Episode 6 - Paranormal Activity (2009)

Join us in San Diego, California as shortly after moving into a suburban home Katie and Micah become increasingly disturbed by what appears to be a supernatural presence. Hoping to capture evidence of it on film, they begin using a camcorder within the house but are not prepared for the terrifying events that follow.

Transcript

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Hey, what's up everybody? How's it going? How was your weekend? What have you been up to? Have you managed to watch anything scary lately? As for me, I wrapped up the Alien Earth series, and I gotta say, I need season two ASAP. It was a damn good show. It definitely surprised me because the Alien franchise isn't really my preferred series. Also, uh checked out the new trailer for the Halloween game. I can't say if I'll be grabbing it. It looks good, don't get me wrong. I'm just more of a Call of Duty Battlefield player. The only horror-based games that I'll play faithfully would be like, you know, Resident Evil. And speaking of that, I actually can't wait for Resident Evil Requiem. It comes out February 27th of next year. There's uh something about playing Resident Evil late at night in the dark, wearing nothing but your headset. Um it's very unsettling, but it's a good experience. Um, I'm also a fan of Silent Hill. Um, I already beat the most recent one. Um, I haven't caught any any news of uh what's what's what's next from the franchise, but um they they definitely did say that they will be making another remake. Um enough all enough of that. Before we get started, let's jump into your weekly dose of horror news. This week in horror features, it welcome to dairy. The trailer has been released. Pennywise welcomes you back into the sewers. The eight-episode series premieres on Sunday, October 26th at 9 p.m. Each episode will debut weekly leading up to the season finale on December 14th. For those using Pluto TV, they're launching its first ever Halloween-centric pop-up category, Halloween Hits, bringing viewers a frightfully fun collection throughout Halloween. The special category will run from October 1st until October 31st. Halloween hits will feature channels spanning across classic horror, supernatural drama, monster movies, paranormal programming, and so much more. Paramount Plus will also be doing the same thing. The streaming platform has announced this year's lineup. They will have 450 horror titles, and this includes films, entire collections, and some Halloween episodes of your favorite TV shows. They will also be providing the premiere of their original movie Vicious starring Dakota Fanning, and that debuts on October 10th. Now that all of that is out of the way, welcome back to Chills Thrills and a podcast, our horror community podcast where we review, discuss, and analyze all things horror. It's crazy that we're already on episode six. Um, it's it's it's moving fast, we're growing, we'll be we're building our own community, which is why I say our instead of because I'm including you as part of this. I want this to be a community-based podcast where you, the listener, will have involvement. The horror community has a lot to offer, so I want to thank all of you for coming along in this journey with me. We're about to get started, so this is your spoiler warning. We dive into each episode and review. So if you haven't seen the movie, I suggest you go check that out and come back and join us for the discussion. We wrapped up the Blair Witch franchise last week, and now we're moving on to the Paranormal Activity franchise, all seven of them, their connections to each other, the timeline as well. Anyway, we have a movie torn pack, so let's get into it. Paranormal Activity opens up with a text that reads Paramount Pictures would like to thank the families of Mika Sloth and Katie Featherston and the San Diego Police Department. No cast introduction, no mil no music, no opening credits, it just dives right into it. We see someone holding a camcorder facing a TV walking towards the front door before stopping in front of a mirror. And this is where we meet one of our main characters, and this is going to be Mika Sloth, played by himself. Heading outside across the screen reads San Diego, California, and the date which is September 18th, 2006. Pulling into the driveway is Katie Featherston, also played by herself, asking Mika what that what the item is that he's holding and if she thinks it is what it what it is. He greets her, responding that he doesn't know what she thinks it is, but whatever it is, it's sweet. And she answers that she thinks it's a giant ass camera and what happened to the little handhelds. Easy to move around and versatile. Mika asks if she's going to come in or continue to stand there looking at him. So she comes inside stating that the camera is big and impressive, pointing out that it has a really bright light on it. Mika tells her to kiss the camera and she responds that she's not kissing the camera and asks how much did the camera cost him, followed by telling him she'll kiss him, but not the camera. The two then kiss each other while Mika begins to pan around the room. Katie asking if he thinks it'll work, talking about the camera, so he tells her that he thinks they'll have a very interesting time capturing whatever paranormal phenomenon that is occurring or not occurring. So they're already setting up that there's already an occurrence going on within the house, and that's obviously using it as a plot device to explain why he has the camera. Katie again repeats her question from earlier, asking what he throw down for the camera. So he tells her it was about half as much as he made for that day. Katie tells him that it's a good thing that he's cute. As she's walking up the steps, he's recording her ass and asking him about dinner. So he tells her that he'll make dinner. In the next scene, Mika is prepping dinner, telling her that he's just gonna film whatever happens to them, and then when any weird shit goes on, they'll be in a perfect position to capture it for posterity. Katie asks, so they'll be able to look back and remember finally. That's a callback to um Blair Witch when where um what's her name? Heather says that they'll be able to look back at this and laugh heartedly. Anyway, so Mika answers that hopefully once they get it on camera, they can figure out what's going on, and once they know what's going on, they can react appropriately and going from there to be able to um take care of it. Whatever it is, and if it's one of those neighbors, one of those kids who's obsessed with Katie and is trying to peep through the window at night, they'll be able to take care of it. Katie tells Mika that unless the kids have been following her since she was eight years old, something pretty creepy, that's the thing. Later that night, Mika asks Katie if she knows uh knows of any tricks to make the stuff happen, but Katie answers that she doesn't want them it or whatever to happen at all. She doesn't want to force it to happen. If the camera catches something, great, but she's not she's not gonna instigate it. Mika responds that having it on camera would be pretty cool for a lot of reasons. Katie asks if he believes her, so he tells her, yeah, of course. Now sitting on the couch, a strange noise capt catches Katie's attention, so she asks him what the noise is, and he tells her, Let's go investigate it. Walking into the kitchen and checking the fridge, they realize that it is the ice maker. Mika, for whatever reason, is disappointed, but soon after shifts his focus by saying that he liked to take the moment to illustrate the beauty of this fine instrument while looking at his guitar. Quickly downplaying by saying he was talking about Katie, not the guitar, in which she laughs, telling him he's