After the release of last year's Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum, at the Locarno Film Festival, teased that the end of the Paranormal Activity franchise is nearing with its newest film aiming for a 2023 release, according to Variety.
“It has been enough already. That last Paranormal Activity movie was terrible,” Blum said. “With ‘Halloween,’ we only had the rights to three movies, so we said: ‘Halloween Ends’! It ends for Blumhouse, at least. With other things, you just have this feeling it’s time to put them to bed. It would come back if some director I love, like Scott Derrickson, said: ‘I have a great idea for a Paranormal Activity movie. But it’s not something I want to do [at the moment].”
While Blum suggests that the franchise may come back one day, it appears that the Paranormal Activity series will remain in hiatus after the release of its newest film, which currently has no set release date. Alongside his comments on the Paranormal Activity franchise, Blum also teased upcoming projects such as The Exorcist trilogy that he will produce which is expected to begin production soon with David Gordon Green helming the project.
“We are getting ready to make it. Hopefully, we will do the same thing with ‘The Exorcist’ that we did with ‘Halloween’ – make it in a way that’s fresh and worth revisiting. And feels different enough so that people are happy we did it,” Blum said about the upcoming project.
Following the same found footage style of filmmaking popularized by films such as The Blair Witch Project, the first Paranormal Activity film premiered in 2007 to positive reviews with praise directed at the film's effective use of the found footage genre alongside its suspenseful scares. The success of the horror film led to three annual sequels followed by Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones in 2014, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, which released in 3D, and Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, which debuted on Paramount+ last year.
While the original film was well received by many during its initial release, the following sequels generally received responses ranging from mixed to negative. Despite the negative reception of the sequels, the franchise still remained a huge box office success with audiences. As Paranormal Activity begins its hiatus, fans of the franchise can have one last scare from the series when its final installment releases some time in the near future.
The eighth installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise has no set release date yet. All the films are available for fans to stream on Paramount+. Check out the official trailer for Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin below: