly, Micah's body is hurled towards the camera. He collides with it and both fall to the ground, where Micah remains motionless. Katie stands in the doorway with blood on her shirt. She crawls, very unnaturally on all fours to Micah's body and, like an animal, sniffs at him. She sees the camera and smiles at it eerily, her face contorted and evil, suggesting that she has been possessed by whatever has been haunting her. Katie lunges toward the camera with a loud scream, her face demonic, and the screen cuts to black. Following this, a title card is shown saying that days later Micah's body was discovered by Police, and that Katie's whereabouts remain unknown.
Alternate / Edited endings
Several blogs and news outlets are reporting that the ending currently being seen in theaters for the limited screenings does not match endings previously seen in earlier screenings at Screamfest and the Burbank screening. There is a frame from one of the alternate endings, found online, wherein a catatonic Katie is seen sitting, alone, next to the bed in the bedroom after the apparent murder of Micah downstairs. A third ending was also shot showing Katie returning with a knife while possessed and slits her own throat in front of the camera. The ending currently attached to the release of the film was suggested by Steven Spielberg. Many reviewers have expressed discontent with this ending saying that, while it matches the mood of the rest of the film, it comes off as anti-climactic and does not do justice to the rest of the film.
The original ending, as attached to the video distributed to potential distributors, has Katie come back up stairs wielding a knife and having blood on her tank top. She sits next to the bed throughout the remainder of the night and next day until the phone rings, the answering machine picks up, later that day around 9:15, Amber arrives and comes into the house (off camera) and finds Micah's body downstairs, she screams and runs out of the house (off camera). The police arrive later (9:51pm) and search the house eventually coming up stairs into camera view finding Katie sitting by the bed with the knife. Katie then stands up, knife in hand, seeming confused and walking towards the officers saying "Micah?" after warning her to drop the knife the police shoot her and then discover the camera to end the film.
A leaked DVD screener of the film confirms this original ending, however the throat slitting ending remains to be confirmed. The original "police ending" can be viewed at this address: http://www.fastpasstv.com/watch/1/3016/3
Cast
- Katie Featherston as Katie
- Micah Sloat as Micah
- Mark Fredrichs as the Psychic
- Amber Armstrong as Amber
- Ashley Palmer as Girl on Internet
- Randy McDowell as Lt.Randy Hudson
- Tim Piper as Richard
- Crystal Cartwright as Exorcism Nanny (uncredited)
Production
The idea for the film came about when Oren Peli began to experience "weird things" at the home in which he was living and wondered what would happen if he were to set up cameras to capture what happened as he slept at night. The vulnerability of being asleep, he reasoned, tapped into a human being's most primal fear, stating, "If something is lurking in your home there's not much you can do about it." Peli, himself, had been afraid of ghosts his entire life, even fearing the movie Ghostbusters, but intended to channel that fear into something positive and productive. Peli took a year to prep his own house for shooting, going so far as to repaint the walls, add furniture, put in a carpet, and build an actual stairwell. A very pleasant side effect, he joked, was ending up with a "dream home with a big TV". In this time, he also did extensive research into paranormal phenomena and demonology, stating, "We wanted to be as truthful as we could be." The reason for making the ghost in the story a demon was a result of the research pointing to the most malevolent and violent entities being "demons".
Focusing on believability and authenticity and believing that "atmosphere and a slow plot build" were more important than "over-the-top" action and gore, Peli chose to shoot the picture with a hand-held 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 erasing 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 used in the making of The Blair Witch Project. In casting the movie, Peli auditioned "a few hundred people" before finally meeting actress Katie Featherston and actor Micah Sloat. He originally auditioned them individually and then called them back so that they could audition together. Peli was impressed with the chemistry the actors showed saying, "If you saw the footage, you would've thought they had known each other for years." Armed with a budget of $15,000 and a hand-held video camera and having no formal film training, Peli began shooting.. The film was shot at the director's old house in Ranchos Penasquitos, a suburb area in San Diego. Peli went as far as changing the floor boards and interior design elements to fit the film's setting. . The film was shot out of sequence due to the time constraints (a self-imposed 7-day shooting schedule) even though the director wanted the story to unfold for the actors as he had envisioned it. Luckily, Micah Sloat, who took most of the shots in the film between him and Katie, was a former camera man at his university's TV station. "It was a very intense week," Peli recalled, 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 footage was being finalized by the actors who Peli called, "unbelievably professional and smart" throughout, adding that they surpassed being actors and became true "storytellers". One week later, filming was completed.