sweet. Moving on to him filming her feet, telling her he likes her feet, they're sexy, so Katie tells him that she needs to repaint her toenails, so he shouldn't be filming them. He asks for a strip key if strip tease, and of course she tells him no, so he asks for half of one. Just a bra in panties, telling her that he'll do whatever she wants, but she kindly kindly declines her offer. In the next scene, Katie and Mika are preparing for bed as he begins to set up his camera. Katie telling him that she thinks it should point down the hall where that's where the footsteps are heard. He tells her he's it's kind of dark, so he turns on the closet light so the camera has better visibility. Recording Katie washing her face, he suggests they they get a little extra curricular with the camera since he's mentioned it before. Katie standing ten toes down tells him they could, but no. She commends him for his effort. Mika expresses that he's crying inside. The two of them settle down and get in bed, and we see the timestamp says 1123 p.m. with the title Night 1, September 18th, 2006. The screen fades to black, and we cut to 2:08 a.m. and there's a faint sound of footsteps like running around, but it doesn't wake Katie Omika. The next morning, both now awake. He already has the camera and showing showing us the audience what Katie looks like first thing in the morning. A few moments later, Katie is downstairs and calls up to Mika asking if he dropped her keys on the floor because they're in the middle of the floor. So Mika goes down to see where the keys are. When Mika sits gets down there, he can see that the keys are always away from the counter. So, like, if the keys fell off the counter, they'd be directly under the counter, where the location of the keys are almost as if they were thrown. He asks her where she left the keys, and she explains that she left them on the counter, which she always leaves them in the same spot next to his wallet. So Mika at that point tells her that that's evidence that evil forces came from beyond the grave to move her keys. In the next scene, Katie is standing in front of a mirror saying that it's a big day, it's the day the psychic is coming, and that he should be there within the hour. So he she's gonna go find Mika and see how he's feeling about it. Her guess is he's gonna feel fine about it. We cut to Mika sitting at his desk on the computer where she asks him how excited he is to meet the psychic, and he answers sarcastic sarcastically that he's so excited. He can't control himself, but then tells her that he has something quite appropriate for her psychic. At least that's what he thinks. He tells Katie that he stumbled upon, so he plays this plays a song he thinks it's fitting, so Katie can tell that he's not taking it serious. Mika asks her if she wants to make the psychic feel at home, welcomed in his own environment. Katie tells him that it's not gonna make him feel at home. If anything, it's gonna make him leave. After a short while, Katie is sitting on the couch waiting for the psychic to arrive. When Mika tells her that you think a psychic would be on time, like how he he should be able to foretell if the traffic was gonna be bad. But then the doorbell rings and Katie greets him opening the door so he can come inside. A few moments later, Mika asks if he can see ahead kind of thing. Like, knowing traffic is going to be bad. Dr. Frederick is his name. I forgot to mention that. So Dr. Frederick answers that it usually depends on the day of the week or time of the day, like everybody else. He further asks that he never hesitates when someone asks if he'll come to San Diego jokingly. Katie thanks him for making the trip and that she's glad that he could. It is really appreciated. Dr. Fredericks suggests that he likes to spend time getting to know her, getting a bit more information than what was shared over the phone. He wants to get to know both of them, what their life is like, and what their relationship is like. Mika answers that it's good, and so he asks how long have they been together, and Katie tells him that it's been three years. Mika adds that they are engaged to be engaged after she graduates. Dr. Fredericks asks, What jobs do they have? And Katie answers that she's a student and English major, hoping to be a teacher soon, and that Mika is a day trader. This might sound stupid, but I had no idea what a day trader was until I looked it up. So for those who don't know, a day trader is a financial professional or speculator who buys and sells securities like stocks within the same trading day. Not that it matters, it's not important to the movie, but it is just I'm throwing it out there so you know what it is. Dr. Frederick continues asking about their health, to which Katie answers that they're in good health and there's no medications involved. Dr. Fredericks continues by explaining that more often than not, the things that were shared with him can be explained away by simple things like squeaky houses or rattling pipes, some nor something normal that's going on that has people more freaked out because they're under a high degree of stress.

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Dr.

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Frederick asks Katie if the haunting has happened before she moved in the house. So she tells him that it started when she was eight. She shared a room with her younger sister, Christy, who was five years old, and at the time they both experienced whatever it was. She adds that she would wake up feeling it breathed, so she would wake Christy up, and she would see a shadow of figure that would be at the foot of her bed. It was always at the foot of her bed, never in the foot of Christy's bed, but she did see it, and they were terrified to the point they couldn't move because of how horrified they were. They would just pray for it to go away, and eventually it would. Katie continues to explain that it has happened for a while in their first house, and then there was a fire. Everybody managed to get out, and after the fire, they moved, and the cost of the fire was never determined. She tells him that she's not saying it had anything to do with the haunting stuff. She just doesn't know what it was. So Dr. Fredericks asks her if the haunting occurred from the time she was eight until adulthood and if she experienced it periodically over the ensuing years. So she tells him, yes, from 13 years old it happened periodically, and that over the past few few weeks it started happening again. He responds asking Katie what she meant by telling him that it moved from where she was living at the age of eight, then again when she was living somewhere else at 13, and now it's here. He goes on to say that it seems to him that that's what they're dealing with. Dr. Fredericks adds that it's something that's connected to her. Katie walks walks him around, showing him a light that has been flickering, water from the faucets turning on and off unexplainably, banging on the wall, scratching sounds like dragging down the wall, kind of scratches. Now standing in the doorway to their bedroom, he asks if they're if that's where the majority of the activity occurs. So she tells him yes, the vast majority of it, and continues that she's heard whispering sometimes. She can't understand it, but sometimes it's saying her name. And he asks if it specifically calls her by her name. So she answers yes, that it has happened before. And he turns to me to Mika to ask if he's heard it too. So he responds that he's heard weird noises. He hasn't really heard anybody say Katie's name except him, and that it might it might have been him in his sleep. Katie replies that she can tell the difference between him saying her name from over there in the bed and something right there whispering distinctly