Paranormal Activity
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Paranormal Activity |
| Original title | Paranormal Activity |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 16 JMK 14 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Oren Peli |
| script | Oren Peli |
| production |
Jason Blum , Oren Peli |
| camera | Oren Peli |
| cut | Oren Peli |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
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Successor → |
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Paranormal Activity is a 2007 horror film that Oren Peli directed, scripted and part of the production. The film had its world premiere at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in the United States on October 14, 2007 and was also shown at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 18, 2008.
Paranormal Activity is filmed in the so-called found footage format.
The film is about a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a demonic presence in their own home. The image of the film consists exclusively of the settings of the couple's camera, which was set up to record the ghost activities. The film had its cinema premiere in Germany on November 19, 2009.
action
The focus of the film set in fall 2006 is the young couple Micah and Katie, who live in a house in San Diego . When Katie, a young student, is frightened by noises at night, Micah takes this as an opportunity to buy a camera and watch it at night. a. pointing at their shared bed in order to be able to record any paranormal phenomena. Unlike Katie, he seems less scared than fascinated.
A medium consulted , Dr. Fredrichs believes that he can actually perceive a kind of demon in the house that is specifically haunting Katie, which is why moving would not be the solution to the problem. He justifies this finding with the description of Katies that she has been haunted by paranormal events over several moves since she was eight. Since he considers himself overwhelmed - his profession is communication with spirits, not with demons - he recommends that the young couple contact the demonologist Dr. Johann Averies from Los Angeles . In contrast to Katie, Micah is not convinced of this and thinks it is a nonsense, which leads to several arguments between the two.
In the following nights, Micah actually succeeds in documenting paranormal things. So the bedroom door moves for no apparent reason, thuds can be heard in the house, but nobody is to be found, the chandelier in the living room moves. One night Katie gets up and leaves the bedroom after watching Micah sleep for over two hours, standing still. When Micah wakes up a short time later and goes looking for Katie, he finds her outside on the porch, despite the cold. As Micah walks back into the house, he hears footsteps from the bedroom, only to be horrified to find that the television is rustling but no one is in the bedroom. Katie can't remember anything in the morning.
After a microphone picks up noises in the bedroom while the couple were on the porch that night, Micah procures a witchboard to - contrary to Dr. Fredrichs' - to make contact with the being. Katie is upset about this behavior and leaves the house angry, followed by Micah. During her absence, the camera is aimed at the witchboard set up in the living room and documents an emerging wind, the pointer moving on the board and finally the ignition of the board. Footprints are found in the baby powder that is strewn on the floor in the evening, and after Micah is lured into the attic by steps, he finds a half-burned photo of Katie, which she thought was destroyed in a house fire years ago. Katie is so scared that she decides to see Dr. Call Averies. But since he cannot be reached, she turns to Dr. Fredrichs, who promises to come the next day. The following night the door is suddenly slammed and pounded against it from the outside. In the morning, a picture showing the two is smashed and only Micah's face is scratched. The summoned Dr. Fredrichs perceives an extremely hostile force and leaves the house abruptly and frightened, not without emphasizing once again that moving out of the house would not help.
Two nights later, Katie is suddenly dragged out of bed, dragged across the floor and can only be freed by Micah with great effort. An injury remains on her back, which Micah interprets as a bite. With their nerves at their feet and completely exhausted, the couple decided to move into a hotel . Just as Micah is about to leave the house, a completely calm Katie suddenly insists on spending the night in the house. She is also of the opinion that "everything would be fine" now. On the 21st night, Katie suddenly gets up at 1:26 a.m., watches Micah sleep for almost two hours, completely motionless, and goes downstairs at 3:16 a.m. Micah, startled by her screams, rushes out of the room to come to her aid. In the picture you can still only see the bedroom and you can hear a fight followed by a sudden silence. After a while you can hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and suddenly Micah is thrown across the room towards the camera. The overturned camera shows a Katie in a blood-soaked top , who walks slowly up to the lifeless body of her significant other and smells at him while she crouches over him. After smiling at the camera, she rushes towards the camera with a demonic expression on her face and the picture turns black. The epilogue then shows that the police found Micah's body on October 11, 2006 and Katie has never been seen since then.
Alternative endings
Originally intended end
There was a different ending in the original version of the film than in the final version. This is the end of the DVD screener , which was massively re-cut for the theatrical version. In the first alternate ending, Katie goes back to the bedroom after Micah's murder. Smeared with blood and with a knife in hand, she sits down on the floor next to the bed. So she spends the whole day, constantly rocking her upper body back and forth, while the phone and the doorbell ring from time to time. In between, Amber calls and when no one picks up, says on the answering machine that she is worried about Micah and Katie. In the late evening, worried Amber comes to the apartment and calls for Katie and Micah. When she finds Micah's body, she starts screaming and leaves the house in shock. About half an hour later, two alerted police officers break into the house and find Katie still crouching on the floor. Katie awakens from her catatonic state and stumbles toward the two officers, apparently confused, calling Micah's name. She still has the knife in her hand. The police tell Katie to drop the knife and finally shoot her in self-defense as she stumbles uncontrollably towards the officers. Then they search the other rooms and find the camera that is still recording.
