Widely released in 2009, Paranormal Activity reignited interest in the supernatural horror
genre, and launched a popular film franchise. While the plot and final act of this found-footage
classic seems simple, it actually delves into some pretty complex issues. Here's everything
you need to know about the ending of Paranormal Activity.
After moving into their new San Diego home, Micah starts to record his girlfriend Katie
as she comes to terms with a troubling bit of personal history. Katie believes that a
supernatural entity has been following her since childhood.
Seeing as she and Micah have recently moved in together, it only makes sense that Katie
reveals her concerns to him. As a result, Micah invests in a new camera setup to test
Katie's theory about being haunted and to catch any evidence of a supernatural presence.
Micah even surprises Katie by saying that the camera will be on 24-7, even when the
couple is asleep.
From here on out, it's clear that Micah is obsessed, and he brings the camera everywhere
with him in the house. When the couple is relaxing on the couch, the camera is rolling.
If they're swimming, it's being recorded. Making beaded jewelry with friends? You guessed
it, Micah is filming. He also reviews hours of footage every day. For better or worse,
the camera and Micah become inseparable.
When Micah outwardly mocks the validity of Katie's fears, she turns to Dr. Fredrichs,
a psychic who she hopes can help her navigate through her experiences and offer some clarity
to her disturbing history. As Micah's camera rolls, Dr. Fredrichs quickly deduces that
the entity following Katie isn't a ghost at all but a demon. Unlike a ghost, demons are
malicious, dangerous entities that feed off their victims' negative energy. The psychic
explains that the demon will continue to follow Katie wherever she goes, so this is a problem
she can't simply run away from.
Since demons are beyond Dr. Fredrichs' expertise, he refers Katie to a demonologist. But before
leaving, he advises the couple against tempting the demon into communicating or drawing it
out in any way. The psychic even directly warns Micah to take this seriously.
"Do you understand me?"
"Yeah, I'm with ya."
Following the appointment, Katie wants to contact the demonologist, but Micah immediately
shuts the idea down. Despite his skepticism about a demonic entity and dismissive attitude
about the psychic, Micah continues to film non-stop.
After a few strange but minor occurrences take place, Micah is pleased with himself
when he catches something out of the ordinary on film.
This first credible sign of paranormal activity is simply a door slightly moving on its own.
However, the intensity of these events steadily grows with each passing night. For example,
during night five of recording, the couple hears a mysterious thud from another room
in the house. The next day, Micah checks an audio recording of the event and discovers
a strange sound, which he and Katie are unable to recognize as an animal or any type of electrical
interference. Still, it gives Micah another opportunity to clown around.
"What is your quest? What is your favorite color?"
Another odd occurrence happens on night fifteen when the camera catches footage of Katie getting
out of bed in the middle of the night in a trance-like state. For two hours straight,
she stands still beside the bed before walking to the backyard in a daze. When Micah shows
her the footage, Katie doesn't seem to have any recollection of doing this the night before.
Though Micah starts out as a rather confident non-believer, he quickly becomes consumed
with capturing every paranormal event on film. Taking things to a more dangerous level, Micah
goes against the psychic's warnings and Katie's wishes and tries to communicate directly with
the demon.
Micah decides to borrow a Ouija board, which makes Katie absolutely livid. They leave the
board alone and go out for the night, but its presence is enough to invoke a response
from the demon. After a few moments of silence, the planchette begins to move on its own.
Then the board spontaneously catches on fire, leaving behind a series of strange marks on
its surface. When Micah discovers the marked up board and looks over the footage, he's
convinced that a demon is attempting to tell them something. He then begins trying to solve
a puzzle that likely doesn't even exist. Katie, however, has her own thoughts about Micah's
Ouija board experiment.
"I don't give a f--- what that thing says on the Ouija board."
What Katie really wants is Micah to stop playing games and call the demonologist, but he continues
to assert that he has the situation under control.
On night seventeen, Micah pours talcum powder all over the upstairs floor to capture more
evidence of the demon on film. Katie is confused about what the experiment will prove since
the two know the demon does, in fact, exist. However, she gives in and makes him agree
that if things escalate after his talcum powder trick, she's calling the demonologist to step
in.
On the night of the talcum powder stunt, Katie and Micah are woken up by loud creaks in the
house. More alarming, they find that a trail of footprints has been left behind in the
powder and they lead up to the attic. Katie believes this is a trap meant to lure the
couple into the attic and harm them, but Micah is unfazed. After fearlessly venturing into
the attic, he returns with a burnt picture of Katie as a child. This discovery shocks
Katie, as the image is from her childhood home that had burned down, and it's impossible
that it could have found its way into the attic after all these years.
Katie has finally had enough and tries to contact the demonologist. Unfortunately, he's
out of the country, so she asks Dr. Fredrichs to come back to their home. As soon as the
psychic steps through the front door, he immediately comments that the demonic energy in the home
is overwhelming. And, in a rare move for a horror film, he acts like any normal person
would.
"This is overpowering."
"It's getting worse."
"It certainly doesn't like that I'm here and I cannot help you."
"What?"
"In fact, I've got to get out of here."
After failing to secure help from both the demonologist and Dr. Fredrichs, Katie and
Micah are seemingly out of options. In typical Micah fashion, he decides to take matters
into his own hands yet again. But this time, he actually uncovers some useful information.
