All good things must come to an end, and it seems that Jason Blum from Blumhouse Productions agrees. At the Locarno Film Festival, Blum wasn’t shy when addressing the end of multiple franchises, and in the case of Paranormal Activity, the last entry’s poor performance.
The Paranormal Activity franchise has been one of the key building blocks of Blumhouse Productions. The company was founded in 2000 by Blum and Amy Israel, initially under the moniker Blum Israel Productions. However, after Israel left in 2002, the company rebranded as Blumhouse Productions.
The first Paranormal Activity movie was released in 2007 and with a meager budget of $15,000 raked in $193 million worldwide. Following on from that success, the company released Insidious and The Purge, two more properties that have gone on to become huge horror franchises. While at the Locarno Film Festival, where he is set to receive the Premio Raimondo Rezzonico for Best Independent Producer, Blum discussed the catalog of films under the company’s belt, and he wasn’t afraid to be blunt. Speaking to Variety about their cornerstone franchise, Blum said, “It’s been enough already, that last Paranormal Activity movie was terrible.”
The most recent entry in the series, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, was released in 2021 to less than positive reactions from critics and fans alike. The seventh film in the franchise, Next of Kin strayed far from the origins of the series by following a group of filmmakers' attempts to make a documentary about a small Amish community only to some terrifying secrets along the way. When discussing if the door was completely closed on the franchise, Blum stated, “With other things, you just have this feeling it’s time to put them to bed. It would come back if some director I love, like Scott Derrickson, said: ‘I have a great idea for a ‘Paranormal Activity’ movie. But it’s not something I want to do.”
Despite Next of Kin's negative reception, a sequel is in the works. Originally titled The Other Side but now renamed The 25th Frame, the sequel was originally set for an October 2022 release but has been pushed back to sometime in 2023. The film promises to follow a new group of friends as they move into the original house from the first installment of the series.
As for now, Blum is focused on the company’s re-imagining of The Exorcist. He said, “Hopefully, we will do the same thing with ‘The Exorcist’ that we did with ‘Halloween’–make it in a way that’s fresh and worth revisiting. And feels different enough so that people are happy we did it.”
The Paranormal Activity films are available to stream on Paramount Plus.
Source: Variety