ParanormalActivity Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It didn't take long for the shock waves of Oren Peli's incredibly successful, record breaking Paranormal Activity to start influencing other horror movies. However, this time around we're not (yet) talking about The Asylum banging out Abnormal Activity in a weekend. Nope, this is a revival of an old twist on the cash-in-on-something-popular formula.

In the two years since PA finished production, Katie Featherston, the gal at the center of Peli's haunting tale, started laying down roots in the acting world. She took on a role in another indie horror production called Walking Distance about a small town that befalls government medical experiments. That was before PA exploded like a pipe bomb packed with money, giving theater goers all over the country a new use for talcum powder in the process. Now that Peli's title is rolling off the tongues of viable demographics the country over, THR tells us the owners of the finished-but-unreleased Walking Distance have seen fit to capitalize on Katie Featherston's new found popularity by renaming their otherwise off-the-radar film Experimental Activity.

Read the rest over at Horror Squad

Michael Jackson's This is It was the only new wide release this weekend, and essentially had the box office to itself. This may seem weird, but this is as it should be -- and it has more to do with Halloween falling on a Saturday than with any show of respect for the King of Pop. Predictably, This is It won the weekend, grossing $21.3 million for a total of $32.5 million since its Wednesday opening. That's a good number, and monumental for a documentary, though it is also an instance where the studio's hype machine may have led people astray.

Those who read the breathless press releases about the trumped-up advance ticket sales frenzy surrounding This Is It may be disappointed (or in any case surprised) by these figures. But over $30 million in five days for a concert documentary is nothing to sneeze at -- and I don't think that expecting much more was reasonable. (As a footnote, too, the movie made nearly $70 million outside of North America -- which also makes sense.)

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day bowed on 68 screens and grossed just under half a million in 16th place, which isn't bad, really -- confirming the small cult following for Boondock Saints that everyone already knew existed. Among holdovers, Paranormal Activity continued to add screens, and continued to hold up well -- it should break $100 million by this time next week. Saw VI and Where the Wild Things Are both suffered drops over 60%; Wild Things will top out around $70 million (pretty good for an art film), while Saw VI will wind up making around (or just over) half of the next lowest grosser in the franchise. Will the next one go straight to DVD? (Probably not, but it might be time to start asking the question.)

The full top 10 after the jump.

Indie Roundup, your weekly dose of what's happening (slightly) outside the mainstream.

Deals. Via our friends at indieWIRE, we learn that Brian Baugh's faith-based To Save a Life will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films in January 2010. The film follows an "all-American teen" boy dealing with the aftermath of a friend's death. Cross-cultural romantic drama Cairo Time, starring Patricia Clarkson, will hit theaters and on-demand home viewing systems sometime in the new year, courtesy of IFC Films. Bradley Rust Gray's The Exploding Girl will open in early 2010 through Oscilloscope Laboratories. Zoe Kazan stars as a young college woman dealing with conflicting romantic feelings while home in New York for spring break.

Online / On Demand Viewing. Two recommendations this week, both for titles that are newly available through Amazon's VOD service. Susan Seidelman's Smithereens is a quintessentially New York picture and a fiercely independent experience from a time when indies were few and far between. It's a blast of fresh air about Wren (Susan Berman), a rough-talking young woman, and her travails through the seedier side of life as she tries to make something of herself. It's essential viewing, especially if you've been disappointed by one too many slick faux-indies. Musician Richard Hell is great, too.

Much less essential, but no less vital viewing, is Arlene Nelson's Naked States, which trails along as Spencer Tunick engineers massive works of art composed by live, naked human flesh. Tunick is a fascinating photographer / hustler, and so are the people who decide to bare all for the sake of art.

Activity of a different kind, Chilean cleaning, and AFI Fest -- after the jump!

I know, you might be bordering on a Paranormal Activity overdose at this point. It's been slowly rolling out for weeks, every person in America is talking about it, and it so totally scared your best friend, but certainly not you. Well, as you likely know, what is currently playing in theaters is not the original ending to Oren Peli's haunted house triumph. In fact, the new theatrical cut features an ending suggested by Steven Spielberg.