in her ear. Mika shows him all of the equipment he's using to document the activity. Then this idiot asks Dr. Fredericks if there's something that they they can do to make the stuff happen so he can get it on tape. Katie tells him that she's told him she doesn't want to mess with that. Dr. Frederick explains that these hauntings feed off of negative energy. So if there's something negative going on, it will help spur on the haunting. The entity may feed off of that. Miga jokingly tells Katie that they shouldn't let her mother come over anymore. Miga's annoying as fuck. He thinks he thinks the shit is a game. Spirits, evil spirits, demons, bad entities. None of that is nothing to fuck around with, even if you don't believe. So, I mean, clearly he doesn't believe, but that's not something that you should like play around with like it's like it's for fun. Katie doesn't find his comment funny at all, tells him to stop joking. After touring the house, Dr. Frederick tells Katie that his area of expertise is dealing with ghosts. That's what he's built his career off of, helping people get in touch with people who have died communicating with ghosts, the spirits of dead human beings. But a demon is something different. That's an entity that relates to something that is non-human. A lot of debate, a lot of discussion about what that could be, but it's not a person. He continues adding that dealing with demons is not his area and that he's very uncomfortable with it. So he warns Katie and Mika that he senses something is there going on in the house and she can't run from it because it will follow her. It may lay dormant for years, something may trigger it to become more act more active, and over time it will reach out to communicate with her. Dr. Frederick gives her the name of a demonologist, a colleague of his, Dr. Joanne Avery's, because he specializes in that area. Mika suggests that they get a Ouija board so they can find out what it wants and then just give it what it wants. Dr. Frederick responds that it probably wants Katie. So he warns Mika that if he does pick up a board and try to play games with it, the entity will sense that he's trying to communicate with it and that's opening the door, inviting it in. So he asks Mika if he understands what he just said, and Micah replies, Yeah, I'm with you. Dr. Fredericks tells Mika that he hopes so and he assures Katie that she'll be fine. You sure about that, sir? I wouldn't make guarantees or promises that I can't keep. Katie with a sigh of relief tells him that she's glad to hear him say that and thanks him for coming. As soon as he leaves, Mika calls him a fruit, but Katie annoyingly responds if he thinks that he could try not to be completely rude to him. Later on, Katie says that she felt like it was good information and that she feels like she's not going nuts, and at least that they're doing something, so she now can call Dr. Avery's tomorrow. Mika scoffs at the comment, followed by pleading with her to not call him. To call him would be insane. He proceeds to ask her to promise not to call the guy since he talked to the other doctor. He's not putting up with the team, a Legion full of Jesus freaks. Like, why the fuck is she with him? He's like, he's he's a fucking dickhead already, and the movie just started. I hate this guy. Katie tells him that if it gets worse, she's gonna call him, and Mika agrees. So while getting ready for bid, his ass starts again with the sex tape shit, and of course, Katie isn't with the shit. She tells him not with the camera on, no. So he tells her that he'll turn it off in 10 minutes, and Katie repeatedly tells him to turn it off and turn it off now while trying trying to film her piss. Mika standing in front of the mirror starts making starts mocking Dr. Avery's being a total piece of shit that he already is. And the next scene, Katie tells Mika to come to bed, and so he sits the camera down, pretending to turn it off, but she's not falling for it. She eventually so eventually he turns it off, and we cut to the next scene, and we see the timestamp reads 12 31 a.m. night three, September 20th, 2006. As they lay in bed sleep, we see the time being sped up before stopping at 2.09 a.m. All of a sudden the floor starts creaking and their bedroom door moves. First of all, who the hell sleeps with their bedroom door wide open? Secondly, if you know you're dealing with a possible demon and your back is to the door, hell no, fuck no. I can't sleep with any door open. Not my bedroom door, definitely not my closet door. I can't even sleep in a room of silence. My mind be playing tricks on me. So, or maybe that's because I watch too many horror films. Who the fuck knows? The time speeds up again at this time stopping at 6 14 a.m. where we hear Mika's alarm go off, waking him up. A short while later, Mika is reviewing the footage, showing Katie the movement of their bedroom door, as well as telling her that all doors and windows are closed because he had just checked. He points out the flowers on her nightstand aren't moving, but the door is, and upon seeing it move, Katie gasps. Later that day, we see Mika sitting on the couch playing his guitar when Katie starts screaming for him, so he takes off running, but stopping to grab the camera. So she asks, What's he doing? and to come now. Once he gets there, it turns out that she was freaking out about a spider um sitting next to the toilet. So after that's taken care of, Mika is checking the door and asking the entity, What was the point of moving the door, and if moving the door was part of its master plan, or is it just doing random shit? This dude's asking for trouble. Anyway, if the screen fades to black, now in the next scene, we see Mika reading a book telling Katie that it could be two things. It could be a ghost or it can be a demon. So Katie reminds him that Dr. Frederick already said that it wasn't a ghost. He responds ignorantly and arrogantly based on the evidence, and he's gonna find out what it is. There's a few things wrong with this. First off, based on what evidence. There isn't much evidence to even determine what they're dealing with. Secondly, Dr. Fredericks is a professional in his field, so I would assume that he knows what the fuck he's talking about. But lastly, I say ignorantly because just how he carries himself and how he treats other people, he's definitely ignorant as fuck. And now I say arrogantly for the same reason. He's arrogant based on how he carries himself, but also how he thinks he knows what the hell is going on. I hate this fucking guy. Katie tells him whatever is following her, it doesn't feel human. It feels like a monster, like it wants to hurt her. Mega tells her that sounds more like a demon, so Katie responds, yeah, that's what he said. This jackass tells her, well, cause ghosts are spirits of human beings. Katie replies it's definitely not human, and Miga's response is that maybe she's right, which is bad because demons suck. Miga, you have no idea. You just wait. Keep talking shit, just just sit tight. As he flips through pages of a book on demonology, he explains that these evil spirits that only exist to cause pain and commit evil for their own amusement. They stalk people for years, even decades. This started at eight years old. She's at least her early to mid twenties, so it's been at least a decade already. He continues saying that sometimes they're really intelligent in the way the way they do things to freak you out. So this could be a really rare phenomenon, and it's cool that they got it on tape. He still thinks the shit is a game. So, okay, keep that same energy. I mean, not everyone believes in ghosts. Spirits, evil spirits, demons, and I get that, but damn. Katie obviously is not as excited as he is considering she's the one that's being harassed, but to Miga is all good. They'll take care of it. How? Dude, how? What are you gonna do that hasn't already been done? Like, what can you do, Mr. No at all? Katie tells him that she understands this is new to him and exciting in some ways. She gets the whole filming thing, but it isn't new to her, and she thinks that this could be very dangerous, so she just wants him to know that if things get worse or progress in any way, she doesn't want to mess with the camera anymore. She doesn't want to she doesn't want to make it mad. Well, he's instigating and antagonizing it already by taunting it, so at this point it's only a matter of time. Mika tells her that he understands where she's coming from, but for her to remember that she didn't exactly warn him about this kind of stuff before they moved in together. So he thinks that he should have a little bit of say in what they do. She responds that she gets that, but what was she supposed to supposed to say? Out on their first date, hey, there's a demon that's been following her. His response, no, but maybe on their 15th date, 30th date, or when they decided to live together, that that might have been a good thing to bring up. In the next scene, we see night five, September 22nd, 2006. As they are in bed sleep, the timestamp reads 2 54 AM. Katie suddenly and violently wakes up trying to catch her breath, telling Mika that she had a really bad dream, but then a door slammed shut downstairs. So he goes to check it out, but Katie is pleading with him not too. So she goes with him because she didn't want to be left alone. They head downstairs with him asking if anyone was down there, and of course there's nothing there to answer. But do you set the alarm to the door and the window? So if any of those opened, it would have set off the alarm. The alarm never went off. So unless whoever it was managed to get in and hide all day, why would you ask if anyone's down there because there's no one down there? Back upstairs, about to go back to bed, but not before his ass decides to ask if that's all you got. Miga, please do shut up. We cut to the next scene and where we see Katie sitting at her desk with her friend, and they're doing something with beads, maybe making necklaces. I don't know. It doesn't matter. Miga interrupts rudely, telling them that he has something that he wants to show them, but Katie tells him no, they're having girl time and can't be bothered with him and his camera because she needs a break from it. Mega throws a whole tantrum responding with, What the fuck? He's trying to show her something. That's embarrassing and disrespectful as fuck. Like who raised this asshole? Katie tells him to be sweet. She should she should have cussed his ass out, honestly. I would have. They all walk over to his desk where he explains that he set up a digital audio recorder in their bedroom so he plays audio that was recorded right before they woke up. And a very distorted voice is heard, but they can't tell what it is what it is saying. So he claims it wants to communicate, telling Katie that he's going to go get a Ouija board. She immediately tells him no. She doesn't want to know what it has to say. She just wants it to leave them alone. It's a bad idea reminding him that the doctor specifically said not to do anything to antagonize it. He pleads with her to let him do his thing, and she tells him the camera is his thing. So she makes him promise, so he finally does, telling her that he won't buy one. Later that night before bed, Mika starts his shit again by talking shit, saying that they haven't anything interesting happen in a while and acts if it's scared. Katie is over his shit, telling him to put the camera away so they can go to bed, but he continues saying that he's calling the entity out, and she tells him that that's enough. So he just had to add in that the demon is worthless. My question is, Katie, what the fuck does she see in him? Like he's oh my god, this dude. Later that night, we get the date of September 30th, 2006, night 13. And the timestamp reads 3 13 a.m. Katie and Mika are asleep, but she wakes up to the sound of thumping. So as her and Mika glance out into the hallway, suddenly there's a loud shriek, following by the sound of a loud crash, making both of them scream in terror as they huddle up on the bed. They get up to go investigate, so when they get downstairs, they see the light on the ceiling swinging back and forth. After checking out the rest of the house, they go back to sleep. The next morning, Mika tells Katie that it's really good stuff and he hopes whatever it is shows a little more action. She responds that they shouldn't be messing with it and that it scares her because he's not taking it serious. She suggests that maybe they shouldn't have the camera, but to him, it's grade A shit. So it's not an option at that point with all the cool shit going on. She asks him what's cool about it, so he changes it up by calling it disturbing, a little bizarre. So she asks him if he's not scared, assuring her that they have it documented and that it's going to be fine. In the next scene, Mika is using an EVP, and if you don't know, EVP stands for electronic voice phenomena, and it is a sound on an audio recording interpreted as voices from spirits during paranormal investigations that supposedly are undetectable by the human ear. Anyway, as he attempts to make contact, he asks if anyone is there, where did it come from? It does it have anything to say in English this time, or would it be happier talking with the Ouija board? He then starts being ignorant, asking what is its quest, what is its favorite color. Next, we see him playing the recording where he thinks he hears a low growl. In the next scene, Katie's in bed but wants to watch a movie as she tells Mika that she doesn't want to go to sleep yet. So he asks her why, and she responds that she's scared, so he puts the camera away and the screen fades to black. Fast forward to 1.35 a.m. October 2nd, 2006, night 15. Katie wakes up and stands during a daze, but just stands there as the timestamp speeds up before stopping at 3:30 a.m. as she walks downstairs. Miga wakes up and goes to look for her, so after searching the house, he finds her out back sitting in a chair. Once he manages to wake her up and she seems out of it, Mika tells her that it's cold and she needs to go inside, but she refuses to go inside. Miga makes several attempts to get her to go inside, but she assures him that she's fine and just to leave her alone, even goes as far as to telling him to go away. So he tells her that he'll stay outside with her, but he's going to go grab some blankets. He quietly asks himself what the fuck is going on as he walks in. You're fucking with the demon. That's what the fuck is going on, stupid. As he's walking inside, quietly talking shit, calling it ridiculous that she's sitting out in the cold. She doesn't want to come inside because she doesn't want to come inside because of your ass. Anyway, he's inside to grab a blanket and there's a crash noise heard upstairs. Mika yells for Katie to come inside as he goes to check out the noise. He notices the TV in their room has turned on and static can be seen and heard. So he goes up to check, and yes, the TV is on, and as soon as he turns around, Katie is standing right behind him. Katie asks him, What's he doing? And he asks her the same thing, but she has no clue. So he explains that she wouldn't come inside. So he came inside to grab a blanket when he heard a noise from their room. She's completely clueless, and she just climbs back in bed, telling him to come back to bed, and that he woke her up. Katie, girl, you woke yourself up. For once he didn't do anything, and I'm not a Mega defender because I can't stand his fucking ass. But he's innocent just this one time. But yeah, fuck Mika. The next