Rewritten ending
After Paramount acquired the rights to Paranormal Activity thanks to the support of Steven Spielberg , the intended ending was dropped and two new endings were written and filmed, one of which was included in the final version of the film. The original film version was only shown publicly at a public viewing and was temporarily available on the Internet before Paramount arranged for the video in question to be removed from the network due to an infringement of copyright.
Paramount's alternate ending
After the murder of Micah, Katie goes back to the bedroom, smeared with blood, a knife in her hand, and cuts her throat without any emotion. She looks straight into the camera the whole time. After her death she sags to the side, after which the film ends. This is the actual alternative ending that Oren Peli shot back in 2007 and is included on the DVD as bonus material.
So this film has three different endings, two from the first released DVD screener and the theatrical ending based on an idea by Steven Spielberg.
production
Idea and shooting
Oren Peli came up with the idea for the film when he noticed strange things in his house. He wondered what would happen if he set up cameras to record the phenomena. Being unprotected while sleeping, he argued, was one of the most primitive human fears and said: “If something is sneaking around in your home, there is not much that can be done.” (“If something is lurking in your home there's not much you can do about it. ”) Peli himself has been afraid of ghosts his whole life and he is also afraid of the movie Ghostbusters , but managed to overcome the fear for something positive and productive.
It took Peli a year to prepare his own home for filming by repainting walls, buying furniture, replacing the carpet, and remodeling the stairwell. As a side effect, he quipped, he created his "dream home with a big TV." During this time he did extensive research on paranormal phenomena and the doctrine of demons and said, "We want to be as truthful as possible." Since the research showed that the most evil and violent spirits are demons, a demon was selected as the ghost.
Wanting to focus more on credibility and authenticity rather than action, Peli decided to use handheld video cameras to make the film. Due to the decision for a coarse and stationary image format, in which the camera was mostly on a tripod or something similar, no camera rod was required, which creates a “higher degree of plausibility” of the plot and the characters for the viewer.
Peli said the dialogues are "natural" as there was no proper script. Instead, the actors were given plot drafts and proceeded similarly to the Blair Witch Project .
Hundreds of people called on Peli during the casting call before he finally met actress Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. He cast both individually and then had them audition again together. Peli was impressed by the chemistry between the two actors and said, "If you look at the audition tapes, you'd think they'd known each other for years."
Armed with a budget of $ 15,000, a video camera, and no formal film experience, Peli began filming. Due to scheduling reasons, the film was shot in sequences according to a seven-day shooting calendar created by Peli, as Peli wanted to reveal the plot to the actors as he imagined it. "It's been a very busy week," he recalled, saying that the film was shot and edited day and night. The visual effects were added immediately after the actors finished the footage, with Peli describing the main cast as "incredibly professional and fast". A week later the shooting was finished.
Post production and delays
After the film was shot, Peli signed with the Creative Artists Agency . This showed the film in 2007 at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival and released DVDs to anyone who wanted to participate in the distribution. In 2007 Miramax Films became aware of the work. Peli then re-cut it to make it more compact and seamless. The Sundance Film Festival didn't want to accept the film like that; it was shown at the Slamdance Film Festival , but there was no distribution for a major release.
In 2008 the DVD finally landed on DreamWorks and was seen there by executive producer Ashley Brooks as it was supposed to be remake . She was so impressed by the footage that she asked her boss Adam Goodman for it until he too had seen the film. Goodman brought the DVD to the studio boss, who passed it on to Steven Spielberg , who took it home to watch. He liked the movie and helped get a remake with Jason Blum producer and Oren Peli director.
The original agreed contract for the film was that Oren Peli would direct and that a DVD release should include the original film so that viewers could get an idea of the origin of the project. However, during the contract negotiations, Peli and Blum asked for a one-off test screening of the original film to see how a real audience would react. In addition, as part of the contract, Goodman invited several scriptwriters to test screening; they should get an idea of what to write about, what to add, and what to leave out of the remake script.
During the performance, the audience began to leave the cinema. Goodman was afraid he had made the wrong decision until he found out they were leaving the theater out of fear. As a result, Goodman buried any thought of remaking and released Peli's original recordings.
The resulting rumors as well as the positive word of mouth led Goodman to finally release the film in the USA in autumn 2009.
publication
On September 25, 2009, Paramount Pictures decided to release the film in thirteen different "college cities" in the United States. On his website, director Oren Peli invited internet users to vote on where to show him next. It was the first time that the eventful.com website was used for a film, as it normally only had live shows and concerts in its program. The film managed to sell out 12 of 13 screenings.