Post-production and delays
After the film was finished, Peli signed with the Creative Artists Agency. They screened the movie in 2007 at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival and, as a result, began to give away DVDs to anybody who would be willing to distribute it. It didn't see a spotlight until 2007 when Miramax Films Senior Executive Jason Blum and his producing partner, Steven Schneider, viewed the movie for themselves. Working with Blum, Peli edited the film down so that it ran tighter and smoother but more problems arose: Sundance Film Festival would not accept the film and even though the Slamdance Film Festival did, no distributor picked up the movie for major distribution. In 2008, the DVD ended up at DreamWorks and was viewed by Production Executive Ashley Brooks. Brooks was so impressed by the movie that she "pestered" her boss, Production Chief Adam Goodman, every day to see the film until he eventually saw it. Goodman, in turn, brought it to his boss, Studio Chief Stacey Snider. They were impressed by the film as well and handed the DVD to Steven Spielberg, who took it home to watch.
In a strange twist, Spielberg allegedly returned to DreamWorks the next day with the DVD in a "garbage bag" because he thought the DVD was "haunted". According to Spielberg, minutes after he viewed the film, his bedroom doors "locked by themselves" and he couldn't get out without calling in a locksmith. Despite this, Spielberg loved the movie and helped to greenlight a remake to be produced by Jason Blum and directed by Oren Peli again. "They didn't know what to do with ," Blum stated about the remake, adding that they just wanted to be "in business" with Peli. The original deal for the movie stipulated that Oren Peli would direct and that the DVD would have the original film included with it so the public would get an idea of what the original film was about. However, during contract negotiations, Blum and Peli negotiated a one-time screening into the contract to see how a real audience would react to the original film. As part of the deal, Adam Goodman invited several screenwriters to the screening so that they could get an idea about what to write and see what should be added and subtracted to the remake's script.
During the screening, viewers began to walk out of the theater. Goodman was afraid that he made the wrong decision and that the screening was a bomb until he learned (in a twist reminiscent of the famous screening of 1979's Alien) that the viewers were actually truly frightened by the film and were leaving for that reason. It was at this point that Goodman canned all thoughts of a Hollywood remake and decided to release Peli's version of the film. The film was supposed to be released in 2008 but was delayed further because of the rift between DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures. While the movie was stuck in limbo, Oren Peli and Jason Blum screened the film for international buyers at a theater in Santa Monica along with a sold-out crowd mostly of teenagers. This further cemented the film's reputation and Peli and Blum sold the international rights to 52 different countries. The buzz generated by this and the positive word-of-mouth finally pushed Adam Goodman (who took over as Paramount's main exec) to release the film on the fall schedule.
Release
On September 25, 2009, Paramount Pictures decided to release the movie in 13 different "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.com. The release of this movie marked the first time a major motion picture studio had used the service to virally market a film. The movie managed to sell out 12 of the 13 showings. On September 27, 2009, The L.A. Times Blog reported that Paramount was planning on releasing the film in several other markets based on the success of the initial limited release of the film. On September 28, 2009, Paramount confirmed this report by issuing a press release on Oren Peli's official website. The press release announced that the release of the film would expand to 20 other markets as of Friday, October 2, 2009. This list included large-market cities that were excluded from the initial limited release such as New York and Chicago.
On October 3, 2009, it was reported that a total of 33 screenings in all 20 markets sold out and that the movie had made $500,000 domestically. A day later, Paramount Pictures announced that the film will have a full limited release in 40 markets, playing at all hours which include the midnight shows as well. The full limited release of the film started on Friday, October 9, 2009. On Tuesday, October 6, Paramount and Eventful.com announced that the movie would be released nationwide if the movie got 1,000,000 "demands". On Saturday, October 10 at around 1:35 a.m. Eastern Time, the counter hit over 1,000,000 requests. Paramount Pictures then announced later in the day that the film would get a wide domestic release on Friday, October 16. The film will get its UK release on 27 November 2009.