morning he is showing Katie the footage from the night before. He asks her if she remembers doing any of it, and she has no memory of doing any of it. The only thing she remembers is when she was standing in the doorway of their bedroom. Mika asks if this has been going on for a long time, and maybe she just doesn't remember. So she responds that she knows she remembers that she had nightmares all night, but doesn't want to talk about it. It was gruesome, just know that. Mika tells her it's just trying to scare them, and it scared him, and it also scared her. Now you're scared? It's a little too late for that, sir. Like you've been talking shit for days. So you make sure you stand on business when it counts. Katie makes it clear that she's scared, and Mika, for whatever reason, tries to sway her from calling for help by saying bringing in somebody else, some exorcist or whatever, a lot of times it just gets worse. This dude is infuriating. The doctor literally told him not to antagonize the demon, and he does almost every day. He he told him not to get a Ouija board, and he's still trying to press the issue to get one, and you're worried about it getting worse. Dude, shut the fuck up. Like please. I spoke too soon. Literally in the next scene, Jackass has the Ouija board and is already talking shit. The scene opens up with him holding it, calling it, calling the entity a little fucker, and if it has something to say, now is the chance. Calling for Katie as she walks over, telling him that she's ready to get out of the house and hang out with her boyfriend for once. Mika says to Katie that they've got ten minutes to spare, and in that moment she realizes what's going on, asking him what the hell he's doing. It was in that moment that he knew he fucked up. Knowing that she didn't want him to get one, even after she made him promise, he still has the audacity to ask her to help him. She asks him again what he's doing, and he responds that he's going to talk to it. She reminds him that he promised and his comeback was no, he promised that he wouldn't buy one. What are we like twelve? Anyway, Katie spazzes on him, telling him that he knew exactly what she meant, and his ass tries to clarify that he borrowed it like it matters. She claps back that she told him not to mess with that because it scared her, and he goes out and gets the best looking Ouija board that she's ever seen and puts it in the middle of the living room, so he needs to explain that. He continues that he borrowed it. She tells him he's gonna throw it away and that they're gonna leave. There's no more camera, no more nothing, and they head out. As we stare at the Ouija board, we see a gust of wind back by the window, but the windows are closed, but suddenly the planchette starts to move and shortly after the board catches fire. A little while later they return home. Mika inspects the Ouija board, and Katie is immediately pissed off, asking him what he did, but he tells her that he didn't do shit. As he's inspecting the Ouija boy, he noticed that someone drew something on it. Knowing she's pissed off, he calls out for her to help him figure it out, and she loses her shit, telling him that she doesn't give a fuck what the Ouija board is saying. And then she proceeds to slam the door. So he has he actually goes up there with the camera, and when she flips out, he has the audacity to tell her to chill, and that it's not that now is not the time for it. Katie isn't having it and kicks him out of the room. So while he's walking down the stairs, he whispers that she's pissed and that it's not good. You think? I'm convinced that he gets off on pissing her off. He's a he's like oblivious and really thinks that the shit is a game. In the next scene, Katie and Mika are in the kitchen and she's ignoring him to the max, just dismissing everything that he says. But as soon as they get ready for bed, we see Mika move into the camera frame and he says he swears to abide by Katie's rules and regulation of camera use and other things. Katie tells him that it needs to be more sincere, so he repeats it, adding, he promises not to offend the entity or whatever it is in any way, shape, or form. So help him, God, and promises not to betray Katie's trust. Now finally heading to bed, they say their good nights and we head into the next morning. The scene opens up with Mika trying to figure out the message on the Ouija board. So after some research, he asks for her help and reluctantly she helps. So they go through the possibilities but find no definite answers. Katie standing on business tells him, get it out of the house. Later on, Katie is sitting and talking with the friend, expressing that her and Mika haven't gone out in weeks without something happening. Mika checks in, asking what they're talking about, and she just responds, Stuff. Her friend offers her to come and stay with her, but Katie tells her that it's not the house, it's her. Wherever she goes, it goes. So Mika tells the friend that he has a plan, so she asks, What's the plan? And he doesn't answer. Instead, he walks away quietly, saying, Don't worry about it. In the next scene, Katie offers a compromise to Mika, telling him that he can do his powder experiment, and if it doesn't work or help them, she's calling the demonologist and they're getting it taken care of. So he agrees. He begins to scatter baby powder on the hallway floor near the closet and leading up to their bedroom. Katie asks, What exactly is that gonna prove? And he explains that if anything walks through there, it's gonna leave a pretty good footprint. She responds that it's already been established that something's happening. So tomorrow she's making the call. He can have his powder and he can clean it up tomorrow. Mika being the asshole that he already is tells her to take a deep breath, pop a pill, and that it's fine. And in that moment, it clearly offends her and pisses her off. For whatever reason, he's still trying to figure out what they're dealing with. He explains that he's been doing his research and he's taking care of it. Nobody comes in his house, fucks with his girlfriend, and gets away with it. This jackass is insufferable. Oh my god. Katie Amika instantly get into an argument with him asking what she what does she want to do and if she wants to call the demon guy, calling an exorcist, and she tells him, Yeah, exactly. She wants to get it taken care of. He tells her to get a quack and to tell them what to do. He's taken care of it. It's his house, she's his girlfriend, and he's gonna solve the problem. So then Katie just laughs at him. Katie and Mika now in bed sleep. We get a text that reads October 4th, 2006, night 17. The timestamp speeds up before stopping at 3 15 AM. Suddenly we hear footsteps growing louder and louder. Waking them up, Mika notices that there are footprints from the entity but points out that the footprints are leading in, but not out. So whatever walked through it is still in the room with them. They begin to follow the footprints leading to its starting point, which is the hallway closet, but then Katie notices the opening to the attic crawl space is open, asking him if he did that, but he didn't. She pleads with him for him not to go up there, and he tells her that he's not going up there, but he just wants to look around. He grabs his ladder to inspect, but then notices in the distance that there's something sitting in the insulation, so he manages to grab it. Once he's retrieved the item, he sees that it is a burnt picture of Katie as a kid at her old house, questioning why it was in the attic and that he thought all of the stuff burned down in the house fire. In shock, she tells him that there's no way he found that in the attic. There's no way that that even exists, that she hasn't seen that picture in 15 years, and it makes