Paranormal Activity as a Independent Film- Analysed

Below is a essay created for the American Independent Cinema Course in University, where we were tasked to formulate a argument explaining why a chosen film was a independent film, in narrative content, budget and marketing. Paranormal Activity was the chosen film for this exploration into independent cinema, and this essay received 76/100.

The term Indie is commonly defined as films that, ‘are not of the Hollywood studios and the megaplexes where they screen,’ (Newman 2011:2) and hold their value when, ‘located in difference, resistance, opposition- in the virtue of alternative representations.’ (2011:2) Released in 2009, Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009) does not follow these particular definitions of the indie film from Michael Z. Newman. The film was made for a small budget, as an independent feature, but was bought by the large studio Paramount Pictures after festival success. The film clearly showcases a level of alternative representation from the Hollywood films however, through a low budget, featuring very few actors and going against Hollywood conventions. This essay will argue that this film can still be defined as an independent feature, just with a studio backing, that offers an alternative to Hollywood cinema. Following a young couple, Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherson), the film follows them as they are haunted in their home, resorting to using cameras to capture the hauntings, resulting in the found footage that the police find.

Paranormal Activity offers an alternative to Hollywood cinema because of its placement as being ‘beneath the Hollywood style’, a term from Geoff King (2005:2) which defines the film text that is less expressive compared to the studio-mandated look of the Hollywood style. The found footage genre begun properly with The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999) so it wasn’t anything new, but Paranormal Activity is arguably the most important found footage film, inspiring various filmmakers to create their own take on the style in the years after, with Screen Rant arguing that ‘Paranormal Activity directly led to found footage becoming the biggest movie trend for years.’ (Curran 2021) The camera quality is incredibly low in the film, giving off an aura of authenticity with the low-level mic audio as well to give off the sense what your watching is homemade camera footage, displaying the low budget that was common for independent cinema. Website aggregate Box Office Mojo records that the movie cost only $15,00 to make, with an extra $200,000 being spent when Paramount stepped in to shoot a new ending.(Paranormal Activity - Box Office Mojo) It was a cheap movie to make and was a box office success, being estimated to have made $193,355,800 across its theatrical run. Writer Stephen Galloway of the Hollywood Reporter states even that, ‘if you think of profit purely as a ratio production cost to box office gross, 1999’s The Blair Witch Project and 2007’s Paranormal Activity run neck and neck,’ (Galloway 2020) as two of the most profitable films and makes the calculation that the film made the studio, ‘a theatrical profit of around $78 million.’ (Galloway 2020) Including a statement from Los Angeles Times writer, Ben Fritz, who states when referring to Paramount, ‘the studio acquired the movie for just $300,000 and has spent less than $10 million on marketing.’ (Fritz 2009) The cheap nature of the production allowed for it to make a big profit, making it the blueprint for many films, cheap budgets would commonly equal a large return of investment.

The film continues to offer an alternative to mainstream Hollywood through its narrative. A common part of independent filmmaking is that it, ‘can depart from the conventions that characterize mainstream filmmaking,’ (Tzioumakis 2006:8) and Paranormal Activity does this through its simple narrative. The film is contained to just one house, with only a few characters and has a slow pace. Unlike many mainstream horror films, the movie is devoid of jump scares until the end, using the unseen to generate terror instead, all building up to one massive scare in the climax. There’s a lack of special effects in the film, with only the climax of the film featuring heavy effects, the rest of the scares are through practical effects, footprints in sand for example. It is the complete opposite of a film like The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013) a Hollywood film that relies on effects for its scares and for its ghostly antagonists. Another way that the narrative steers away from the Hollywood tropes is through disregarding, ‘generic conventions such as the happy ending.’ (Tzioumakis 2017:269) Typical Hollywood films feature a conclusive ending, ending the character’s journeys in a satisfactory way that ties up all loose threads and gives them a happy ending. Paranormal Activity ends in the opposite way however, with an open ending. Micah is killed by a possessed Katie, the movie ending stating her whereabouts are unknown, an ending that is certainly inconclusive.

