Few horror franchises have remained as consistent—both in terms of quality and box office—as the “Paranormal Activity” films. Now the series, which kicked off a resurgence in the popularity of found-footage horror, will come to an end after six years with “The Ghost Dimension,” in theaters Oct. 23.
“At a certain point you can tease no longer,” producer Jason Blum says. “It’s a gut feeling; all of us around the movie had the same feeling that we’ve teased long enough and it’s time to introduce the demon. Every other horror franchise, they decided the last one didn’t make money so that’ll be the last one. So I was kind of psyched that creatively, we didn’t skate against the ground. I feel like we’re going out on a high note and I’m pleased.”
That high note will no doubt include a massive opening weekend box office for the revelation of the demon that has spent decades terrorizing Californians and their families. New family the Fleeges find—what else?—videos of doomed sisters Katie and Kristi being taught magic by their grandmother, and shortly afterward become the latest victims of whatever it is that’s been tracking unsuspecting viewers. Blum says that fans will finally have all of their questions answered.
As one of the guiding hands behind “Paranormal Activity,” Blum has plenty to be pleased about as the series concludes. His Blumhouse Productions has singlehandedly raised the bar on the genre, rescuing it from the torture-porn doldrums into which it had fallen by dint of nothing more than smart scripts and strong casts. Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne lent some star power to the low-budget “Insidious” (which has itself already spawned two sequels); Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall co-starred opposite director Joel Edgerton earlier this year in “The Gift” (out on DVD and Blu-ray Oct. 27); and Ethan Hawke rode the gleefully terrifying “Sinister” to box office success.
“We’re not getting necessarily the name of the moment but we have our own casting director, Terri Taylor—she casts all the movies,” Blum says. “And she is very instrumental to why the casts work really well. We’re very into the idea of ‘Let’s forget the math and let’s pick the great actor who fits the part.’ ”
One of those actors was Hawke, who long teased Blum for focusing on scary movies. But, as Blum points out, what drew Hawke to “Sinister” wasn’t the chance to scare people but the very real drama of a man choosing career over family at the film’s core. “And afterward he said, ‘You’re making independent dramas tucked into horror films!’ ” Blum says happily. “I don’t think there is a great horror movie that doesn’t have a great drama at its center. Most of them have this great dramatic crisis at the core, and that’s what drives the movie forward. When you’re emotionally involved, that makes it even scarier.”
Blum has a deep love for the genre, which can often be reduced to a cheap cash grab or the opportunity to learn the craft of filmmaking with little to no pressure (think of all the actors, from Johnny Depp to Renée Zellweger, who started out in horror films). But Blum points out that a relationship with the genre in which one is working can make all the difference between disposable films and classics. “If you don’t have a relationship with what you’re making, I don’t know what the point of making it is,” he says. “We love these movies. It’s great that they’re profitable, but that’s not the primary reason. There are other reasons, which is to tell great stories. So yes, I am sensitive to it and I really love the people we’ve worked with and I’ve learned from. These guys are incredibly talented filmmakers and storytellers, and they love horror. And we’ve benefited from that, but when you don’t love the genre and you make it—it suffers.”
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