America's most frightening "home video," "Paranormal Activity" is a movie everyone is talking about, but few will dare to see.
Making $22 million this past weekend, "Paranormal" came in number one at the box office, outranking "Saw VI," which came in second with a disappointing $14.8 million, and "Where the Wild Things Are," which, after dominating the box office on its opening weekend, came in third at $14.4 million.
For those who get a thrill out of ghosts, demons and haunted houses minus the gore, this horror film takes supposedly innocent nighttime noises and reveals them to be the products of other-worldly mischief....
....This past Friday, the "mock-doc" expanded from 760 theaters to 2,000. It has been compared to the 1999 "Blair Witch Project," which earned $29 million after expanding to just over 1,000 theaters. Since its Sept. 25th limited release, "Paranormal" has earned an overall $62.5 million. With the Halloween weekend yet to come, it is predicted that if word-of-mouth continues to favor Paramount's micro-budget horror flick, then earnings could reach as high as $100 million. Paramount acquired the rights to the movie at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2007, originally intending to allow Peli a re-shoot with a bigger budget. But after seeing the success of its raw and unaltered version, the studio decided to release "Paranormal" in all its homemade glory, and test audiences continued to respond well in screenings. Subsequent success was then left to the circulation of online blogs and tweets (mostly from college students) that spread news of the creepy ghost story.
With a slow incline in terror throughout the entire film, "Paranormal Activity" scares in small doses and then shocks at the end. A perfect fit for the easily scared.
East Carolinian
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
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