Trivia / Paranormal Activity

• Cast the Expert: Micah Sloat had previously been a camera operator at his university's TV station, making him suited to controlling the camera when Micah does.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • The Netflix description of 3 says it is a sequel instead of a prequel to the series, and that 4 takes place five years after 3 instead of 2.
  • Writers of quite a few synopses/reviews/articles seem to believe that the malevolent entity in the films is a ghost, rather than a demon.
• Creator Backlash: Jason Blum, the head of Blumhouse Productions and the series' longtime producer, called Next of Kin "terrible" and said that "it's time to put [the series] to bed" in response to its poor performance.
• The Danza: Everyone in the first film. The characters Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat share their names with the actors playing them, while "Amber" is played by Amber Armstrong and "Dr. Fredrichs" is played by Mark Fredrichs.
• Dark Horse Casting: Katie Gallagher, who'd been a runner-up on Survivor, was cast as Katie but got replaced because she was too well known and thus would break the illusion of realism.
• Deleted Role: Spencer Marks, a real Paranormal Investigator, was cast to play Dr Johann Averies to explain certain anomalies in the movie. Although mentioned repeatedly throughout, his footage wasn't used.
• Dueling Movies:
  • The first movie went up against Saw VI, in a case of two subgenres of horror duking it out. Its resounding victory at the box office, despite playing in fewer theaters, is often regarded as the death knell for the Torture Porn genre that the Saw franchise served as the face of, precipitating the rise of supernatural horror in the '10s. The second film going up against, and beating, Saw 3D the following year merely finished the job.
  • The first film also dueled with The Fourth Kind, another found-footage, supernatural-leaning horror movie released in the fall of 2009 (even if the baddies in The Fourth Kind were aliens instead of ghosts or demons).
• Enforced Method Acting: Much of the dialogue for the first film was unscripted, with Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat improvising most of it. Also, in some scenes, they weren't told when anything scary was about to happen in order to get a genuine reaction out of them.
• Executive Meddling: Averted. When the rights to the film were initially purchased, the studio put the film on the shelf and intended to remake it with a larger budget and more famous actors in the roles; when audiences walked out of test screenings for the film because they were scared, the studio quickly reversed their stance.
• Franchise Killer: The Ghost Dimension may have been intended as a Grand Finale, but even if it hadn't, its poor performance at the box office, stemming partly from a VOD distribution strategy that caused some theater chains to boycott the film, likely would've killed the series regardless. Despite this, there was an attempt to revive the series six years later with Next of Kin, but it too was negatively received and was sent straight-to-streaming due to the COVID-19 pandemic (not helping is that Next of Kin's story is almost completely disconnected from the other movies); although more sequels were announced, even producer Jason Blum wasn't hopeful, stating that perhaps the franchise had run its course.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: There was very little scripting done; the actors were given outlines of the story and situations to improve.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Nearly every scene in both trailers for Paranormal Activity 3 was reshot or cut completely for unknown reasons, including scenes of a house fire and an exorcist type of character.
• No Budget: Just made for $15,000, with the two lead actors being paid $500 for their work each. The post production budget was higher, at $215,000.
• Referenced by...: In Queens of Geek, Taylor watches every Paranormal Activity movie with Jamie, even though they scare her.
• Sleeper Hit: Well duh. It was considered the 2000s equivalent to The Blair Witch Project's unexpected success; bringing in $193 million worldwide. It also launched a more successful franchise than Blair Witch, whose two sequels failed to make an impact.
• Viral Marketing:
  • Used heavily to market both movies. The second movie features a number of viral clips on Youtube.
  • In the buildup to Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, channels on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube that follows a man named Jacob Degloshi. The videos teased the movie while giving more detail on the Featherston sisters' past.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The first choice to direct the sequel? None other than Brian De Palma, director of Carrie, Dressed to Kill, and Scarface (1983). He considered the offer but turned it down.
  • Before the official release, the first Paranormal had three endings:
    • The original ending was after Katie killed Micah, she goes upstairs and sits next to the bed for the next two days. After a friend calls and visits the house to find Micah's body, the police arrive to investigate. After finding Katie (who's been left confused after the demon leaves her body), a confrontation occurs during which the demon slams a door behind one of the officers, causing one of them to shoot Katie, the movie ending with the police looking through the house and room with nothing but the camera.
    • The alternative ending was like the official released one except Katie would instead cut her throat.
    • There was an unfilmed ending where Katie would bludgeon Micah with the camera, but the studio felt it would be impossible to film and it would be too graphic for an already scary movie.

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