The super low budget found footage blockbuster Paranormal Activity used its rickety style
as a badge of honor, positively terrifying audiences around the world with the simple
question: What's happening in my house while I'm asleep?
Let's find the answer...within the untold truth of Paranormal Activity.
Squeaky Floor
Director Oren Peli came up with the idea for the movie after being a little freaked out
by the routine creaks and squeaks in his new home.
He told Newsweek:
"I don't think it was anything supernatural.
A lot of it was natural stuff like the house settling, but that's what got me thinking:
what goes on when you're asleep?"
DIY filmmaking
Before making Paranormal Activity, Peli had never worked on a movie before.
So how did he do it?
Simple: he spent most of his tiny budget buying the camera equipment and taught himself how
to film, edit, and add special effects, then filmed the whole thing in a single week inside
his own house.
Peli's motto: just go with it.
"I knew I had no money, no experience, no lighting, ya know, no nothing and only one
location.
So I said 'Ok so the movie will embrace all of that.'"
And Peli avoided the need to learn screenwriting with a pretty simple solution: no script.
Instead, he gave his actors topics to discuss and let them improvise the rest.
The director told Shock Till You Drop that,
"All they knew is they were going to do something about a haunted house and basically discovered
everything as they were shooting.
There were no lines for them to follow.
Everything was spontaneous."
Close encounter
Since Peli didn't have any Hollywood connections or experience, he headed to the film festival
circuit to build some buzz, only to be rejected by Sundance and by the studio system.
"We managed to show the movie to a lot of the heads of studios and be rejected by all
of them."
He didn't give up, though, screening the film at smaller film festivals for nearly two years
before finally landing a distribution deal with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio.
There was one problem, though: Spielberg didn't like the original ending, which showed Katie
being shot by police.
Instead, he came up with the idea for the ending you saw in the theaters, with Katie's
demonic face seared into your retinas forever.
So you can blame your nightmares on Spielberg!
Paranormal Reactivity
When DreamWorks picked up the film, the plan was to remake it with bigger stars and bigger
budget.
But as part of the contract, The Los Angeles Times reports Peli and producer Jason Blum
required the studio to hold at least one test screening of the original cut before pulling
the trigger on the remake, to see if audiences liked it.
When viewers at the test screening started walking out of the theatre midway through
the film, it looked bad, with studio exec Adam Goodman calling it "one of the worst
previews [he'd] ever been a part of" — until the exit interviews showed the attendees were
leaving because they were too terrified to keep watching it.
Just like that, a hit was born.
Infectious
Peli was clearly inspired by The Blair Witch Project, not just in terms of style and budget,
but also viral marketing.
Case in point: he kept the stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat hidden away, in the hopes
that it might help generate some extra mystery.
Peli told The Los Angeles Times he made the decision because:
"The less people know about Paranormal Activity, the more they enjoy it.
I don't think there's anything to be gained by putting the filmmakers and the cast in
front."
So much money, it's scary
If you thought demonic possession was frightening, here's something even more terrifying: math.
(audience screams)
With a worldwide return of $193 million, Paranormal Activity boasts an absurd 1.28 million percent
return on its initial $15,000 budget.
That profit margin is more than double the return earned by the second most profitable
film ever, which was — that's right — The Blair Witch Project.
Time to get your GoPro, go downstairs, and make some bank!
"Come on!
I hear em downstairs!"
Haunting
Steven Spielberg is responsible for some of the biggest scares ever thanks to Jaws.
But even he was terrified by Paranormal Activity, thanks in part to a supernatural experience
he had while screening the DVD.
Somehow, his bedroom door wound up locked from the inside.
That, coupled with the freakiness of the movie, wigged out the legendary director so much
that he put the DVD in a trash bag when he returned it the next day, so he wouldn't have
to physically touch it.
Surprising he didn't just feed it to the sharks...
Japanese spinoff
Paranormal Activity has spawned half a dozen follow-ups and spinoffs, but there's one that
stands out as a curious black sheep among the franchise: Tokyo Night.
At around the same time Paranormal Activity 2 was being put together for U.S. release,
the studio licensed the franchise out for a "parallel sequel" for release in Japan,
which follows a Japanese student who brings the spirit back to Tokyo following a trip
to San Diego.
Sorry, Japan!
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch more videos like the one you just saw.
And leave us a comment to let us know what scared you the most about Paranormal Activity…