‘Paranormal Activity’ Experiences Paranormal Box Office

The movie is Airplane. The titular aircraft is experiencing a bad day and somebody’s sitting in their seat, losing their shit, while nuns, boxers and a great many more are lined up to slap some sense into her.

We are that line of disciplinarians, and Hollywood is the squealling passenger. And Paranormal Activity is the slap heard round the world.

Don’t think so? Think again. Paranormal Activity cost $15,000 to make, cost Paramount about $2 million to acquire, and so far has made more than $9 million on an extremely limited release. It’s set to open across the country very soon.

Thwack!

Addendum: After an amazing, viral PR push, Paranormal Activity is now opening across the country on 10/16/09. Click here to find a theater near you.

‘Blood’ and Humanity

I wanted to take this opportunity to give a little love to Blood: A Butcher's Tale. While the teaser trailers (such as the one above) make it difficult to tell which way this film is going to go quality wise, it has a couple of good things going for it. And when I say things, I mean actors. (Sorry actors.)

Emily Perkins makes an appearance, which is certainly enough to justify watching just about anything. Since her turn in the Ginger Snaps movies, she's turned in nothing but strong performances, even when the project has turned out to be less than stellar. (Sorry, but I'm not getting over Ginger Snaps Back in a hurry.)

Butcher also has Aaron Douglas who, as Chief Tyrol, was arguably the best thing about the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica, and seems like an interesting choice for a dark genre film like this one.

I also have to admit that his stock rose even higher in my estimations after I heard the HorrorEtc Podcast recap of the recent Fan Expo Canada. Noting that most of the stars there were charging from $15-$100 for autographs and to pose for pictures with fans, hosts Ted and Tony mentioned that Douglas was signing autographs without charge, though he encouraged people to make small donations to a charity.

I've found that as I've gotten older, it's really not the glitz and glamor of the performing life that catches my attention, but the little glints of humanity.