The Producer Of Paranormal Activity Wants To End The Franchise For One Reason
It looks like one person responsible for the Paranormal Activity franchise wants to see it come to an end soon.
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When Paranormal Activity was released in 2007, it kicked off a franchise that has so far encompassed seven films with an eighth installment on the way. However, despite the franchise’s staying power, franchise producer Jason Blum wants to bring it to an end. The reason, as MovieWeb understands it, was due to the poor quality of the seventh film, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin.
MovieWeb cites an interview Jason Blum had with Variety, where amongst other things, like discussing the recent cancellation of Batgirl, the Blumhouse Productions CEO revealed that he thinks the Paranormal Activity franchise has run its course; “It has been enough already. That last ‘Paranormal Activity’ movie was terrible.” Blum is referring to the aforementioned Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, which was released in 2021 on Paramount+ and was received as harshly by critics as it was by Blum, scoring just 31% on Rotten Tomatoes.
There’s just one more movie in the Paranormal Activity franchise set for release before Jason Blum can nip the horror saga in the bud. Paranormal Activity: The Other Side will be released at some point in 2023, writer-director of 2007’s Paranormal Activity Oren Peli is back in the fold for the eighth installment so hopefully the franchise can go out with similar success to how it started. The first film in the franchise went down a hit with critics and grossed almost $200 million worldwide at the box office on an alleged micro-budget of just $15000. Minimal investment with huge profits helped spawn a franchise that has never quite reached the heights of the original film in the found footage horror series.
The small budget/high return formula of the Paranormal Activity franchise is something Jason Blum says Blumhouse Productions aims for with all of its products. In the interview with Variety, he likens the Blumhouse approach to French Auteurism, granting directors minimal budgets, but offering up creative freedom in return. “We borrowed the French auteur system and applied it to very commercial filmmaking. We give them more control than they typically get in Hollywood, but they have to give us something as well: a commitment to make movies inexpensively.”
So what next for Blumhouse productions? Is there a franchise set to fill the void that will be left by the faltering Paranormal Activity set of horror films once Paranormal Activity: The Other Side brings the curtain down on the scariest found footage series in recent memory? The answer to that question is yes, with backing from Universal, Blumhouse Productions are producing a trilogy of films that serve as a direct follow-up to the scariest film of all time, The Exorcist.
The first installment of the new trilogy is slated for release in October next year and will see the return of actress Ellen Burstyn, who portrayed Chris MacNeil in the 1973 original. Burstyn will be joined by Leslie Odom Jr in the new horror sequel, which is being directed by David Gordon Green. Gordon Green has recently been responsible for resurrecting another beloved horror franchise for Blumhouse, bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back for a trio of Halloween films. The third film, Halloween Ends making its bow on October 14th this year. Jason Blum will be hopeful that the new Exorcist trilogy starts off as strong as the Paranormal Activity franchise, but will be even more hopeful it doesn’t end the same way.
