Sometimes, a spookhouse is just a spookhouse. Creators of those Halloween haunted houses that spring up every year sometimes try to attach a story or characters to them, but that’s not the purpose of their existence. They’re here to give us some old-fashioned jolts: the kind that come when a guy in a mask leaps out of the shadows shrieking like a loon. We jump, we cry out, and we giggle at the relived realization that nothing bad actually happened. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The Paranormal Activity movies exist as unfiltered embodiments of that ethos. Just as certain comedies can be gauged solely on how often they make us laugh, so too does this found-footage horror series live and die by the amount of popcorn flung reflexively in the air. The first film raised that equation to near-art. The second tried to regurgitate rather than recreate and suffered accordingly. Now comes Paranormal Activity 3, a film that more or less rights the ship even as it extends the dubious premise of ongoing (and unnecessary) sequels. Hit the jump for my full review.

ABC’s intensely scary paranormal thriller The River follows the story of world famous wildlife expert and TV personality Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), host of the beloved series “The Undiscovered Country.” After Cole goes missing deep in the Amazon, his wife, Tess (Leslie Hope), and estranged son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson), decide to lead a rescue mission deep into the unexplored reaches of the Amazon River, where nature is cruel, magic is real and nothing is what it seems.

While at the TCA Winter Press Tour, executive producer Oren Peli (creator of Paranormal Activity) talked about how he ended up developing an idea for a TV show, the extent of Steven Spielberg’s involvement, the challenges of telling a season’s worth of story in only eight episodes, doing the episodes with a scare-of-the-week while also advancing the overall mystery, trying to create moments where you don’t know what’s going to happen because it’s the unexpected that’s scary, and that even though no one is safe, characters won’t be killed off just for the sake of killing them off. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

It didn’t claim the record for highest debut or the greatest attendance, but this year’s Super Bowl weekend still caught most box office watchers by surprise with two bigger-than-expected openings. Fox’s Chronicle was first with $22 million from 2,907 locations, but CBS Films’ The Woman in Black was right on its heels with $21 million from 2,855. That’s the first time that two titles have opened to over $20 million on a Super Bowl frame since… ever.

There is a lot Paranormal Activity grand maestro Oren Peli won’t talk about. He won’t talk about his long delayed Area 51. He won’t talk about any hypothetical projects or anyone he wants to work with in the future. He won’t give any specifics on his new TV series, The River. And he professes that he has no idea what Paranormal Activity 4 will look like. With this in mind, it is no great shock to announce that a recent afternoon tea with Peli, as well as Christopher Nicholas Smith, Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown (all of Paranormal Activity 3) and Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston (stars of the original film) revealed no great secrets about the franchise’s future. Rather, much like the films themselves, it was an afternoon of looking back and filling in the holes and unanswered questions about what came before.

The players told us about the difficulty of faking amateur camerawork, why Steven Spielberg turned off the original film halfway through, how the production allows for scene ideas from literally everyone, where the original concept for Paranormal Activity 2 came from and much, much more. Read on for the top 20 things to know about our afternoon tea with the cast and crew of Paranormal Activity.

There’s not a moment to waste in churning out another Paranormal Activity movie.  Who knows when you’ll be able to find a free Saturday afternoon to make it?  Yesterday, we reported that Paramount would release Paranormal Activity 4 on October 19th.  Today, Bloody Disgusting reports that the studio has re-hired Paranormal Activity 3 directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman to helm the next installment of Ghosts n’ Camcorders.  PA3 had the highest worldwide gross of the trilogy ($203 million) and came $4 million short of topping the original’s domestic box office take of $107 million.  All of these movies cost the spare change found in the producers’ sofas.

Despite lacking an official script, director, or cast, Paranormal Activity 4 is set to open in theaters a mere nine months from now. We first learned that Paramount was planning to release a new entry in the ever-popular franchise this year a few days ago, and today the studio is quick to announce that an official release date has been set for October 19th (per THR). The quick turnaround shouldn’t be a problem for the studio though, as last October’s Paranormal Activity 3 was made for just $5 million and didn’t begin production until June. The series is quickly becoming the new Saw, and Paramount is surely very happy with the small budget/big box office model that’s been working so far.

On the 19th the pic will go up against the star-studded period crime thriller Gangster Squad (Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Ryan Gosling) and the similarly star-studded romantic comedy The Big Wedding (Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigel, and Robin Williams). The following weekend PA4 will face some horror competition from Halloween 3D, while The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D opens earlier that month.

Paramount sent out a press release today about their plans for 2012, and to the surprise of no one, the studio plans to release Paranormal Activity 4 this year.  No details about the sequel have been revealed nor do we know who will direct, write, star, or how many afternoons it will take to shoot.  The franchise has been ridiculously successful for the studio, and the most recent film grossed $202 million worldwide off a reported $5 million budget.  The people have spoken and the people like night vision ghosts.  Here’s the quote from the press release:

In 2012, Paramount’s release slate highlights include “World War Z,” a zombie thriller starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster , “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” the next installment in the global franchise starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Channing Tatum , a new chapter in the “Paranormal Activity” franchise, and “The Dictator,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen and directed by Larry Charles , the team behind “Borat.”

