Paranormal Activity rewrote the book on how found-footage horror movies are made, but things might have been very different if the first film's original ending stayed put.
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00:00 "Paranormal Activity" rewrote the book on how found-footage horror movies are made.
00:05 But things might have been very different if the first film's original ending stayed
00:08 put.
00:09 The ending of "Paranormal Activity" that most people are familiar with is the one that
00:12 was included during the film's wide release.
00:15 On the second-to-last night of the story, the character Katie is pulled from her bed
00:19 by seemingly nothing.
00:20 As Katie's screams echo throughout the hall, Mika rushes to save her.
00:24 When attempting to see if she's all right after her attack, Mika notices a large bite
00:28 mark on her back, even though she insists she's all right.
00:32 But the following night proves this is far from true.
00:35 On the final recorded night, Katie wakes up in a trance.
00:38 After staring at a sleeping Mika for about two hours before going downstairs, Katie lets
00:43 out a blood-curdling scream.
00:45 When Mika rushes to her aid, he lets out a yell and presumably falls to the ground.
00:49 In the film's most memorable moment, we sit in silence for nearly a full minute before
00:54 Katie flings Mika into the camera, knocking it over.
00:57 She hovers over him before lunging at the camera herself, showing audiences that she
01:01 has indeed been possessed by the demon that's been haunting them.
01:05 A closing text confirms that Mika's body was found three days later and that Katie has
01:10 disappeared.
01:11 With this ending, the filmmakers had an open hook for potential sequels.
01:14 And sequels there were.
01:16 And while this ending is an effective closer which gives us an incredible jolt, the person
01:20 truly responsible for turning this indie horror film into a long-running franchise is not
01:25 the film's writer and director, Oren Peli, but the legendary Steven Spielberg, who wasn't
01:30 a fan of the original ending.
01:32 Spielberg convinced Paramount to provide Peli with funds to create another ending before
01:36 release.
01:37 And if Paranormal Activity had retained any of its other alternative endings, we would
01:41 be talking about this film very differently.
01:44 There are essentially three alternate finales, only two of which were actually filmed.
01:49 According to Entertainment Weekly, the unfilmed ending would have seen Katie picking up the
01:53 camera and bashing in Mika's face.
01:55 It would have made for an abrupt and gory conclusion, one that arguably doesn't fit
01:59 with the film's minimalist tone.
02:02 The second alternative ending, which is what Spielberg saw, sees Katie come upstairs after
02:06 presumably killing Mika.
02:08 She sits beside the bed, cradling herself back and forth into the next day.
02:12 You can hear her friend Amber coming to check in on them, only to scream in horror at the
02:16 discovery of Mika's body.
02:19 "Run, Mika!"
02:21 "Mika!"
02:23 About a half hour later, two police officers enter the home and find Katie.
02:28 She wakes from her disoriented trance, but due to her approaching them with a bloodied
02:32 knife, she's predictably shot dead.
02:34 This sad conclusion doesn't give Katie the autonomy to explain what happened, and is
02:38 along the lines of what might be expected while watching actual disturbing home footage.
02:43 However, the third alternative ending is perhaps the most chilling.
02:47 After Mika is stabbed downstairs, we hear Katie's footsteps as she climbs the stairs.
02:52 Once she enters the room, she then stands in front of the camera and, with a bone-chilling
02:56 smile, slits her throat with her knife.
02:59 The silence afterwards is unsettling, as it sinks in that this demon only wanted to violate
03:04 this couple's life for fun before disposing of them like a kid who's become bored of
03:08 their Christmas toys.
03:10 Not only do these different paths provide different conclusions to Paranormal Activity
03:13 as a film, but their existence fundamentally alters the core mythology at the heart of
03:18 what would become the Paranormal Activity franchise.
03:21 The Paranormal Activity series launched with no overarching plan to build up to something
03:25 greater — only to keep audiences coming back for more.
03:29 In the documentary Unknown Dimension, which chronicles the history and making of the Paranormal
03:34 Activity series, the creative teams for the sequels admit that each movie was written
03:38 during filming, with no predestined plan as to how the franchise would ultimately end.
03:43 The fact that Paranormal Activity was able to keep things running for as long as it did
03:46 is impressive, despite falling flat in its face with an attempt at 3D with Paranormal
03:51 Activity The Ghost Dimension.
03:54 Paranormal Activity 2 came as a surprise due to its slow reveal as a prequel, focused on
03:59 Katie's sister Christy and her family, before showing what happened to Katie after the events
04:03 of the first film.
04:05 Paranormal Activity 3 goes all the way back to 1988, when the hauntings first began during
04:10 Katie and Christy's childhood.
04:12 The basic gist of the first trilogy is that Katie and Christy were unknowingly inducted
04:16 into a cult by their grandmother, who offered them to the entity Toby at a young age, to
04:21 provide him with a male heir to inhabit.
04:23 In the second film, Christy gives birth to Hunter, the first male born into the family
04:28 in ages.
04:29 Had Paranormal Activity been a one-and-done experience, the most we would have gathered
04:33 is that this entity would have been targeting Katie alone.
04:36 But the second film reveals that Christy giving birth to Hunter makes her the focus of the
04:41 demonic haunting, and the only way to get rid of Toby was to pass it to Katie, setting
04:45 the first Paranormal Activity into motion.
04:48 But her choice doesn't ultimately matter when the possessed Katie comes back, kills
04:52 Christy and her husband, and leaves with Hunter.
04:55 As the sequels move away from solely focusing on Katie's immediate family, Katie's role
05:00 as the series' throughline gets increasingly more convoluted.
05:04 While Paranormal Activity 4's attempt to switch a roo with Hunter suffers from poor
05:08 writing, Paranormal Activity The Marked Ones is where things get interesting, being the
05:12 entry that ends while introducing time travel.
05:15 The lead characters of The Marked Ones are attacked by cult members at Katie's grandmother's
05:19 home.
05:20 Scared for his life, the character Hector runs inside a closet and emerges in a completely
05:25 different location on the other side.
05:27 It doesn't take long before we realize that we're in Katie's house right before she
05:31 kills Mika.
05:32 For the first time, we get to see what happened downstairs on that fateful night.
05:36 "Excuse me, I need your help, please."
05:39 The ending to The Marked Ones implies that Katie "snapped" due to the sudden presence
05:43 of a stranger in her home in the middle of the night.
05:45 But we know Katie was possessed by Toby at this point, so we end up with the nods of
05:50 the first film that, while clever, doesn't entirely come together.
05:54 But introducing time travel comes with its own set of complications.
05:57 Paranormal Activity could have remained this singular piece of horror, but by dismissing
06:02 its other possible endings in favor of a loose end, it allowed subsequent films to try out
06:06 new ideas.
06:08 Some successful, some not.
06:10 [music]