This is the first year since 2009 that we won’t have a new Paranormal Activity movie in theaters … but that doesn’t mean one isn’t on the horizon. Fans of the found-footage horror series will have to wait until January for the fifth film in the franchise, a spin-off installment titled The Marked Ones. Knowing that PA fans probably will be looking for information on the film as Halloween approaches, Paramount Pictures posted a new trailer on YouTube, which we shared with you above.
Paranormal producers have been talking about launching a Latino-focused branch off of the existing Activities series, and Marked One -- as the trailer promises – is “only the beginning.” The trailer is heavy on Catholic symbolism. It’s also brimming with seriously disturbing imagery, from these eyeless monsters:
To this sick dude pulling a bloody thread out of his eye:
Writer/director Christopher Landon has a serious eye fetish, and it’s creeping me out.
The Marked Ones borrows more elements from V/H/S and its sequel than it does from Paranormal, with teenage characters infiltrating a place they shouldn’t see, then paying the price for their intrusion by being “marked” and blessed with despicable powers. The series will try and construct a new mythology around new characters (played by relatively unknown actors). It’s a cheaper way to expand a proven series. We’ll see if it works.
This doesn’t mean that the Activity story you know and love is finished. Producers plan to have Paranormal Activity 5 in theaters on Oct. 24, 2014, with director Gregory Plotkin at the helm. But we don’t have specific plot details on Activity 5, and no sign of a cast (so we don’t know if Katie Featherston will continue to explore the haunting of her now-iconic Paranormal protagonist, also named Katie).
And now that there’s a Latin spinoff of the Paranormal franchise, we can’t wait to see how the Scary Movie spoofmeisters respond. Carlos Mencia, stay near your phone.
