9. Paranormal Activity
Why it was good: Single-handedly setting a fire under the found footage genre that oddly never took off with the mammoth success of The Blair Witch Project in 1999, Oren Peli turned his minimalist, $15,000 indie attempt at the haunted house flick into a $200 million global smash. The “request a screening in your town” marketing ploy was nearly as entertaining as the finished product (in a good way) and while its detractors eventually arose, Paranormal Activity was all anyone could talk about for months.
The turning point: Despite the lack of resources needed to spit out a $3 million, no-star sequel, the turnaround time for between the original and Paranormal Activity 2 set off more than a few warning signals. Thankfully, the follow-up was more a bland rehash than an outright disaster, but that’s hardly call for celebration either.
Why it needs to die: Against all odds, Paranormal Activity 3 turned out to be pretty damn frightening (if not lasting in its potency) and certainly made me twitch more than any other film has (and I don’t scare easy, let me tell you). Though practically every time I turn around I bump into someone who thought the series was shit from the get-go, I’m all for ending things on a relative high note.