no sense. In the next scene, Katie visibly upset in bed, staring at the picture, asking him, where in the attic did he find it. So he tells her it was above their bed. We cut to the next morning. Katie complains that she has no idea how she's going to get to class, she's very tired, but then asks Mika why he's filming her made coffee. She's tired of it, he needs sleep, she needs sleep, and she needs a new life. Later on, Mika is reviewing the footage and he shows Katie the exact moment the entity walks into their room and tracks the powder imprints and as it goes. She questions what is he going to do, but he doesn't know. So she tells him that she's calling Dr. Avery's because he's had his camera work, he's had his powder, and it's just gotten worse and it should have been done two weeks ago. As she starts to dial the number, he stops her and tells her that he's in control and he's making progress. Finally, she snaps telling him that he hasn't made any progress and he's not in control. And if he thinks he's in control, he's being an idiot. Not a single thing he's done has helped. She doesn't mean to burst his bubble, but the camera hasn't helped and the stupid footprints haven't helped either. Katie adds in that the entity wouldn't have left his footprints if it didn't want to. It left the footprints because it wanted to. It wanted him to find her photo. It could be anywhere it wants. It hears what is being said right now. So he asks her how the fuck does she know? And she tells him he's absolutely powerless. So he tells her that that's not true at all, and she knows it, but she tells him to get over it. In the next scene, Katie explains that she called Dr. Avery's, but he's gone. She didn't know what else to do, so she called Dr. Fredericks back and he will be stopping by the next day. Later that night, they're in bed sleep, and the text reads Night 18, October 5th, 2006, with a timestamp of 3 53 AM, when suddenly the hallway light flips on and footsteps are heard coming up the steps, growing louder and louder with each step. Then the hallway light turns off. Mika goes to check it out, and as soon as Mika gets up, they hear the footsteps running out of the room and the door slams shut behind it. Katie wakes up from the sound of the door slamming and asking Mika what happened and what is he doing. Mika tells her that something is out there. As he reaches for the doorknob, the entity bangs on the door from the other side, completely scaring the shit out of both of them. Mika tells her that he's going to go see what's out there and she begs him not to. He swiftly opens the door and nothing is there. Slowly inspecting upstairs, he calls off asking who's there and demanding that it shows itself. Continuing to antagonizing, it then suddenly slams their bedroom door shut and the pounding resumes from the other side. They head back into their bedroom and the screen fades to black. We cut to the next morning with Mika looking for Katie and he finds her in the living room sitting on the couch wrapped up in a blanket, somewhat out of it. So Mika tells her that she needs to get some sleep once in a while, but she answers that she can't because she's scared and she couldn't be in their room any longer. For once, Mika is being sympathetic, telling her that he understands. Katie tells him that she can't be in the house. They can't even be in their own room. We cut to the next scene where they're eating in silence, but not for long. It's disturbed by a loud bang that startles them. Mika grabs the camera and goes upstairs to check it out, but Katie notices a picture of them on the wall is shattered, but it's only shattered over his face. He questions why it's only over his face and why is it his that's damaged and not hers. Micah my boy, you've been marked for certain death. You've been antagonizing this entire time, so it's letting you know that it's coming for that ass. Katie tells him that there's something there and that it's standing next to her. Mika asks what's here, followed by asking what is she talking about. Katie stands in fright, telling him that she feels it breathing on her, and then all of a sudden her hair moves. Katie then takes off downstairs, begging for him to come. He realizes this is the first daytime occurrence that they've had. Katie asks that it's getting worse. Later on, Katie is pacing back and forth in the living room nervously. Mika tells her to relax because she's making him nervous. Now you're nervous, you've been talking shit, antagonizing it, calling it out, fucking with it the whole time. But she's making you nervous. It's been a game since the beginning. Anyway, Katie finally sits down until the doorbell rings. She urgently rushes to the door to answer, and it's Dr. Frederick. She tells him she called Dr. Averys, but he's gone, and he responds that he's out of the country, but he'll be back soon. Dr. Frederick is immediately uncomfortable telling them that it is overpowering, and it certainly doesn't like that he's there and he cannot help them, adding that he's got to get out of there. The entity is very aggravated by the fact that he's there. Mika tells him that he can't leave them alone, and Kitty asks that they need his help. Dr. Fredericks explains that he's not the person to help in this situation. It is not his area of expertise. He feels he's doing more harm than good being there, reiterating that he has to leave. Mika recommends that they leave, but he tells them that leaving won't do them any good. He'll see what he can do, but he's got to leave right away, and he bounces. Mika tells her that they'll take care of it themselves. Shortly afterwards, Katie is in bed in tears, highly upset, and Mika does his best to console her. We then get another on-screen text that reads, October 6, 2006, night 19, and the timestamp is 1 33 a.m. The sheets on their bed start moving, revealing Katie's foot, but nothing else happens. Fast forward to 3 04 a.m. In the background, the closet light turns off and on, but in the bedroom, we the audience see the shadow of an entity walks past the door. Katie wakes up to a low growl, so she wakes up Mika telling him that she felt it breathing on her. He checks around and of course find nothing, but Katie feels it's still there and that something's wrong. The next morning, Katie sits in bed telling Mika that she can feel it watching her that very moment and they have to do something. Mika tells her that she's freaking him out. You should have already been freaked out a long time ago. Everything that could have possibly happened has already happened so far. Katie tells him that they have to do something. She doesn't know what, but they have to figure something out. So he tells her he'll figure something out, he'll do some research because there's gotta be other options. Shortly after, he's reviewing the footage, calling it creepy, and after seeing the sheet move, Katie tells him that she knew something happened, but she soon gasps for air when she sees it, the shadow of it moving past the door. She reiterates that they've got to do something because she can feel that something's wrong. In the next scene, Mika explains that he did some research just trying to figure out options, and he found a website that this woman named Diane, one of the possibilities from the board, she had all the same things happen to her in the 60s that experienced the same exact things from childhood to adulthood, and she called an exorcist, and that maybe her entity is the same thing, and it jumped to her, talking about Katie. Katie asks what happened to her, so he continues to explain that calling the exorcist sometimes pisses it off even more. Prior to the arrival, she was just hearing voices and having bad dreams. I feel like in this moment, Mika is just he's just trying to manipulate the situation and exaggerate