‘Paranormal Activity’: Mary Beth McAndrews to Publish New Book Investigating the Found Footage Phenomenon
It’s been a major year for Dread Central’s Editor-in-Chief, Mary Beth McAndrews. Her directorial debut Bystanders was a genre film festival darling, taking home awards at prestigious events, including the Nightmares Film Festival, HorrorHound Film Festival, and SoHo Horror Fest. She was the center of a Variety profile and also received her second Rondo Award nomination for her Dread podcast Scarred for Life. Now our resident found footage defender is set to unleash a non-fiction book about the seminal masterpiece of the subgenre, Paranormal Activity, through publisher DieDieBooks.
Horror fans are deeply familiar with the impact that the Paranormal Activity franchise has had on the genre and the industry at large. “The horror genre experienced a seismic shift on September 25, 2009, when no-name director Oren Peli’s found footage masterpiece Paranormal Activity was released in theaters,” DieDieBooks writes on its official pre-order page. “With just a few thousand dollars, Peli and his skeleton crew crafted a terrifying tale that scarred generations and changed the cinematic landscape forever. The film’s unprecedented and unexpected success launched a found footage wave unlike anything the genre had ever seen.
But while found footage may owe much of its continued popularity to Paranormal Activity, it was far from the first found footage film or even the genre’s first mainstream hit. So what was it about Paranormal Activity that made it such a phenomenal success?”
“My book is available for pre-order from DieDieBooks as part of their next wave of incredible releases!” McAndrews wrote in a message posted to social media, expressing her excitement about the publication of her first full-length work. “I wrote a whole damn book about Paranormal Activity and even got to speak with Oren Peli. I could cry right now, this has been my dream for so long, and it’s almost real!”
Real, indeed. The entire collection of upcoming releases housing McAndrews’ investigation of Paranormal Activity is currently available for pre-order via the publisher’s Kickstarter page. Other non-fiction works covering iconic genre films in this lineup include The Amityville Horror by Daniel Cubias, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? by Joanna Isaacson, Bride of Frankenstein by Anthony Bowman, and Nekromantik by Jack Davis.
Mary Beth McAndrews is a filmmaker, critic, academic, podcaster, editor, and all-around horror film nerd. Currently the Editor-in-Chief at Dread Central, her feature film debut, Bystanders, is out now on VOD. She’s also written for places such as RogerEbert.com, Slash Film, Thrillist, Film School Rejects, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Paste Magazine, Polygon, and Fangoria. You can also read her words and hear her voice in physical releases for places such as Second Sight Releasing, Vinegar Syndrome, and Umbrella Entertainment.
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