PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007/09) CELEBRATES 15 YEARS OF TERROR!!!

HORROR 101 with Dr. AC

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007/09) d. Oren Peli (USA) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 (2010) d. Tod Williams (USA) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (2011) d. Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman (USA) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 (2012) d. Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman (USA) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES (2014) d. Christopher Landon (USA) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION (2015) d. Gregory Plotkin (USA) Paramount’s plucking of this microbudget feature from obscurity and its nimble (some might say omnipresent) word-of-mouth marketing scheme will undoubtedly go down as one of the biggest Cinderella stories in horror history. Shot for a paltry $11,000, writer/editor/producer/director Oren Peli’s first-person account of a young couple plagued by inexplicable happenings in their new suburban home works surprisingly well under its own limitations, or perhaps because of them. Like its stylistic and spiritual companion piece, 1999’s The Blair Witch Project (itself another stunning, out-of-nowhere indie success story), PA's strengths lie in its ability to tap into primal, everyday fears: a new building’s unexplained creaks and groans, a partner’s emotional swings, etc. Other recent features have utilized the now-familiar camcorder POV “found footage” convention, some of them admirably, but what sets Peli’s feature apart is its simplicity and courage to allow mundane objects/events, like Blair Witch’s stone piles and stickmen, to take on heightened significance. It’s a deceptively simple high-wire act that works better than it has any right to, and while not a perfect (or even a “great”) film, it contains more genuinely creepy and unsettling onscreen moments than all of Hollywood’s big budget remakes of the last three decades put together. Join AC and his amazing panel of guests (Amy Pearson, Frank Merle, Brett Neveu, Anna Maurya, Chelsea David) as we celebrate the one that truly, for better or worse, kicked off the found footage barrage of the 21st Century, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY! --------------------------------- CHELSEA DAVID is an actor, budding mental health professional, and spicy food eater, deeply obsessed with all things horror. A Louisiana native and former Chicagoan of a decade, she can be found bouncing around the country at any given moment. You’ll hear her laugh before you see her. ANNA MAURYA is a film fan stuck in Ohio. They have been a guest on Raiders of the Podcast, a contributor to Hidden Horror, and they generally dislike writing about themselves in the third person. FRANK MERLE is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker originally from Chicago, IL. He has written and directed several award-winning and critically-acclaimed films, including The Employer (2013), starring Malcolm McDowell and Billy Zane, and From Jennifer (2017), starring Derek Mears and Tony Todd. Next up is Namaka, a dark fantasy starring Jamie Kennedy and David Howard Thornton. BRETT NEVEU is a professor at Northwestern University where he teaches writing for the screen and stage. His film/TV screenplays include Eric LaRue (dir. Michael Shannon) and Night’s End (dir. Jennifer Reeder) with Shudder/AMC. Past theatre productions include Revolution with A Red Orchid Theatre, Verböten with House Theatre and Red Bud with The Royal Court Theatre. Brett is also a recipient of a Steinberg/ATCA New Play Citation, The Marquee Award from Chicago Dramatists, The Ofner Prize for New Work and the Emerging Artist Award from The League of Chicago Theatres. AMY PEARSON is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Durham University. In addition to being a whopping great horror enthusiast, she's also a power lifter, photographic model, and aerialist. ------------------------------------------------------------ Keep Searching, Keep Exploring, and, most importantly, Keep Sharing the Scare!