Making of 'Paranormal' inspired by filmmaker's move to San Diego
Oren Peli is Red Bull in human form. His movie, "Paranormal Activity," is causing more sleepless nights that the Steelers in overtime on "Monday Night Football."
Even adults who can doze after seeing the haunted house film are suddenly suspicious of creaky floorboards, stray shudders or noises, or any door that swings open or closed without benefit of human hand or window breeze.
"Paranormal Activity," accurately being called the next "Blair Witch Project," is about a young California couple trying to document the evil spirits in their home.
Unlike "The Amityville Horror" or "The Haunting in Connecticut," both inspired by supposedly true stories, this one is a figment of Peli's imagination and the demonic presence doesn't come with the house like a cracked foundation.
The frightening force has been shadowing the woman since she was a child; if she moves, it finds her and it's more ferocious and frightening than ever. She is a college student named Katie, who lives with her day trader-boyfriend Micah, in suburban San Diego.
Peli found his leads the traditional way with casting calls and hired Katie Featherston as Katie and Micah Sloat as Micah. The filmmaker used his own San Diego house as the movie's main (and only) location during a single week of shooting in 2006.
"We usually film during the night and, in the morning, sleep," although there wasn't much snoozing given all the editing and reviewing of footage he needed to do. Peli then spent a year winnowing the nearly 70 hours he amassed.
Asked if anything freaky happened, as famously occurred during "The Exorcist," Peli said in a recent phone call. "Actually, no. I wish it did, it would have been a good story."
An even better story, however, is how a movie made for roughly $15,000 ("We never actually had an accurate accounting," he says, but that's in the ballpark) has made $33.7 million and it's not even Halloween.
This past weekend alone, it raked in $20 million, making it the No. 3 movie and just behind the second-place "Law Abiding Citizen" with Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler.
Peli, a native of Israel who moved to the States 19 years ago, says he once was spooked by "anything that had to do with ghosts, demons, possessions, since I watched 'Exorcist' as a kid. It totally, totally freaked me out."
In fact, he only made it halfway through "The Exorcist," but it was enough to mess him up. Before making "Paranormal," he did a lot of research about the difference between ghosts and demons and some of that turns up in the movie.
It had been the move to his San Diego home that inspired Peli. "I never lived in a single detached family home," he said, so he was conscious of every noise at night, particularly of the house settling and items slipping from shelves.
That led to thinking how a video camera might document the source of the sounds, which led to the movie. He credits "This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Blair Witch Project" as influencing a movie that purports to be true but isn't.
"Blair Witch," released in '99, was about three student filmmakers who disappeared in October 1994 while shooting a documentary about the Blair Witch in the Maryland woods.
Although some early moviegoers were convinced they were watching a real documentary, it was a grand and lucrative put-on. The faux frightfest was made for a paltry $35,000, Artisan Entertainment bought the rights for $1 million, and the movie took in $130 million at the box office and more on DVD. DreamWorks bought "Paranormal" for a reported $350,000.
Peli calls comparisons a compliment, adding, "Hopefully we will have the same success, and so we're not shying away from it."
Both "Blair Witch" and "Open Water," a low-budget 2004 summer sensation about scuba-diving vacationers left behind in shark-infested waters, inspired Peli, who previously worked in video game programming. They proved that a limited budget, video camera and cool idea could allow a first-time filmmaker to give it a shot.
Peli talked with some of the "Blair Witch" veterans and they told him to "brace yourself."
The firestorm of fan and media interest has been overwhelming ever since DreamWorks bought the rights and Paramount eventually opted to release it instead of remaking it (although Peli juiced the ending, which almost guarantees goose bumps).
In late September, Paramount opened the R-rated "Paranormal" in select college towns with midnight screenings and has been widening the net each week, with even more theaters to carry it this Friday.
"That was Paramount. They figured it would be a good fan base -- younger kids who would then go and spread the word on the Internet if they like the movie," Peli said.
The Web has been crucial to the success, since it provided a platform for users to demand the movie play in their cities while others tweeted and fretted on Facebook. Even Steven Spielberg added to the legend and lore.
A story in the Los Angeles Times reported that Spielberg was certain his copy was haunted.
The Times wrote: "As the story goes, Spielberg had taken a 'Paranormal Activity' DVD to his Pacific Palisades estate, and not long after he watched it, the door to his empty bedroom inexplicably locked from the inside, forcing him to summon a locksmith."
If that weren't enough, he returned the movie to DreamWorks in a garbage bag. "I heard the story, not directly from him," but from other studio executives a couple of days later, Peli said when asked about it.
The moral of the story is it can be better to be in an impersonal theater in the company of quaking strangers than in your own palatial home, even if you can summon a locksmith. Or an exorcist. Or a marketing genius.
I'll just wait until the DVD comes out- things on my TV don't cause motion sickness for me.