The original ending, as detailed here by our own William Goss, hasn't played in theaters for over a year and a half, but now that the film is king of the demonic world, someone has provided the service of actually putting the alternate ending online. This is actually just one of several endings, as explained in our interview with the director, but until the far-off DVD of the film is released, this is the only way you're going to see it. And I kind of have a feeling that may not be the case for long, so catch it while you can over at Horror Squad!

These days folks don't really wait for things to settle before they start making fun because there's always this unspoken contest to see who can crack the obligatory jokes first. When Paranormal Activity beat Saw VI at the box office this weekend, not only did it send a much welcomed shock through the Hollywood system, but it also automatically became the source of what we can only imagine will be at least a few dozen different upcoming spoofs. From the professional spoofers to the amateur, do-it-yourself-and-throw-it-on-You-Tube spoofers, get ready to be inundated with random shaky-cam videos about ghosts in bedrooms, in living rooms, in attics, in kitchens, in bathrooms, in toilets, and so on and so forth.

Funny or Die was first out of the gate this weekend, producing a spoof that mixes Paranormal Activity and Saw called Paranormal Saw. In the video, a couple set out to record ghosts in their bedroom, but instead are paid a visit by the Jigsaw puppet from Saw who keeps the two awake by talking about puzzles and games all night long. The second video, from Texas-based filmmaker Jordan Crowder, is called Parannoying Activity, and it also follows a couple who decide to record ghosts while they're sleeping -- only this time the ghost decides to screw with them constantly by doing stuff like rearranging their DVDs and solving all of the puzzles in a puzzle book.

How many videos will it take before everyone begins to hate Paranormal Activity? I sense a backlash starting in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

... watch both videos after the jump

This one is for the increasingly few of you who have steadfastly stuck with the Saw franchise through thick-and-thin in the aughts. The opening weekend numbers for Saw VI are the weakest since the first film, mostly thanks to some stiff competition from breakout hit Paranormal Activity. But box-office returns aren't everything. So: what'd you think?

I wrote this little piece before the release of Saw V last year, in the mode of a frustrated fan hoping for a revitalized franchise. It didn't happen; Saw V was boring and incomprehensible, and I was ready to skip the sixth film altogether. Then it got some decent reviews, and I thought what the hell. I'm glad I did. Saw VI, which sees editor Kevin Greutert take over directing duties, is easily the best Saw movie since the third. That may not be the most enthusiastic bit of praise I've ever issued, but miracle of miracles: the fifth sequel to a half-decent horror flick is legitimately pretty good. Here's how I think Saw got some of its bite back:

• Thriller momentum. For the first time in three years, a Saw movie is exciting, in an old-fashioned what-happens-next sort of way. There are creative traps a-plenty -- some of the most ingenious ones in the series, for those who are into that sort of thing -- but the film doesn't depend on them: it has a semblance of a protagonist, and a story that moves forward, and draws you in, and makes the 90 minutes feel like less. Which is related to my next point, namely:

Is the Saw bubble finally deflating for good? The sixth installment of the mainstay franchise played second fiddle to the still-surging Paranormal Activity this weekend, grossing only $14.8 million dollars -- less than half the bow of the previous four installments, and lower even than the original 2004 film. The competition from the plucky indie horror film likely has something to do with Saw VI's disappointing returns, waning interest is probably involved as well. Paranormal Activity, for its part, claimed the top spot for the first time in its impressive five-week run, hanging on to its momentum in its first weekend of legitimate wide release.

The Paranormal/Saw horror combo left the weekend's other newcomers floundering. Summit's Astro Boy didn't have the marketing muscle it needed, while Amelia was hurt by bad reviews and a lack of studio enthusiasm. But the weekend's real disappointment is Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, an obvious attempt by Universal to kick-start a new kiddie fantasy franchise, and a far, far bigger (albeit cheaper) fizzle than The Golden Compass. The Weitz brothers should no longer be permitted to work in this genre.

Where the Wild Things Are took a honking 55% hit in its second weekend, a victim of being an art film in mainstream guise. Law Abiding Citizen fared a little better -- it's now Overture's highest-grossing film.

The full top 11 after the jump.

October certainly brings spooks and scares to movie theaters nationwide. The month began with a bang, as Zombieland proved an unexpected hit, even as Paranormal Activity began making waves that are still cresting. The Stepfather was more a pallid thriller than any kind of horror flick. This weekend, Saw VI joined the fray at the hardcore edge of the horror spectrum, while Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant appealed to the softer, fantasy-loving set. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D also claimed a limited number of eyeballs, as did Lars von Trier's Antichrist, described as horror. The Final Destination, Halloween II, and Sorority Row are still hanging on in theaters.

Yesterday, Erik Davis asked which big horror release you're watching this weekend. (You still have time to vote in that poll.) But I'm wondering, with all the horror-related releases available to watch in theaters -- not to mention all the DVDs that have been pouring out this month, and the horror-themed programming awash on television -- has your Halloween-month viewing peaked already? Are you counting the days until the month is over?

I count myself as a horror buff, and read our great sister blog Horror Squad religiously (so to speak), but after a triple feature on Friday night that steadily diminished in quality (Paranormal Activity, The Final Destination, Halloween II), I wimped out on a potentially very good Asian horror double feature that the Asian Film Festival of Dallas presented locally: I fell asleep too early! But I'll probably catch up with one or two DVDs tonight.

What about you? If you're a horror fan, what are your personal picks from the month's viewing? If you're not into horror, what have you been watching lately?

We'll have our full box office report tomorrow morning, but we should let you know now that, as expected (and reported back on Saturday morning), Paranormal Activity has claimed its first weekend win, slicing and dicing its way through Saw VI (only $14 million) on its way to a $22 million take. Naturally, Paramount wasted no time in announcing that they may indeed pursue a Paranormal Activity sequel if it seems like the right move to make. Speaking to the LA Times, Paramount Chairman Brad Grey said, "We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do Paranormal 2, and we're looking to see if that makes some sense."

Well, considering that this little film with a budget of $11,000 could give the studio its greatest return ever, something tells me a sequel makes a whole lotta sense to the folks crunching numbers. That said, I'm not the only one who remembers the gigantic piece of moose crap that was Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, and so if Paramount is going to try to turn Paranormal Activity into some sort of franchise, they'll have to do so very carefully.

Personally, I'd rather see them invest in writer-director Oren Peli and his other fun, low-budget ideas than to see them throw a few million and some over-the-top special effects at a sequel that will never live up to the original. Let's face it, like Blair Witch before it, a lot of the fun with Paranormal Activity came in discovering it through word of mouth instead of through the normal Hollywood marketing system. It was (and still is) an underdog, and folks love the underdog. The same won't be said for the sequel.

What do you think they should do here?

Just when you thought it was safe to assume the mega horror franchise would once again own another Halloween at the box office, Friday estimates are showing that Paranormal Activity ($7.5 million) beat Saw VI ($7 million), despite the fact that the latter is playing on over 1,100 more screens than the former. Could this finally be the year that a Saw film tanks at the box office? Could Paranormal Activity be the movie that keeps Jigsaw in check? And if Saw VI loses the weekend box office to Paranormal Activity (which early estimates are indicating), what will this mean for the Saw franchise moving forward?

Whether or not you liked Paranormal Activity, you really do have to give it props for being one of the most successful underdog flicks in history. Do you realize that if the film somehow manages to pull in a total of $100 million at the box office (after this weekend it could climb above $60 million), it will become the most successful Paramount film in modern history? As Deadline Hollywood points out, the movie was acquired for $300k and the studio only spent around $10 million on prints and advertising, so, says a DH "insider", "this will be the best return Paramount has ever had." I'd like to repeat that because it's definitely worth repeating: This little indie film could give Paramount the best return it has ever had. Remarkable.



More on Paranormal Activity
Interview with Oren Peli, writer-director of Paranormal Activity
So what was Paranormal Activity's original ending?