While buzz is starting to build for the low budget haunted house/demon possession independent film Paranormal Activity, the odds of anyone actually getting to see the film seem surprisingly low. The film is getting an incredibly limited release on Thursday September 24th, with midnight screenings at 13 different theatres.

But so far that is it in terms of theatrical release. The studio (Paramount here in the US) is trying to increase demand for the film by having a competition hosted by Eventful, where fans demand the release in their local markets with a rather vague promise of “When your city gets enough demands, you WILL be the first to experience the terror!” Yet no mention of just how many demands are required to get a screening.

Knowing from experience what I do about free screenings, you’ll need something in the neighborhood of 1000 demands to convince a theatre to devote a 200 seat auditorium to a screening. And, as of this moment, not a single city has reached that magical number, though LA seems like it will eventually make it. It doesn’t seem very smart to make promises, no matter how vague, to their fanbase only to not be able to live up to them.

Of course we then have the new trailer, which incorporates audience reactions while showing moments from the film, which makes the entire thing look incredibly cheesy to me. The original trailer looks better, and is far more effective, and in the new trailer it is readily apparent they’ve cleaned up the images to make the picture look glossier and thus have more appeal to mainstream audiences. Whether or not the actual product has been cleaned up I have no idea, but the disconnect is now evident. Then you have the previous plans to remake the film with original director Oren Peli helming the remake, and you can’t help but wonder if they simply re-shot the whole film with better equipment due to the stark contrast in the visuals of the two trailers. It has taken two years to release this film after all.

And finally, we have the film’s rumored new endings. I say endings, because word is that there are as many as three endings floating out there in the ether that have been screened for audiences. While I know what two of them are, I haven’t heard anything specific about the latest ending, other than it is the worst of he bunch, which is probably why Paramount chose it.

At this point I have little hope of ever seeing this film in the theatres, which is a shame as the film certainly seems to have as good a chance as any of being a modern horror film that is actually scary, or God forbid, horrifying. But I will be sure to check it out once it eventually hits DVD, and here’s to hoping the film lives up to its rather strange, but intriguing, hype.

Paranormal Activity Official Site

For those interested I have both trailers after he break.

Tags: demon, director, DVD, film, Horror, horror film, Independent, independent film, midnight screening, movie, Oren Peli, Paramount Pictures, Paranormal Activity, Remake, theatrical release, trailer, Trailers

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Editorials, Movies, Previews, Screenings, Trailers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.