On 27 September 2009, the reported blog of the Los Angeles Times that Paramount plans to release in various other cities the film due to the success of the initial limited ideas. The following day, Paramount confirmed the report by posting a press release on Oren Peli's official website. The announcement announced that the demonstration would be extended to 20 other cities. The list includes large cities like New York City that were excluded from the limited shows.
reception
Reviews
“You can understand why the shocker, shot for a handful of dollars, became a must-see movie for US teenagers. First of all, it is an exciting change between all the glossy Hollywood productions that are shown in the suburban cinemas. And then the main characters Katie and Micah live just like millions of their countrymen. Your everyday life between flat-screen TV and refrigerator is so normal that every change is an enrichment - even if it is through a house spirit. [...] Until the finale, which by horror film standards is the only real shock, you experience the fear of the young couple like your own. Precisely because Katie and Micah are so normal. Conclusion: Fascinating how a shaky video can spread so much horror. "
“You have to give Oren Peli great praise, because what he was able to get out of so little money in terms of staging is really impressive. Unfortunately, however, the scriptwriter gets bogged down in the sprawling and implausible dialogues, which rob the film of the credibility it needs to spread fear and horror in the audience. So you usually just wait for the scenic highlights, which confirms that Paranormal Activity might work better qualitatively as a short film. "
“If you subtract the huge PR campaign and you have only minor demands on good acting, an interesting story and actual psychological horror, you should stay away from this film and rather watch Poltergeist in its fifth repetition. That is definitely more exciting than paranormal activity. "
“Spielberg is not wrong when he enthusiastically praises Oren Peli's debut. Almost on his own, the newcomer created a pseudo-documentary horror story ( mockumentary ) without rumbling horror effects à la ' Poltergeist '. Probably some of the fun of 'Paranormal Activity' will be taken away because of the oversized hype in the USA - but those who are willing to immerse themselves in the action will find that Oren Peli has used his minimal budget excellently and staged a horror film that the tension screw slowly tightening until it is unbearable. "
Financial success
On the opening weekend, the film grossed 19.6 million US dollars, which corresponds to an average revenue of around 25,000 US dollars per cinema. In comparison, the budget for production was only $ 15,000. As of August 3, 2010, Paranormal Activity had grossed over $ 193 million worldwide. In Germany the film grossed less than 2.5 million dollars, in Austria a little more than half a million.
Sequels
The film is continued in Paranormal Activity 2 , which started on November 4, 2010 in Germany. The third part, Paranormal Activity 3 , started in Germany on November 3, 2011 and the fourth part, Paranormal Activity 4 , started on October 18, 2012.
On January 13, 2012, the first three films in the franchise were released for download with "Paranormal Activity: The Chronology" .
With Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night , a spin-off was created in Japan that moves the action to Tokyo . The premiere took place on November 20, 2010 in Japan.
With Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones ( Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones ), an official offshoot film was released in US cinemas on January 3, 2014.
On October 23, 2015, Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension started in the USA.
Web links
- Paranormal Activity in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Paranormal Activity at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Collection of reviews of Paranormal Activity on Moviepilot
- Comparison of the cut versions festival version - theatrical version , theatrical version - festival version , theatrical version - Unrated by Paranormal Activity at Schnittberichte.com
- Paranormal Activity in the German synchronous file
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Certificate of Release for Paranormal Activity . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry, November 2009 (PDF; test number: 120 525 K).
- ↑ Age rating for paranormal activity . Youth Media Commission .
- ^ Paranormal Activity - Release dates
- ^ William Goss: So What Was' Paranormal Activity's Original Ending? . In: Horror Squad , 10/11/09. Archived from the original on October 15, 2009 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 31, 2010.
- ↑ Peter Hall: Interview: Oren Peli, Writer-Director of 'Paranormal Activity' . In: Cinematical . October 9, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
- ↑ Section reports , accessed on January 1, 2010
- ↑ a b c d e f Exclusive Interview: Oren Peli "- shocktillyoudrop.com ( Memento of the original from October 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions then remove this notice. Accessed October 3, 2008
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i The haunted history of 'Paranormal Activity' "- LA Times, accessed September 20, 2009
- Jump up ↑ Thriller on Tour Lets Fans Decide on the Next Stop - New York Times, accessed September 20, 2009
- ↑ a b 'Paranormal Activity' expanding after selling out nearly all midnight shows - Los Angeles Times , accessed September 27, 2009
- ↑ More than 230,000 fans "demand" 'Paranormal Activity'; fans spur the film's opening in twenty additional cities across the country. September 28, 2009, accessed on August 22, 2013 (press release originally published on www.paranormalactivity-movie.com).
- ↑ Cinema.de: film review
- ↑ Moviemaze.de criticism of Paranormal Activity (2007)
- ↑ Kino-Zeit.de criticism of Paranormal Activity (2007)
- ↑ Filmstarts.de review of Paranormal Activity (2007)
- ↑ a b BoxOfficeMojo.com Paranormal Activity
- ^ Paranormal Activity 2. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved August 22, 2013 .
- ↑ Relive the Horror Like Never Before with Paranormal Activity: The Chronology! Check out the trailer!
