Paramount has announced that Paranormal Activity 4 is being produced and that it will be ready by Halloween weekend. The move isn’t that surprising when you consider the great steaming f*ckloads of money they’ve already made on the franchise. I honestly didn’t even know a third Paranormal Activity existed, and it set an opening weekend record for best October debut and best opening weekend for a horror film with $54 million, before going on to earn $202.2 million worldwide. Oren Peli directed the first one on a $15,000 budget ($194.4 million worldwide gross), then stepped into the producer’s chair for the next two, which were directed by Tod Williams and the team of Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman, respectively. No word yet on who’ll direct the fourth, but rest assured it probably won’t matter much.
Anyway, great for them. I’ll probably continue not seeing these. I just don’t really get the appeal. A curtain blows open, and a lady looks outside, and she’s like, “OH MY GOD, IT’S NOT EVEN WINDY! THIS HOUSE MUST BE HAUNTED!” It seems more like the raw material for a phone message from my mom than a movie franchise. But it’s cool that you guys like it. You know, whatever makes you happy.