Paranormal activity marked ones movie1/22/2024 ![]() Because “The Marked Ones” uses newcomer actors rather than “Paranormal Activity” alumni (who at this point charge more), the cast savings offset the higher costs of multiple locations and special effects. The production took over a recently renovated West Adams apartment complex for most of the filming, using some of the units for extras holding and others for the production office. Close followers of the series will recognize several references to earlier “Paranormal Activities,” including a flashback to the movie that launched it all.Įven with more locations and special effects than the preceding films, “The Marked Ones” didn’t cost that much more than the average “Paranormal Activity” film. “If you are Spanish-speaking, you might understand about 20% more of the dialogue than if you don’t,” Blum said. The solution was to add an abuelita who speaks no English, even though it’s pretty obvious what she’s saying. In following the unofficial rules of the found footage genre, the film couldn’t have subtitles - who would have slapped them on, after all? - but Landon didn’t want the characters to feel ethnically neutered. “I really wanted Jesse to believe that something special was happening to him - that it was something he would be excited about,” Landon said, “before that blessing turned into a curse.”Īlthough the main players generally speak English (Hector doesn’t speak any Spanish), the filmmakers wrestled with how much Spanish dialogue to include. Pretty soon, as his friend Hector (Jorge Diaz) documents on video, Jesse is exhibiting strange and disturbing powers, including the ability to levitate himself and others. While the “Paranormal Activity” movies tend to be about things (or people) that go bump in the night, the narrative design of “The Marked Ones” slowly evolved from a witch story into a possession plot, in which a recent high school graduate named Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) wakes to find odd bite marks on his arm. ![]() (One of the first botanicas he toured is in the film.) Landon said that in his initial research for the movie’s script, he visited Los Angeles botanicas, stores that sell alternative medicines such as herbs and spiritual amulets and candles, and was struck by the diversity of the remedies, clientele and religions represented. PHOTOS: A brief history of found footage films Added Landon: “We didn’t want to make a shameless cash grab.”īecause “Paranormal Activity 4” was so disappointing, the creative team felt it had license to try different things, primarily by taking “The Marked Ones” out of a confined dwelling, as had largely been the decree before. “The audience is sophisticated and can see through something that’s inauthentic,” said Blum, who has produced all of the “Paranormal Activity” films, which have a total worldwide gross of $720.7 million. So the studio, writer-director Christopher Landon (who has writing credits on the last three “Paranormal Activity” films) and producer Jason Blum set out to create a film that would be designed to appeal to Latino moviegoers, with the caveat that it not pander to them. “And quality control is a really hard thing to keep up.” “Trying to keep interest in anything for this long is a real challenge,” said Adam Goodman, president of Paramount Film Group. ![]() Sustaining energy in a franchise by its fifth film has never been easy. In trying to pursue Latino moviegoers, who historically have turned out in droves for the low-budget “Paranormal Activity” films, and abandoning some of the franchise’s tried-and-true conventions, do the makers of “The Marked Ones” risk alienating the rest of its larger, core audience? Unlike earlier films in the cycle, “The Marked Ones,” opening Friday, is less a tale of a haunted house than of demonic possession, laced with more humor, visual effects and gunplay than any of the preceding films.īut the Paramount Pictures reboot, made for about $6 million, raises a curious dilemma. ![]() The resulting work, “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones,” is a Latino-themed story that ditches any number of “Paranormal Activity” staples, taking the characters out of WASPy suburbia and not only into a working-class barrio but also a new narrative realm. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |