With the past three films cumulatively grossing $575 million it’s not hard to see why Paramount is looking at the Paranormal Activity franchise as something of a cash cow. Naturally, the time to exploit looks to be now as the studio moves to spin the franchise off into a film that would cater specifically to the Latino community.
Bloody Disgusting reports that the studio is looking to get a project off the ground as soon as possible. This in addition to a rumor that a post-credit sequence in this month’s Paranormal Activity 4 will hint at said spin-off. As the BD piece states, “The Latino population in the U.S. sees movies at a higher rate than non-Latinos, and because they are heavily Catholic, religious-themed horror movies tend to play well in heavily-Latino markets.” So there’s that.
Got to love the business end of Hollywood, taking advantage of a community’s religious belief in an attempt to put the fright into them (albeit as a means of entertainment). Still, foreign horror tends to push the envelope further in these modern, buttoned-down times. There are some very accomplished Latino filmmakers I wouldn’t mind seeing get a crack at this (Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza come to mind). If this strategy works, all power to the studio.
And if Paramount is feeling all-inclusive about this deal, I wouldn’t mind an Irish-Italian Paranormal Activity that sees my distant relatives yelling for two hours about how their cabinets won’t stay shut.