In 2007 a low-budget supernatural thriller film was released that would seemingly come and go without making much noise in Hollywood. This film was Paranormal Activity, a story about a haunted home shot from the perspective of a personal video camera similarly to the classic thriller Blair Witch Project. Though Paramount Pictures put their best effort into marketing the movieprior to it’s release date, the sentiment amongst audiences was relatively lukewarm at the offset as Hollywood was more interested in action films that employed a lot of special effects at the time. Now, over a decade later, Paramount is teaming up with production company Blumhouse Productions to release what will be the 7th installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise and releasing it through their in-house streaming platform, Paramount+.
Paranormal Activity was the first film released by Blumhouse Productions all those years ago, spending just a mere $15,000 to produce the film. Since then, the company has released a boatload of films that includes the Insidious franchise, The Purge franchise and academy award winner Get Out, establishing their position firmly in Hollywood and theaters around the globe. It makes sense why they would not want to abandon the one that started it all, especially since the original $15,000 investment translated to nearly $200 million in box office receipts. The upcoming 7th installment will be written by Christopher Landon, who wrote the second, third and fourth installment of the franchise, and directed by William Eubank, and is actually set to serve as a prequel to the franchise.
While Paramount does benefit from having their own in-house streaming service to release the film, the film’s original release date of this upcoming March 19th has already been delayed until the following March. Given how difficult to predict where the world may be next March in the current climate, Paramount isn’t even going to consider a theatrical release and going to distribute the film to subscribers themselves. Landon and Eubank will also be joined by longtime Blumhouse producers who have been working on the franchise since it’s inception, Jason Blum and Oren Peli. Fans can look forward to the films release on March 4th, 2022.