Figure 1: promotional images for Paranormal Activity

Another way that Paranormal Activity has a clear showing as being an alternative for Hollywood cinema is through its marketing, there was a clear difference in how cheap the marketing was for the studio. Rather than creating various trailers and paying to have advertisements like mainstream cinema, the film instead relied on word of mouth, advertising itself on the posters with the words ‘Demand It’ as seen in Figure 1, making viewers demand for the film to come to them. The movie marketed itself by, ‘utilising an online campaign that encouraged moviegoers to demand via eventful.com that the movie play in their local town,’ as Tzioumakis notes. (2017:287) This marketing tactic, requesting 1,000,000 demands for the film to be released worldwide, saw the film hitting that target on 10th October 2009. This marketing was a success, leading the film to be one of the most profitable films of all time, excluding inflation, and spawned many sequels that followed the model of the first film. The movie was also a critical success, critics pointing out that, ‘the seemingly homemade footage rang true for audiences, and the untidy endings sustained the frightening effect.’ (Hahner, Varda and Wilson 2013:362) Famed critic Roger Ebert even gave the movie 4.5 stars out of five, calling it, ‘an ingenious little horror film.’ (Ebert 2009)

It is clear to see that Paranormal Activity offers an alternative to mainstream Hollywood cinema, through how it breaks the conventions of Hollywood cinema and the horror genre, through its character focused narrative rather than plot focused and its lack of special effects. Its marketing reflects the alternative cinema as well, relying on word of mouth and online websites rather than expansive advertising. All of this alternative marketing and conventions led to the film becoming successful, estimated to gross $193,355,800 and being regarded as one of the most profitable films of all time, being influential enough to spawn a franchise, with a sequel releasing the following year known as Paranormal Activity 2. (Tod Williams, 2010)

Bibliography:

CURRAN, B. 2021. ‘Why Paranormal Activity Kickstarted the Found Footage Craze’ [online]. Available from: Why Paranormal Activity Kickstarted The Found Footage Craze (screenrant.com) (Accessed 3rd January 2023)

EBERT, R.2009. ‘Paranormal Activity movie review (2009)/Roger Ebert’ [online]. Available from: What Is the Most Profitable Movie Ever? – The Hollywood Reporter (Accessed 20th December 2022)

FRITZ, B. 2009. ‘Paramount may produce Paranormal Activity sequel’ [online]. Available from: Paramount may produce 'Paranormal Activity' sequel - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) (Accessed 20th December 2022)

GALLOWAY, S.2020. ‘What is the Most Profitable Movie Ever?’ [online]. Available from: What Is the Most Profitable Movie Ever? – The Hollywood Reporter (Accessed 20th December 2022)

KING, G 2005, American Independent Cinema, I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, London p.2

LESLIE A. HAHNER, SCOTT J. VARDA and NATHAN A. WILSON 2013 “Paranormal Activity and the Horror of Abject Consumption,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 30(5), pp. 362–376.

MENDELSOHN S.2009 ‘Paranormal Activity’ [online]. Available from: Paranormal Activity - Box Office Mojo (Accessed 20th December 2022)

NEWMAN, M. Z. (2011) Indie: an american film culture. New York: Columbia University Press

PELI, 0. 2007. Paranormal Activity Poster {online image]. Available from: http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3159704/remember-this-dreamworks-was-to-remake-oren-pelis-paranormal-activity-evidence-of-a-haunting/ [Accessed 15th December 2022]

PELI, O.2007. Paranormal Activity Marketing Campaign [online image]. Available from: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/paranormalactivity/ [Accessed 15th December 2022]

TZIOUMAKIS, Y 2006, American Independent Cinema: An Introduction, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

TZIOUMAKIS, Y 2017, American Independent Cinema: Second Edition, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

Filmography:

Paranormal Activity (film). 2009. OREN PELI dir. United States: Blumhouse Productions

Paranormal Activity 2 (film). 2010. TOD WILLIAMS dir. United States: Blumhouse Productions

The Blair Witch Project (film). 1999. DANIEL MYRICK AND EDUARDO SANCHEZ dir. United States: Haxan Films

The Conjuring (film). 2013. JAMES WAN dir. United States: New Line Cinema