Dread Central Raises its Pinky High for Some Demonic Tea with the Cast and Crew from the Paranormal Activity Films

By thehorrorchick
January 16th, 2012

On a bright and sunny Friday the 13th, Dread Central was invited alongside several other journalists to have "Tea with Toby"- the demon behind all the terrifying shenanigans in the Paranormal Activity series- as well as a few of his co-stars and the mastermind behind it all, writer/director/producer Oren Peli.

During tea we had the opportunity to chat with Peli, stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat (whom we first meet during the original film) as well as Christopher Smith, Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown from Paranormal Activity 3.

Over the course of a few hours, we heard from everyone in attendance on pretty much anything and everything fans of the Paranormal Activity franchise would want to know. Peli chatted with us about what to expect on the upcoming Blu-ray release of Paranormal Activity 3, the mythology of the highly popular series, the massive amount of support the films get from Paramount and why, no matter what, the Paranormal Activity movies will always strive to stay true to their fans.

We also heard from the cast members, who shared with us their thoughts on their involvement with the Paranormal franchise, what deleted scenes they would have liked to see make the cut, doing their own stunts and how the youngest stars of PA 3 - Csengery and Brown - managed to stay brave while making one of last year's scariest movies.

Sadly, Toby ended up being a little on the shy side around us journalists so we missed out on hearing from the demon himself. Check out some of the highlights from our tea party below, and don't forget there are two ways you can enjoy the Paranormal Activity films this month: either check out Paranormal Activity: The Chronology, which is now available via iTunes, etc., and cuts together the entire trilogy in chronological order; or check out Paranormal Activity 3 (Blu-ray and DVD review here) independent from its predecessors when it hits home video shelves everywhere on January 24th.

Oren Peli on the mythology of Paranormal Activity: Well, usually we work on them one at a time, but as we were doing the second one, we saw that there was a mythology emerging so we figured let's kind of build on that and plant some seeds. Then, depending on whichever direction we decide to go for a third one- if we were lucky to get to do a third one- we have options to go forward in time, go backward in time or really go any direction we wanted to; and all of those choices allowed us to expand or explore the mythology more.

Peli on PA 3 directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman: Henry and Ariel were absolutely fantastic to work with on this one. They were incredible with the cast and crew and kept a very smooth atmosphere on set, and I think everyone felt like it really was a "family" making the movie.

Peli on Paramount's support for the Paranormal films: Paramount is always extremely involved with these movies and incredibly supportive of us and this franchise. Anything we need, they've always stepped up. They work with us when it's time to choose directors, when we're meeting with producers and writers, and there have been times where we're all there in a meeting, and a lot of higher ups at Paramount would be right there with us debating for hours over what the motivation of the demon is. They're that passionate about these films, and they want to make sure we get it right and that we don't disappoint the fans.

Peli on what deleted scenes made the home release of PA 3: A lot of the stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor that was in the trailers will be included on the Blu-Ray, and I think fans will really enjoy seeing it for the first time.

Peli's thoughts on Paranormal Activity: The Chronology: I think it's cool. If it's your first time watching the movies, I think it's better to watch them the way they were released, but for the fans of the franchise, I think this presents a really cool, new way to experience these movies and in an unusual way, too. I think there's a lot to gain from both ways of watching the trilogy, but I think it's pretty cool that there's now both options.