No release date has been announced for Paranormal Activity 4, but since the last two movies were released in late October, we can safely expect to see the movie in the same time frame.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

What better time is there to see a scary movie than Halloween weekend? And what better horror franchise to relive than Paranormal Activity? For the price of admission to see Paranormal Activity 3, the current installment in theaters, you can see all three films in their chronological order. (That’s 3,1,2 for those of you who are confused as me.)

The franchise has dulled the blades of SAW in recent years, topping the October box office with each new installment. Now, Paramount Pictures and Regal Cinemas are bringing the whole Paranormal Activity family back to the screen in select cities. Hit the jump to see if the found-footage phenomenon is in your town this weekend.

Earlier this week, it seemed like Paranormal Activity 3 was looking at an opening weekend in the $35-$40 million range, or just slightly less than what its predecessor took in on this week last year.  Instead, the three-quel has crushed all projections with an estimated take of $54 million from 3,321 locations.  At this point that stands as the highest October debut and the biggest supernatural horror opening of all-time, unseating 2010’s Paranormal Activity 2, of course.

A new trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 has been released, and it looks as though all hell breaks loose. The third entry in the franchise is a prequel to the first two films, and attempts to connect everything together as it shows protagonist Katie’s younger years. This trailer seems to reveal a good chunk of the movie to audiences, and the gags seem much more overt and fake than the sinister and understated ones of the first film. It also looks like a lot of this film takes place during the daytime, which is not scary because everyone knows that creepy things only throw people around at nighttime.

Additionally, Paramount is trying to recapture the “demand the film” craze that made the first film such a big hit in theaters. This time, the film will open in 20 cities on October 18^th, three days before it opens nationwide. The winning cities will be chosen by the 20 cities that have the most tweets. Hit the jump to watch the trailer and for more details on the “Tweet to See It First” campaign. Paranormal Activity 3 opens everywhere October 21st.

New posters have gone online for the low-budget horror sequel Paranormal Activity 3 and the indie flick Dirty Girl.  The Paranormal Activity posters continue to be terrible as the studio just takes a shot from the film, puts it on a black background, and slaps on a title.  Oh, but this one has the taglines “Discover how the activity began,” (answer: with a brilliant marketing campaign), and “It runs in the family,” which only means something if you’ve seen the previous two films.  But I suppose people know at this point whether they’re on board with this franchise or not.

There’s also a new poster for Dirty Girl.  The film was picked up by The Weinstein Company at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival but has reportedly been re-edited for the theatrical release.  Dirty Girl stars Juno Temple as a girl who runs away with her classmate (Jeremy Dozier) who runs away to Los Angeles to find her biological father.  Hit the jump to check out both posters.  Paranormal Activity opens October 21st.  Dirty Girl opens October 7th.

The first trailer for the found footage horror pic Paranormal Activity 3 has gone online. Directed this time around by Catfish helmers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, the film is set in the 1980s and promises to help audiences “discover the secret to the activity.” I too would like to learn how to turn $15,000 into more than $100 million so hopefully this entry will help achieve that end. Otherwise, the film looks to be an origin story that focuses on protagonist Katie’s younger years and the weird happenings that were referenced in the original. If this turns out to be the case, I can’t say I’m overly enthused about seeing it.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer. Paranormal Activity 3 hits theaters this fall on October 21st.

Universal’s Hop has just earned 2011’s highest debut weekend – if today’s estimate of $38.1 million from 3,579 locations proves accurate. For now the three-day estimate for the live-action/CGI-animated comedy stands less than one million ahead of Rango’s record from five weeks back.

As expected, Universal’s Hop was Friday’s number one film with an estimated $11.4 million from 3,579 locations.  The live action/CGI-animated comedy was heavily promoted as hailing from the team behind last year’s Despicable Me and, though it ultimately fell short of that film’s $21.3 million first Friday, Hop has a shot at passing Rango to claim the biggest first weekend of 2011 if its projected three day take of $38 million proves accurate.  Summit Entertainment’s Source Code placed second with an estimated $5 million from 2,961 locations, which would indicate a weekend figure in the mid-teens.  In other words, not quite as strong as recent releases like Limitless in the sci-fi genre. Fellow newbie Insidious came in at number three on Friday with $4.8 million from 2,408 locations.  Weekend projections for the supernatural horror flick are between $10 and $15 million but, as FilmDirect’s follow-up to Paranormal Activity, the ultra low-budget Insidious is already counting its profits.  Details and analysis tomorrow.

It’s Halloween, and you know what that means! Big rusty traps that split your jaw, crawling naked through broken glass and, of course, the fun of cutting off your own foot. You know. The classics. For the seventh year running a Saw movie has been submitted by Lionsgate for your approval. Through the magic of 3D, the franchise that gave us last year’s anemic Saw VI had a chance to redeem itself. And it kind of delivered.