Paranormal Activity Is Back After Four Years: A Bold Rebirth from The Conjuring and Insidious Creator James Wan — Do Not See It Alone
After scraping by on a $15,000 shoestring for their first movie, the team is upping the spend on the follow-up.
Paranormal Activity is getting pulled out of storage and tuned up again. The new project is being pitched as a 'rebirth' of the franchise, with James Wan - yes, the guy behind The Conjuring universe - producing. THR says this comes nearly two years after Wan's Atomic Monster merged with Blumhouse, which is the house that Paranormal built. Paramount is back in the mix to produce, distribute, and co-finance. And in a very welcome full-circle move, original writer-director Oren Peli is on board to produce the new, still-untitled movie.
What we know so far
- It is a new, untitled Paranormal Activity being framed as a 'rebirth' of the series.
- Producers include James Wan and Oren Peli, alongside Blumhouse after its merger with Wan's Atomic Monster.
- Paramount will produce, distribute, and co-finance.
- No plot details yet, and it is unclear if this will connect to any existing entry.
- Jason Blum says the focus is squarely on scares, and jokes they can spend more than the original movie's $15,000 budget this time.
The pitch, straight from them
'I've been a huge admirer of Paranormal Activity since the brilliant first movie, with its creeping slow burn and subtle ability to make the unseen terrifying,' said Wan. 'I'm looking forward to expanding on its legacy and helping shape the next evolution of this scary found-footage franchise.'
'Diving in with James for this exciting rebirth of the franchise that started it all for Blumhouse is exactly what we dreamed of when we merged with Atomic Monster,' said Jason Blum. 'I'll be actively involved with him to introduce this new chapter. Thankfully, we're able to spend a little more than the $15,000 we had on the first movie, but one thing will remain the same - do not see it alone.'
Why this is a big swing
Peli's 2007 original did not explode until Paramount scooped it up and rolled it out wide in 2009. After that, it was everywhere: the $15,000 microbudget turned into roughly $194 million worldwide, and the movie became a high-water mark for low-fi, found-footage dread. The success spun out six sequels that made money even as reviews see-sawed, plus a bunch of side projects you might have missed: a comic, several video games, a stage play, a podcast, a documentary, and a Japan-only spinoff called Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night.
What this 'rebirth' probably means
Calling it a rebirth suggests a fresh start rather than a numbered sequel, but they are keeping the specifics quiet. With Wan and Blum both hands-on and Peli back in the fold, the read is that they want to get back to what worked: minimalism, tension, and the stuff you do not see. Paramount stepping back in to produce, distribute, and co-finance tells you the studio is treating this as a real play, not a one-off experiment. More as it develops.