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Not So Normal Activity
Australia is finally seeing the release of Paranormal Activity. But is it safe to go back to your bedroom after you see it?!
If social networks such as twitter really do take the social pulse, then the news about Oren Peli's film Paranormal Activity is definitely pumping serious red cells. Backed by an incredible online demand of over one million people who had heard about the film and demanded that it be released in their city, Paranormal Activity received a US nationwide release and triumphed at the box office, taking in more than $100 million to date.
After premiering in the relatively small horror film festival Screamfest in 2007, and made for an alleged $11,000, the film has capitalised on the massive viral market that The Blair Witch Project rallied ten years ago, only then the internet was nascent, and today it's part of everyone's daily lives.
It's a simple case of independent filmmaker makes good. Filmmaker Oren Peli, inspired by unusual occurrences in his home, decided that the idea of setting up a camera to watch what happens in the house when its occupants are sleeping would be the perfect set-up for a horror film. He got together a couple of actors, a camera and a tripod, and went on to make an 86 minute horror film which looks just like it was shot in his own bedroom. And it was.
Made on a laughable budget, the film manages to pull its audience in to its night vision, haunted world where two new home owners are being visited by an unseen presence that harasses the couple in the dead of night.
After being accepted into only one of the festivals that he entered it in, Peli was encouraged by Screamfest founder Rachel Belofsky to send it in to popular horror site Dread Central who became the first supporters to get behind the film. This sparked the first wave of online interest in seeing Paranormal Activity, with horror fans bombarding Peli demanding to know when they will get the chance to see it. "It quickly became apparent the community was really embracing the movie," Peli said. "People were blogging wildly, asking our little website how they could see the film. And I didn't have an answer."
The answer came when producer Steven Schneider caught the film as part of the line-up at Utah's Sundance grungier alternative, the Slamdance Film Festival. After writing a collection of books about the horror genre, Schneider had become a respected figure among studios for discovering new talent. When he spotted Paranormal Activity, he knew there was something about the film, and its idea that it purported to be ‘real footage,' would resonate with audiences. "What really hooked me was that first night scene, after Micah puts his camera on a tripod," Schneider remarked. "We've seen a lot of horror movies with gyrating, hand-held camerawork, so that static shot seemed almost subversive. I could tell the filmmaker intuitively knew how to build suspense."
Schneider shared the film with producer Jason Blum whose company was being housed by Paramount and the rest, it seems, is history.
Well, almost. Despite audience popularity and favourable responses from the big studios, the film didn't get picked up for distribution after its appearance at Slamdance. Talks were underway about bigger budget remakes, Peli was voted as one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 new faces of independent film, and Hollywood felt the effects of a worldwide economic meltdown. Paramount eventually picked up the rights for a US release, and then decided to back the film with a clever marketing campaign, to rival that of the ‘true story' of The Blair Witch Project and Paramount's own epic viral push for J.J Abrams' Cloverfield. The central idea with the Paranormal Activity campaign was adding a ‘Demand Me' widget on Facebook and the film's website. If the film was ‘demanded' by more than 1,000,000 people, it would get an American release.
The clever ploy worked, and the film screened across America on its opening weekend as the fifth highest grossing feature, just behind huge Hollywood releases such as Couples Retreat, Zombieland, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and Toy Story 3-D, before gaining momentum and staying in the top 5 for weeks to come.
Does this mean that independent filmmaking is the way forward? Can we look forward to more and more films made on shoestring budgets? Increasingly, inexpensive cameras and easy to use video editing software makes it more likely that wannabe filmmakers will have the opportunity to make their mark on the industry. An original idea and creative execution is all that's needed. With the independent arms of the bigger studios shutting down in the wake of the financial crisis, the market would seem to be open for what is, essentially, home movie filmmakers, to offer an alternative to the big budget Hollywood remakes that are flooding the cinemas.
For Peli, all he wanted to do was make his first film, one that would hopefully stand out against the rest. "One of the things I wanted to do was create something that people could say defined horror for their generation, the way after Psycho people said they would never take another shower... I figured, well, sleeping at home is something you can't really avoid. So if I can make people scared of being at home, Paranormal Activity might do something."
Paranormal Activity is screaming into Australian cinemas on December 3, 2009.