In the past few years, a number of horror franchises/properties have been creeping out of their dusty closets and having a reigning day in the sun, from Stephen King’s IT to the Halloween films. It’s a good time to be a fan of the genre, and Blumhouse Studios has been a leader in contributing to the current horror resurgence. Producer Jason Blum is now digging up an old favorite with a seventh Paranormal Activity movie officially moving forward with a writer and director.
Last year, Jason Blum hinted at another Paranormal Activity movie, but it’s now taken a big step forward. Happy Death Day and Freaky writer Chris Landon is returning to the franchise to write the script for a Paranormal Activity reboot, and Underwater director Will Eubank has signed on to helm the project, per THR. The upcoming installment is said to be an “unexpected retooling” of the series that first became a runaway hit with Oren Peli’s original in 2007.
Plot details haven't been released, but the seventh Paranormal Activity movie is said to continue the franchise’s model of using “found footage” for clever jump scares. Chris Landon wrote the screenplays to four prior Paranormal Activity movies, so one would argue there’s no better person for the job. Since walking away from the series, Landon has also broken out with some original ideas of his own in the form of the comedic slashers Happy Death Day 1 & 2, along with last year’s bloody body-swap bath Freaky.
It’ll be exciting to see what Chris Landon has up his sleeve for the franchise after getting some distance from it. But if you’ve been following closely about what’s coming next for Paranormal Activity you already knew Landon was involved. The latest development is the hiring of Will Eubank, who enlisted Twilight’s Kristen Stewart last year for Underwater, an Alien-esque sci-fi thriller in the depths of the ocean instead of space.
Underwater was a flop commercially when it came out in January 2020, but many who did check it out gave it praise. Eubank also co-wrote and directed 2014’s The Signal, a tense sci-fi movie that is similarly claustrophobic. Considering both filmmakers' recent projects, we have to wonder if the latest take on Paranormal Activity will opt for a science fiction bent instead of centering on the usual family-in-a-house-of-demons plotline for which the franchise has become well known.
It will also be interesting to learn how the filmmakers decide to freshen up the found footage aspect of this new Paranormal Activity reboot. When the original movie came out, the idea was more attractive because mobile phone recording was becoming more popular. In recent few years, we’ve seen a number of found footage movies such as Host and Unfriended, taking note of home webcams instead.
The next Paranormal Activity movie is currently expected to come out about a year from now on March 4, 2022.
