The journey of a scare: 'Paranormal Activity'

By Sarah Sluis

There are a couple of interviews of Oren Peli, who went from being a software programmer to the director of Paranormal Activity, circulating the blogosphere. The movie has taken a non-traditional path to the theatres, from production, to distribution, to exhibition, and Peli helps fill in the blanks.

According to his interview with Cinematical, DreamWorks bought the project after Slamdance 2008 with the intent of having him remake it on a bigger budget--because you can't release a film that was made in seven days for $14,000--or could you?

The studio scheduled screenings for potential screenwriters, but the overwhelmingly positive reception led them to decide to release the movie nearly as is. Pacing and editing were changed to make it more fast-paced--though some reviews have still faulted the film for being too slow. The ending, which apparently "makes" the film, was also changed based on the input of none other than Steven Spielberg (DreamWorks and Paramount had ownership of the project before their split).

Peli sounds like a very organized, analytical person. He planned the production for a year, sprucing up his house to prepare for the shoot, and looked at hundreds of people before finding his two actors (how many low-budget films would look at that many people for their casting calls?). He spent ten months editing, and thanks to his technical background, he did the visual effects and audio mixing himself. His hours of work was probably worth several times more than the film's budget.

Oren Peli already has his next project lined up, Area 51, which will use the same home-video camera techniques to document a group of teenagers who decide to poke around the famed UFO grounds.

Now that the studio knows it has a hit on its hands, Paramount has announced plans to expand the release to 2,000 theatres two Fridays from now, putting it head to head with Saw VI. While there are certainly many horror fans who will have already seen Paranormal Activity (at least $8 million worth), its positive word-of-mouth could encourage more casual viewers to put the movie on their must-see list. Last weekend, the movie ended up being more successful than early tracking figures indicated. It actually earned $7.9 million, not $7 million, bringing its per-screen total to almost $50,000 per screen, a truly astonishing number (there must be some big theatres showing this movie--and a lot of sellouts)

So why has the movie been such a big success? The "found footage" style has been used in films from The Blair Witch Project to Cloverfield, but there is something to be said for the fact that the camera is often fixed in the same spot in front of thehaunted couple's bed, giving the movie a more "security camera"-type look. Also, not many horror movies have the benefit of having Steven Spielberg come in and fix your ending, nor the dedicated marketing team at Paramount, which appears to have risen to the challenge of marketing a non-traditional film. I, for one, wouldn't have expected college towns to be the jumping-off point for a horror film, though the midnight-only screenings fit perfectly into a college student's late-night schedule. Now that Paramount has thrown down the gauntlet by pitting their film against Saw VI--a move that, at the very least, will generate publicity--we'll be waiting to see who will emerge the winner in the battle of Saw VI vs. Paranormal Activity.