Paranormal Activity’s marketing just kneecapped their latest release – twice
While the original Paranormal Activity was heralded as one of the greatest movie marketing campaigns ever Jake Quade argues the makers have bungled the promotion for the latest instalment.
When your first production makes over $107 million at the box office and fuels a cinematic genre that sustains a plethora of smaller releases – four being your own sequels – you know you’ve done something right.
Over the past eight years, the marketing team behind Paranormal Activity have managed to generate a thematic styling that gave them so much to work with and filled cinemas in a flash.
Interestingly, they’ve broken out of this styling for their latest release, and it hasn’t worked.
I didn’t mind the last one except two things kept going through my mind.. A) you saw Katie in the end of Marked Ones”.. and I wanted to see where the connection with adult Katie and Toby( after all she was his pet project) in this one EVEN FOR A CAMEO. B), I actually wanted to SEE Toby( yeah we know of him in the spirit form)..
but once again, we got a glimpse of him in the physical in the marked ones.. but Ghost Dimensions left me( and the other audiences clear groans of disappointment )that we didn’t see his entire physical form.. that if was a lead up to another sequel, WHEN THIS WAS SUPPOSE TO PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER AS THE “LAST ONE”. and when this happens, word of mouth will get around and ppl won’t want to see it. There were a lot of holes in the last one, but it only cost me 14 bucks for a few hours out. overall the movie flowed.. just things didn’t add up to the hype in areas.
Hey Darrell – Jake Quade (author) here. Yeah I’ve heard fairly mixed reviews, I think 5 of any series is a bit of an ask, especially for such niche styles. Thanks for your thoughts on it!
Interesting piece (you’re a good writer, Jake), but take issue with the Fallout comparison.
Fallout doesn’t need the cartoons to sell, they’re more like a mascot.
Fallout is wildly popular because it circumnavigates censorship by letting the audience create in-game content that would be banned if it came shipped. It’s no coincidence that the most popular mods in the series are for making sexy, nude characters and sex animations.
Yell ‘animated prostitution’ at any Fallout/Elder Scrolls fan and watch them smirk before they realise they’ve just admitted to enjoying 3D sex games.
Good point also Jen, and thanks for the kind words 🙂 while the buyer might be a little skewed, I personally think the cartoons and theming of Fallout’s advertising campaign has done quite well – especially in comparison to the Paranormal Activity animation! What do you think?
Thanks again,