Critical reception
Based on 81 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval 'certified fresh' rating from critics of 86%, with an average score of 7.2/10. It also has a 68 "Generally favorable reviews" rating, with a 6.0 out of 10 user rating at Metacritic. AOL reports that viewers left the screening mid-film not because they were dissatisfied, but because the film was so frightening. The same article mentioned that the film may be rising to the same acclaim as The Blair Witch Project, filmed using the same video camera technique and because there was no real script per se. Movie critics James Berardinelli and Roger Ebert each awarded it 3.5 stars out of a maximum of 4 stars. Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman gave Paranormal Activity an A- rating (A being the highest mark) and called it "frightening...freaky and terrifying" and noted that "Paranormal Activity scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clichés."
Box office performance
The film opened on September 25, 2009 to 12 theaters taking $36,146 on its opening day and $77,873 on its first weekend for an average of $6,489 per venue. It took 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, it grossed $2,659,296 on Friday having a per-theater average of $16,621. It went on to gross $7,900,695, which was $800,000 more than originally estimated. Over the weekend, the film reached (by far) the week's highest per-theater average of $49,379, coming in at #4 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.
References
- Exclusive: Director Oren Peli Talks Paranormal Activity
- [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=paranormalactivity.htm
- Oren Peli’s PARANORMAL Chronicles
- Paranormal Activity – Release dates
- http://www.horrorsquad.com/2009/10/11/so-what-was-paranormal-activitys-original-ending/
- http://www.cinematical.com/2009/10/09/oren-peli-paranormal-activity-interview/
- ^ Ryan Rotten. ""Exclusive Interview: Oren Peli" - ShockTilYouDrop.com". Retrieved 2008-03-10.
- ^ John Horn. ""The haunted history of 'Paranormal Activity'" - L.A. Times". Retrieved 2009-09-20.
- Barbara Vancheri,. ""The making of Paranormal Activity" - Post Gazette". Retrieved 2009-10-19.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - Moria Macdonald. ""Anyone seen 'Paranormal Activity'?" - Seattle Times". Retrieved 2009-10-01.
- Michael Cieply. ""Thriller on Tour Lets Fans Decide on the Next Stop" - New York Times". Retrieved 2009-09-20.
- ""Demand Search for Film"". Retrieved 2009-10-10.
- ^ Ben Fritz. ""'Paranormal Activity' expanding after selling out nearly all midnight shows" - L.A. Times". Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ""More than 230,000 fans "demand" 'Paranormal Activity'; fans spur the film's opening in twenty additional cities across the country"". Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- Uncle Creepy. ""Fans Reward Paranormal Activity with Sold-Out Shows and $500K" - DreadCentral.com". Retrieved 2009-10-03.
- Nikki Finke. ""'Paranormal Activity' Gets Freakishly Good Gross Playing Only After Midnight" - Deadline: Hollywood". Retrieved 2009-10-03.
- Mr. Disgusting. "Full Limited Release for 'Paranormal Activity' on October 9th - BloodyDisgusting.com". Retrieved 2009-10-04.
- Adam Rosenberg. "'Paranormal Activity' To Open Nationwide After 1,000,000 Demands Are Received - MTV.com". Retrieved 2009-10-06.
- Horror Victory! 'Paranormal Activity' Hits One Million Demands, Opens Wide!
- Patrick Sauriol. ""Film Now Expands Nationwide" - Corona Coming Attractions". Retrieved 2009-10-10.
- http://www.reelcinemas.co.uk/php-bin/frameme.php?page=/films/paranormalact.fhtml
- Paranormal Activity at Rotten Tomatoes
- http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/paranormalactivity?q=Paranormal%20Activity
- http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1822
- http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091007/REVIEWS/910089996
- http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20309083,00.html
- thenumbers.com. "Paranormal Activity - Box Office Data - thenumber.com". Retrieved 2009-10-08.
External links
- Official site
- Paranormal Activity at IMDb
- Paranormal Activity at Box Office Mojo
- Paranormal Activity at Eventful
- Paranormal Activity at FEARnet