For those of you horror aficionados wondering why we won’t be getting a new Paranormal Activity movie this Halloween for the first time in four years, the answer is likely that Oren Peli and company have had their hands full developing both Paranormal Activity 5 (scheduled for next October) and Latino-themed spin-off Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, set to drop in January.
The terrifying first trailer for the spin-off just dropped today, and you can check it out below:
I’ve always been a sucker for the jump-out scares of the Paranormal Activity series, so this trailer definitely got to me. When news broke that Peli was developing a Latino-targeted spin-off of the main series, I was understandably dubious, but this first look at The Marked Ones has me convinced.
Set in Oxnard, California, a highly Catholic Mexican neighborhood of Los Angeles, The Marked Ones features a fresh cast but evidently the same demonic entity. The trailer provides a surprising amount of action for a found-footage horror flick – would-be muggers are thrown into vending machines, exorcisms go badly, sympathetic main characters get dragged through broken car windows and, of course, because this is a Paranormal Activity movie, two possessed little girls get to chant chilling messages like “He’s ready for you” in demonic voices.
Perhaps the best part of the trailer is that it suggests The Marked Ones will delve into the series’ mythology, something that previous installment Paranormal Activity 4 neglected to do almost entirely. There’s some black magic going on, likely tying into the mysterious coven involved with the series’ hauntings, and the same pattern of biting before possessions clearly plays a major role in the film. The preview promises, “This is only the beginning,” but footage from the trailer makes me think that this film may actually take place at the same time as the main series. It references ‘Katie and Kristi,’ Paranormal Activity 3‘s victims, and Molly Ephraim returns as Ali Rey, the only survivor of Paranormal Activity 2. My gut says that the creepy girls in this trailer are actually Katie and Kristi post-PA3, but we’ll have to wait until January to find out.
The spin-off was written and directed by Christopher Landon, who previously wrote the last three Paranormal Activitys as well as the Shia LaBeouf thriller Disturbia. Andrew Jacobs, Richard Cabral, Carlos Pratts, and Eddie J. Fernandez star.
What do you think of the new trailer? Did it get under your skin as much as it did mine? And will you be lining up for The Marked Ones? Let us know in the comments!
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones opens on January 3rd, 2014.