Paranormal Activity

Ah, Paranormal Activity the little horror film that (hopefully) could. At this point, with cover stories on MSNBC, AOL, NPR, etc. many of you know about it, but have not seen it due to it's very limited release. As of today, it is on six screens with ten more added this weekend.

There is a more afoot at www.Eventful.com/ParanormalActivity where YOU can demand that it comes to your hometown and if they get one million requests (currently at 400,000) the movie will open nationwide.

I have seen it, making the trip to State College last weekend with questionable characters and I'm NOT going to spoil anything. This is one of those films every horror movie fan should see. There are comparisons to be made to the Blair Witch Project and other "found footage " movies, but this one is very well done.

All of this got me thinking, though. Paramount/Dreamworks, the distributors of Paranormal Activity, have been sitting on this film for over two years. Many studios fail miserably in releasing horror films either at the wrong time (August), the wrong way (PG-13) or against established properties (the Saw films).

The Saw movies have dominated Halloween weekend for the last five years with films of varying quality. Usually passable to not so good. Other studios have tried to compete directly or counter program against Saw, but all attempts have failed.

So far.

If Paranormal Activity was released cold against Saw VI, it would probably be dead on arrival. However, by doing this slow roll out, building the hype machine and THEN coincidentally getting just enough requests to release it nationwide the same weekend as Saw VI, it might just stand a chance. I for one am hoping it does.