it so she doesn't call the He further explains that he couldn't find anything to pinpoint why it's occurring or other than um it appears to be random at the moment. Katie asks how the woman died, and she died as a result of the exorcism. And of course, he uses that story as a segue to tell her that they're not calling Dr. Avery's. It's gone away before and is not worth the risk. Katie responds that she's gonna go lay down. Later on that night, Katie is sitting at sitting on the couch studying when Dumbass approaches her, telling her that he has an idea about what they can do. Katie isn't having it though. She tells him to get away from her with the camera and she's trying to study. He just never gives up and insists that he wants to talk to her about the thing, and she answers with asking him to give her five minutes and to just go. With an attitude, he tells her to chill out. He's trying to help the situation, and he has some ideas he wants to talk to her about. She, dude, she asked for five minutes, and you couldn't even give her that. He's like a grown-ass man child throwing tantrums. Like, good God. When when things don't go his way, he just throws a whole tantrum being like very ignorant and disrespectful. I didn't realize how much of a piece of shit that he was until I had to watch the movie for this episode. When taking notes for the purpose of getting ready to record, you have to pay close attention to every little detail so your script is as accurate as possible. And by doing that, like just watching it, you're like, okay, you know, he's a he's a dickhead, whatever. But when you're writing notes and so on, you're like, this dude is such an asshole. He's he's a piece of shit. Like, we all knew Mika was an asshole to begin with, but seeing it in this light, he's truly like immature and selfish and so much more. And as the movie progresses, you and you end up hating him more and more. Anyway, Katie is done with his shit at this point. She tells his ass that him and his camera are the problem. She goes to walk away and tells him to leave her alone. He continues following her, so she shouts for him to stop following her with the camera. He adds that he's just trying to solve the problem, shouting that he didn't bring that into the house she did. He shouts as fuck for that. Like, fuck that guy. Katie stands in disbelief before thanking him as she walks away. He just keeps going and going and shouts to her to go hang out with her friend upstairs, and he'll be downstairs, and she just tells him to shut up. After a while, Katie has just broken down and she's crying, so Mika goes to comfort her, but of course he's still recording for whatever reason. She apologizes and he tells her that she didn't do anything wrong. You damn right she didn't do anything wrong like your fucking ass did. Later that night, Katie and Mika are in bed. We see another text that reads October 7th, 2006, night twenty, with a timestamp of four thirty-one a.m. When all of a sudden Katie is dragged out of bed, and as she's being dragged into the hallway, she yells for Mika and the bedroom door slammed shut as as he goes to run for her, and he begins shouting for the entity to let her go. You can't really see what's happening, but it looks like um in in the background, it seems to be like there's a tug of war going on because he's struggling to pull her, but the entity finally lets go and they go running into the bedroom. And the next scene, Katie tells him that she doesn't care, she just wants to go, she can't be there, begging him to go, so he tells her they'll go and he'll get them a hotel. He asks to see her back, and when she shows him it's a bite mark and that she's been bitten by this entity. Mika has packed their bags, and when he goes to her, she's sitting on the floor clutching a cross, completely unresponsive and catatonic. He goes to take the cross from her, but he has to pry from out of her hand, and once he does, he discovers that her hand is covered in blood. He goes into the kitchen and grabs a rag to address the bleeding while still trying to bring her back to reality because she's just unresponsive at that point. Mika shouts that he's had it with the shit, followed by yelling, Sir, this is 100% your fault. You started this shit, so there's no need for you to be yelling that you've had it when you helped instigate the situation. Mika helps her to her feet and tells her that he's gonna be taking care of it. He then goes to the fireplace and burns the cross that she was holding, like it's supposed to do something. The next morning he goes to wake her up so they can leave, but suddenly she doesn't want to. So at that point he's confused, asking what she's talking about, and it's time to get the fuck out of the house. She repeats that she doesn't want to leave, asking him to stay with her, and she thinks it'll be better if they stay. Mika tells her that he doesn't know what the fuck is going on, but that's insane. Mika, you have no idea what's coming. You wait, you just wait. Mika walks out of the room, but if you listen closely, Katie says that she thinks they'll be okay now, but her voice distorts just a little, but you can catch it if the sound is up on uh your TV. Just listen closely. It's not like 100% her voice. Katie then closes her eyes, but as she does, she smiles. That's not Katie anymore. Mika, sir, good luck, cause you're gonna need it. Here we are at October 8th, 2006, night twenty-one, one twenty-seven a.m. Katie suddenly sits up and removes the sheet and gets out of bed, but the way that she doesn't isn't normal. I I can't explain it, but if you've seen it, you might know what I'm talking about. As she stands there catatonic, we see the sheets slowly slide off Amika's body. She then walks over to his side of the bed standing over him as the timestamp accelerates before stopping at 3 14 a.m. If you notice every time or majority of the time that something happens, the clock usually stops around somewhere in the window of 3 a.m. And if you don't know what they say, they say 3 a.m. is the witching hour. That's when all paranormal events occur the most. That's when the activity is at its highest point. Katie then walks away and goes downstairs, and all of a sudden Katie is down there screaming at the top of her lungs, screaming for Mika with these blood-curdling screams. Mika then starts screaming as soon as he gets down there, and suddenly silence, just pure silence, nothing, nothing, you can't hear anything at all. But then we hear heavy footsteps approaching, and after a few moments of more silence, out of nowhere, Mike Mika's lifeless body is thrown at the camera, and as the camera falls over, Katie is standing in the doorway and her shirt is covered in blood. She then walks over to his body and kneels down, and I think she's smelling him, sniffing him or something, I don't know. But she slowly looks up at the camera, crawls over to it, stares at it, smiles, then her face turns demonic and the screen fades to black. We get one final text that says Mika's body was discovered by police on October 11th, 2006. Katie's whereabouts remain unknown. The movie ends with no credits, Blair Witch style. There are actually a few different endings besides the one that we just saw. The original ending was much more darker and tragic where Katie returns to the bedroom with the knife and is discovered by the police where she ultimately is fatally shot by the police because she wakes up completely unaware of what's happened, but she's still holding the knife and they are constantly shouting for her to drop the knife, and she doesn't. And from that moment, she's shot to death by the police. There's another alternate ending that pretty much is um after Micah's body is thrown, she smells it, you know, yada yada, etc. She looks at the camera and she slips her own