Before the couple can get too hot and heavy, a considerable earthquake occurs. Dennis' desire to make a sex tape with Julie sets things in motion this time around. The wedding videographer has recently moved in with young single mother Julie (Lauren Bittner) and those two daughters, Katie (Chloe Csengrey) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown). Fortunately for us, though, Dennis Wolf (Chris Smith) is a man ahead of his time. The setting predates the prevalence of home security cameras and the modern impulse to visually document life. They've managed to do that yet again, with Christopher Landon (one of PA2's three writers) giving us a prequel set in September 1988, when the sister protagonists of the first two movies are young girls. And yet with Paranormal Activity 2, the filmmakers seized an opportunity for a fitting parallel story that clearly and logically connected to the original film. If you saw the original Paranormal Activity (and there is simply no good excuse not to have by this point), then you know it was not a film brimming with sequel potential. And while the production budget again rose, it was still kept to just $5 million, well under the competition and far less than the marketing costs of such a high-profile wide release. In fact, PA3 opened bigger and though it had the series' weakest legs to date, it still ended up with a domestic gross close to the first film and a franchise-high worldwide take of $203 M. I expected the law of diminishing returns to hit last year's entry, Paranormal Activity 3, with the public's reaction to its immediate predecessor more muted than on the original film. Paranormal Activity is the new Saw, but with lower costs, broader appeal, far more respectable reviews, and infinitely less torture. Suddenly, the film largely responsible for the demise of Lionsgate's annual Saw franchise had inherited the void it left in Hollywood's calendars. Without drastically altering their formula (the cast was still comprised of unknowns and though the reported production budget had grown twenty times, it was still a modest $3 million), they practically repeated the original film's success, grossing a bit less domestically and a bit more overseas to the delightful tune of $178 M in worldwide receipts. The Blair Witch model made a pretty convincing case against creating a sequel as soon as possible, but Paranormal's producers did just that anyway. Like The Blair Witch Project ten years before it, the shoestring-budgeted 2009 found footage horror film came just at the right time, captured the public's attention, and delivered an ungodly profit-to-cost ratio. By the looks of it, Paranormal Activity should have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |