With the first of the franchise premiering in 2009 and the most recent one in 2021 (Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin), the franchise boasts a staggering 8 films, 7 mainstream and 1 not (Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night). The films are famously low budget but have quite a cult following.
Paranormal Activity (the first one) released in cinemas in 2009 and quickly got a reputation of being one of the scariest films of the year. It took the famous camcorder style of filming from The Blair Witch Project ten years prior and aimed to achieve the same level of success Cloverfield got in the same genre the year before. Being twelve when it released, it was all anyone could talk about in secondary school and I longed t o experience the terror.
The franchise has kept its style over the years with its loud jump scares as the person holding the camcorder uses the worst light ever to illuminate a long black corridor as they shout the persons name they are looking for. While the viewer has become used to this style, meaning it has less effect compared to back in the day, I have to praise them for staying true to the original. Almost always a member of the group or a few get thrown or dragged around needlessly.
Each individual film has its own story, usually someone within the group gets possessed and the others either have to help or find them as they try to figure out why it is happening. Usually the films own story is pretty unremarkable and very predictable, however, there is an overarching story that tends to link each film in some way. This, I have to commend, as the overarching story is genuinely quite interesting as each film sheds a little more light and adds to it. This overarching story is why I tend to find myself binging all the films over the course of a week.
Admittedly the acting isn’t the best, the individual film story is not that immersive or gripping and it reuses the same old tricks, but the franchise story is gripping and connects the films well. The franchise is surprisingly unchallenged as you will find it hard to find another scary franchise that has the same appeal.
