PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

This week we begin a new franchise. We are talking about Paranormal Activity which is arguably the most successful series of the 2000 tens. From its humble beginnings as a tiny independent movie meant to be shown small audiences to a global phenomenon that raked in hundreds of millions of dollars this is the series that launched so many other found footage titles over the next decade for better or worse. Along with special guest Mary Beth McAndrews (Dread Central, Scarred For Life) your cohosts discuss how creator Oren Peli self-taught himself the basics of filmmaking and with a minimal cast and crew, made this supernatural chiller in his own home. We also dive into the themes present throughout the movie such as the toxic relationship between Katie & Micah that only makes the haunting worse, the way the film predicts our growing acceptance of constant surveillance, and the demonic as a microcosm of rampant consumerism and an economic system on the edge of collapse. All this, plus a debate over just what separates a classic found footage movie from hand held garbage.