Apparently, their demon roommate has a track record of terrorizing young women. The previous
victim, a woman named Diane, was also haunted by a supernatural entity when she was eight.
After calling an exorcist, her state worsened dramatically, and the demon presumably killed
Diane and jumped to Katie. With this knowledge at their disposal, Katie has to now confront
the notion that a professional may actually worsen her situation rather than help it.
On night twenty of recording, the haunting becomes far more aggressive than ever before.
At 4:32 A.M., Katie is dragged from her bed, screaming for help. The following day, she
reveals a bite mark left by the demon on her back. Realizing that things have escalated
to dangerous new heights, the two believe they should finally try to leave the house.
After the attack, Katie begins to act very strangely. Micah is clearly overwhelmed and
finds her in a catatonic state, clutching a cross in her hands. Katie is unresponsive,
and she's grasped the cross so hard that her hand is bleeding. Micah, seemingly at his
wit's end, burns the cross in the fireplace.
After Micah destroys the cross and is ready to escape the house, Katie has had a complete
change of heart and insists they'll be safe there. Micah gives in to her request, unaware
that the Katie he knew is gone for good. The next night, the camera footage shows her slipping
out of bed while Micah is still asleep. For two hours, she silently watches him before
slowly leaving the room. Moments later, he gets an extreme wakeup call.
"Micah!"
"Katie!"
After Micah disappears into the darkness, it's clear that he had fallen victim to the
demon's trap. Suddenly, Micah's lifeless body is thrown at the camera he loved so much.
The obviously possessed Katie is standing in the doorway. As she crawls over Micah's
body, her face changes into a demonic expression, and she lunges at the camera.
Throughout Paranormal Activity, Micah is shown in a less than favorable light. Before experiencing
the paranormal himself, he outright mocks Katie and minimizes her experiences. He is
unapologetically dismissive of anything that will bring her any sort of comfort. He's consistently
quick to belittle and demean her feelings. However, the moment Micah realizes that what
Katie is saying is real and the demon will make for a compelling video, he's ready to
exploit her trauma for his own selfish ends.
While Katie is the one at the center of all of these horrifying, traumatic events, Micah
never fails to ignore her wishes and disregard her thoughts about the situation. The most
egregious of Micah's actions is his willingness to put not only himself, but Katie in direct
danger by taunting the demon for the sake of his own ego.
"Your demon's worthless. You're worthless! You got nothing."
The psychic directly spelled out for Micah why communicating with the demon would be
reckless, and Katie voiced her opposition to purposefully drawing the demon out on multiple
occasions. Yet Micah ignores both of them, ultimately sealing his own fate.
Micah manages to convince Katie, and himself, that he is "in control" of this situation
he knows absolutely nothing about. He gaslights Katie throughout the entire film, and by doing
so, he effectively breaks her down, allowing her negative emotions to take hold. In the
end, this gave the demon a prime opportunity to take full control. So while the demon is,
of course, the film's primary villain, Micah's toxicity is the catalyst that led to Katie
succumbing to demonic possession.
The demon's presence in the home makes Katie and Micah's existence a living nightmare.
They basically have an uninvited companion that is constantly watching their every move.
Worse is the fact that this entity is inescapable; it will follow Katie even if she moves homes
or leaves Micah. This means that throughout her life, Katie always has something with
her at every moment.
Though the demon adds a home invasion aspect to the story, Paranormal Activity's handheld
style offers a voyeuristic view into the couple's lives that also plays on their loss of privacy.
In every moment of the film, Micah is filming his and Katie's personal lives together. Even
when the couple sleeps, the camera is rolling, refusing the two of them any amount of true
solitude. Additionally, Katie both begs and demands Micah to stop filming her, but he
almost always refuses. Katie's vulnerable moments, such as her session with the psychic,
her fights with Micah, or her teary breakdowns, are all relentlessly recorded.
Whether she likes it or not, her trauma is being documented and displayed for all to
see. In essence, the camera acts as yet another set of eyes within the house. Though Micah
may have intended for the camera to capture evidence of the paranormal, the reality is
that it further eliminates any sense of boundaries that Katie might have still had.
One of the most horrifying aspects of Paranormal Activity is that the threat is something entirely
inhuman. A demon defies logic; it can move in and out of spaces regardless of alarm systems,
physical barriers, or other restraints. Because of this, the demon is nearly impossible to
overcome with any ordinary solution. Katie readily accepts this reality, likely because
her sense of agency has long been stripped away due to her inability to fight against
the invisible foe. For Micah, he is unable to grapple with the lack of control over his
new living situation and continually tries to claim agency through nonsensical, dangerous
stunts.
Though Katie and Micah react in different fashions, the end result is the same. The
demon holds complete control over Katie and her home. It waits for an opportune time to
make a final move, but never loses full governance over the house. The film emanates a feeling
of powerlessness; Katie's common sense is rendered useless by Micah's aggressive plays
for dominance, and he quickly deprives her of any authority she may have had over the
situation. Ultimately, the demon gets exactly what it wants because it's able to effectively
create a sense of helplessness in both Katie and Micah.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
horror movies are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you
don't miss a single one.