Indie Horror Month Video Interview Part One: Oren Peli Talks the Ups and Downs of Making Paranormal Activity and More!
Steve Barton
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In 2006 former video game programmer Oren Peli embarked on an ambitious career change: Inspired by the 1999 found footage flick The Blair Witch Project, Peli cast up-and-coming actors Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat for his own found footage fear fest – Paranormal Activity.
A $15,000 micro-budget horror film with a first-time director at the helm and two unknown actors front and center, Peli’s Paranormal Activity faced insurmountable odds when it came time to start spreading the word on the film. After being dismissed by a handful of festivals and studio executives alike, PA was finally nabbed up by a few notable film festivals including Screamfest, Slamdance and the Telluride Film Festival over the course of almost two years.
Eventually Paranormal Activity and Peli caught the attention of the executives at DreamWorks – in particular a certain Mr. Spielberg – and the studio nabbed the flick right up. Thereafter the film made its way into theaters gradually- first through the “Demand It” campaign and subsequently through a wide theatrical release in mid-October 2009.
From there Paranormal Activity caught on with audiences, making Peli, the film’s stars and the flick all pop culture sensations in their own right.
As part of our Indie Horror Month celebration, Dread Central caught up with Peli, the man who reinvigorated the ‘found footage’ subgenre of horror, to hear more about what inspired his career change, the risks of making Paranormal Activity and the natural chemistry between the movie’s stars Featherston and Sloat.
Peli also goes on to discuss his thoughts on DreamWorks’ initially proposed remake, which got nixed just as soon as a test screening blew both the audience and studio executives away, proving you don’t need huge stars or a huge budget to scare the living crap out of viewers.
Check out Part One of our exclusive video interview with Oren Peli below, and then make sure to check back here tomorrow for Part Two to hear more about the unique and risky marketing behind Paranormal Activity, stepping away from the director’s chair for both highly successful sequels and so much more.
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