Will Paranormal Activity be the next Saw Franchise?

A few weeks ago, I saw the teaser trailer for paranormal activity 3(July 24th or so) and it didn't disappoint. This looks to be a prequel based off the two other films. to me, it looks like it's going to be mind blowing. For a trilogy that started out with only $15,000 attached to the project, paramount is doing very well with the film. My concern is, is this going to be the "Saw syndrome?"

I literally just made that up as I was typing the article. My definition of the "Saw syndrome" is when a film such as Saw makes a lot of money at the box office, the bigwigs will continue to make sequels until it absolutely can't make any more money. I'm afraid that the paranormal activity films are heading this way. The first paranormal film made $193,298,009 (worldwide) and the second film made $169,418,966 with a total of $362,716,975. This doesn't include rentals or sales. Paranormal Activity 3 will average around $181,358,488 So how many sequels will this franchise stretch out until it becomes an epic fail? My guess is four movies.

Anyone who doesn't know about this film (I'm sure it's only a few), needs to see it. This is a good old fashion, supernatural horror film that will leave you scared for weeks after you seen it. It is a documentary type/found footage type of film like the Blair Witch Project, but five times better. I seen this film when I was 28 years old and it scared the shit out of me. I am a big horror fan. This was the best horror film I've seen in many years. The final scene of the movie made my heart jump down to my ass. I thought I was going to get chest pains, that is how bad it was. The movie is about a young couple who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their house. Katie, who is half home owner of the house is being haunted by a presence she claimed that followed her as a child. The other half owner, Micha (Katie's boyfriend) sets up a camcorder in their bedroom and will record footage in the middle of the night and check it the next day. They do this for twenty one nights. The first few nights, they see minimal activity that takes place so they bring over a psychic at the house. She tells the couple they are being haunted by a demon that will feed off their negative energy. The psychic tells her don't provoke the demon and recommends they call a demonologist.

Throughout the film Mich and Katie have arguments about the events that take place at night because Katie feels they need to hire a professional while Mich thinks it's just a big joke. When the film starts to get closer to 21 nights than the supernatural stuff starts to get worse. We see minor things happen such as bedroom doors moving by themselves, sounds of footsteps to major things like a ghost whispering in Katie's ear. Mich finally provokes the demon causing the events to get worse such as loud thuds and screeches, chandeliers moving, loud noises that appear to have something or someone get in their bedroom. After that, Mich agrees to see a demonologist. The demonologist sense something so dread that he had to leave and refuse to help the couple. To make a long story short, things go from bad to worse for this loving couple. The ending of the film will have you scared out of your wits, but begging you for more. What I love more than anything about this film it has an alternate ending. The alternate ending is excellent! This film was released nation wide on October 16, 2009

Paranormal Activity 2 was released a year later on October 21, 2011 which was somewhat of a prequel if you wanna call it. This took place two months before the event of the first film. The way the film starts out, it looks like the main characters Kristi and Dan got burglarized. Nothing seems to be missing except a necklace Kristi's sister gave her (Which is Katie from the first film). Dan installs security cameras throughout the house. Just like the first film they start to hear noises that happen, which was noticed by Dan's daughter, Ali. Other things start to happen which gets the nanny's attention. The family nanny starts to get nervous and tries to cleanse the house to make the evil spirits leave. This act causes her to get fired by Dan. As each night passes by, other supernatural activity happens that makes things worse. We see scenes such as Ouija board session, Shadows that come underneath the basement, A door slamming causing Ali to be locked outside for several hours.

Dan is hard headed like Mich. He refuses to believe that the house is haunted and goes about his normal everyday life. Things start to happen to Kristi that makes Ali worried about her safety. Ali begs her dad to watch the security tapes. Dan watches the footage and he is so freaked out he calls the nanny back he previously fired. The nanny convinces Dan to perform an exorcism on Kristi because she claims she is possessed. (due to super natural events that happened to her). We get a few bone chilling scenes, but Kristi finally wakes up from the exorcism.

We get the final scene of the movie that fast forwards to three weeks later and it ties everything up from this film and the first film. Paranormal Activity 2's ending isn't as good as the first film, but it will give you a good scare. Overall, this film is the same as the first film except with a different perspective with different characters. The only thing that actually was eerie is the scenes they used with the baby and the dog.

We move on to Paranormal Activity 3. We don't know too much about the film, but it's pretty obvious that this will be another prequel that focuses on Kristi and Katie as children and how they summoned the evil, supernatural, demonic spirit.

This film will have another October release date (October 21, 2011 to be exact). I know the film will bring in more money for Paramount and it will meet the expectation of the two films or better. I hope this is the conclusion of the trilogy and they finally let the film rest in peace. It's nice to see a sequel to a hit movie every now and than, but this movie should of ended with the first film. I really hope Paramount doesn't beat this thing to death like the Saw franchise did. It is so easy to take a great, original film and turn it to shit if you keep spoon feeding it to everyone over and over again. If you are like me after the making of Saw 4, you would of thought it was a fantastic series if left alone. Ask me how I feel about the Saw Franchise now than I would reply "it was a good idea that turned to shit at the very end."