Oren Peli’s DV chiller “Paranormal Activity” moved from freak accident to phenomenon over the weekend, grossing $22 million in its second weekend of wide release to land at the top of the box-office charts.
That’s an amazing accomplishment from any perspective, but in this case, there’s a side benefit: “Paranormal” split the horror audience, drawing eyeballs (and dollars) away from “Saw VI“, which had the weakest opening of its franchise, pulling just $14.8 million where all of the previous sequels have made around $30 million in their first three days.
I would really, really like this to indicate that audiences’ tastes in horror are finally shifting away from sado-porn and responding to the novelty of “Paranormal Activity” — which, whatever you may think of it, is decidedly not the latest instalment of an exhausted franchise.
I’m probably wrong — I’m never very good at thinking like the average moviegoer — but really, wouldn’t it be nice?
“I would really, really like this to indicate that audiences’ tastes in horror are finally shifting away from sado-porn and responding to the novelty of ‘Paranormal Activity’â€
Me too! I wasn’t as impressed by it as I’d hoped to be but it’s a huge improvement on the torture porn films which have dominated the horror landscape in recent years.
Me three. I saw it this weekend. Didn’t get under my skin as much as Blair Witch or Open Water but any movie that tries to creep me out has an advantage over one that just tries to gross me out.