throat. Before we wrap this up, let's get on get into some behind the scenes uh information, fun facts, etc. Paranormal Activity was produced, written, directed, photographed, and edited by Orin Pelley. It was originally developed by Pelle as an independent feature and was only shot for $15,000. But then it was acquired by Paramount Pictures and modified with the new ending that cost an additional $200,000. The rights were acquired for $350,000, but Paranorma Activity also brought in worldwide $194 million. The production company, as well, as we all know, was Blumhouse. And to me, this franchise is what put Blumhouse on the map. Not even the franchise, but I would say maybe the first three at least. Um it's fairly short with a runtime of 86 minutes, so what about an hour and 20 some odd minutes? Oren Pelley auditioned a few hundred people before finally meeting Katie Featherston and Mika Sloat, and he had them audition individually and together, hiring them after seeing their on-screen chemistry. They were originally paid $500, but that soon changed based on the popularity of the movie. Principal Photography was shot at Orm Pelle's resident and was shot out of sequence due to his self-imposed seven-day shooting schedule. It was shot day and night and edited at the same time as they went along. The film was screened at 2007's Scream Fest Horror Film Festival, where it impressed an assistant at the Creative Artist Agency and they signed on to represent Paley. So after sending out DVDs to as many people in the industry, it was eventually seen by Mirimax Film senior executive at the time, Jason Blum, Blumhouse, who thought it had potential, so he worked with Pele to re-edit the film and submitted it to the Sundance Film Festival, where it was ultimately rejected. The DVD impressed DreamWorks executive Adam Goodman, Stacy Snyder, and Steve Spielberg. During a test screening, people started walking out as it was originally thought it sucked until finding out that viewers were actually leaving because they were frightened. Attempting to focus on believability rather than action and gore, Pelly chose to shoot the picture with home video camera and in deciding on a more raw and stationary format. The camera was almost always sitting on a tripod or something else, and that eliminated the need for a camera crew. A higher degree of plausibility was created with the audience as they were more invested in the story and the characters. Pelle says the dialogue was natural because there was no real script. Instead, the actors were given outlines of the story and situations to improvise a technique known as retro scripting, which was also used in the making of the Blair Witch Project. Initial trailers featured clips of audience reacting to scenes in the film. In these trailers, a night vision camera was mounted in a movie theater to show the montage of moviegoers screaming and jumping after being scared. On his website, director Orren Pelley invited internet users to demand where the film went next by voting on Eventful. This was the first time a major motion picture studio used the service to virally market a film. In addition to the demanded campaign, allowing fans to bring the film to their local movie theater, there was also a tweet your scream campaign on Twitter, resulting in the videos of many audience reactions becoming popular as part of the trailer. Critical response on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating of 83% based on 211 reviews with an average rating of 7.1 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads: Using it its low budget effects and mockumentary method to a great result, paranormal activity turns a simple haunted house story into 90 minutes of relentless uh suspense. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 24 critics indicating generally favorable reviews. Film critics, James uh, I don't even know how to say his name, so I'm gonna skip that, but Roger Ebert each awarded it 3.5 stars out of a maximum of four stars. Ebert stated that in his review, it illustrates one of my favorite points that silence and waiting can be more entertaining than frantic, fast-cutting, or berserk FX. For extended periods here, nothing at all is happening, and believe me, you won't be bored. Entertainment Weekly gave Paranormal Activity an A- rating and called it frightening, freaky, and terrifying, and said that paranormal activity scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare cliches. Bloody Disgusting ranked the film 16th in their list of the top 20 horror films of the decade, with the article saying Paley deserves props for milking the maximum amount of tension out of a spare, modern setting. An ordinary cookie cutter tracked home in San Diego. It doesn't f sound very scary, but Pelle manages to make it terrifying. If you aren't white knuckling your armrests or clenching your fist at least once or twice while watching, you probably don't have a pulse. Paranormal Activity helps spawn an entire franchise. A prequel sequel and well no, a parallel sequel and prequel Paranormal Activity 2 was released in 2010, which we will actually be covering in next week's episode. The success of the first two films would spawn additional films in the series: the prequel, Paranormal Activity 3 in 2011, Paranormal Activity 4, the sequel to the second installment in 2012, the fifth installment and spin-off The Mark Ones was released in 2014, and the sixth installment, The Ghost Dimension, was released in 2015. A seventh mainline installment titled Next of Ken was released in October of 2021 to the streaming platform Paramount. In Japan, a sequel spin-off not official to the first film was released in 2010 titled Paranormal Activity Tokyo Night. To speak more, I guess, detail into the um extra endings, um, the original ending, Katie returns to the bedroom alone, covered in blood and holding a large kitchen knife. She sits on the floor against the bed and rocks back and forth. The next day, Katie's friend Amber leaves a concern message at 2 p.m. and then she visits the house at 9 p.m., discovers Mika's body downstairs and runs away in a panic. Thirty minutes later, two policemen enter the house and reach the bedroom where they find the possessed Katie with a knife. Seeing them, Katie suddenly returns to her normal state and asks about Mika. After the attic door slams itself shut, one of the officers panics, shoots, and kills her. The camera fades to black as the police officers continue searching the house for the source of the sound, and an ending text appears dedicating the film to the memory of Mika and Katie. That ending was only shown at publicly at the 2007 Screen Fest Film Festival and has never been released officially by Paramount or Blumhouse since its acquisition. The original version of the film was later leaked on various formats, which included this ending. As far as the other ending with where she slits her throat, it goes after killing Mika off-screen, Katie comes back upstairs alone, like the original ending. She closes and locks the bedroom door, approaches the camera, and promptly slits her own throat. And before collapsing dead, the screen then fades to black. With that being said, that is it for this week's terror. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review and/or five stars on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Our Heart Radio, or your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more horror fans just like you. A good way for us to interact would be TikTok and Instagram at Chills and Thrills Podcast or Twitter slash X at Chills and Thrill or email chills and thrills podcast at gmail.com. So in closing, as Ghostface always asks, what's your favorite movie? Because next week we will be reviewing your next nightmare. Until then, see you next week. Later, folks.