During the screening, viewers began to walk out of the theater. Goodman was afraid that he made the wrong decision and that the screening was a bomb until he learned that the viewers were actually truly frightened by the film.

When “Jaws” came out, it famously scared beachgoers everywhere out of the water. A similar fear emerged with “The Blair Witch Project” — camping became less about hiking and more about jumping after each creak in the woods. With the much-hyped “Paranormal Activity," will we no longer be able to sleep in our own beds? Director Oren Peli seems to hope so.

The trailer for “Paranormal” contains hidden camera footage of horrified reactions from college students as they watch an advanced screening of the movie. Whether or not the emotions are authentic remains unknown, but in a recent interview with the Daily, Oren Peli pointed out that his film has received similar responses even from some celebrities.

“I heard that Steven Spielberg, when he watched the movie, he watched it at night so he got kind of scared by the movie and he stopped it, and continued watching it in the daylight,” he said.

When Spielberg turns off his set in fear, it must be testimony to something. With the motley ensemble of cheap scare tactics and unreasonable violence prevalent in contemporary horror movies, the genre rarely spits forth a work on par with classics like “The Exorcist” or “The Shining” anymore. If “Paranormal” is truly terrifying, it must differentiate itself from the pack that has become so blood thirsty in recent years. And it does so by focusing on the human element of the horror.

“The main thing that people respond to, in my opinion, is, first of all, just the overall realism of (the movie),” Peli said.

“Even people in the film industry … ask me, ‘these actors, are they actors or are they friends of yours, or are they a couple in real life?’ ” he continued. “A lot of people don’t even think they are actors. They aren’t even sure what’s going on, so they kind of drop their guard and go along for the ride."

In addition to realistic acting, “Paranormal” is shot in a home-video style reminiscent of “Blair Witch.” The separating factor, however, is that while people can at least stay out of the woods to avoid any chance encounter with ghouls, “Paranormal” amps up the terror by bringing the supernatural into an unavoidable place: the bedroom.

“You can never avoid being asleep at your own home … what may be preying on you when you are sleeping, you may not even know,” Peli said.

Interestingly enough, the idea to shoot a horror movie with one home camera stems from a real experience in Peli’s life.

“When I moved to my house — the first house that I owned — (my wife and I) started hearing all sorts of weird noises during the night,” he said. “Some of it was probably the house settling; we definitely didn’t think there was a ghost in the house, but just the fact that there were strange things happening and I couldn’t explain them logically kind of got me thinking, ‘What if I had a video camera and then let it run, and then if something happened in the house it can capture it?’ ”

And while Peli never captured any evidence of ghosts that night, he at least captured what is surely an ingenious movie idea. Armed with $10,000, one movie camera and a group of no-name actors, Peli completed shooting of “Paranormal” in only seven days.

The best part is he isn’t even sure he believes in ghosts.

“Whether or not I believe it or not, I’m still scared of it — if that makes sense,” he admitted.

Of course it does. It isn’t going to matter if you think ghosts are real — "Paranormal Activities" will make you second guess yourself the next time you hear that thump in the night.

A few days after the first screening, Peli recalls being approached by all kinds of people from that first audience – men and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. They all reported having problems sleeping at night, sometimes for several nights. “At first I thought people were just using a figure of speech to describe a scary movie,” Peli says. “But reports of sleeplessness have persisted after every screening since.”

It doesn't play in my city for some reason so we're all waiting here for the release. Looking forward to seeing it with some girls. :)

I want to see something that will scare me, maybe this is it?

It doesn't play in my city for some reason so we're all waiting here for the release. Looking forward to seeing it with some girls. :)

If I remember correctly, the cost to make the movie was 15,000 dollars and so far it's grossed 52 million dollars, in the US alone.

It was 11 grand, but it took a good 3 years for it to be released to the majority of civilization.

No offence but I don't see how these movies can be scary.

Paramount may produce 'Paranormal Activity' sequel
October 25, 2009 | 10:45 am

ParanormalActivity2 Can lightning strike twice?

Paramount Pictures is hoping so, as the studio is actively considering producing a sequel to "Paranormal Activity," the out-of-the-blue horror flick that cost $15,000 to produce and has sold $62.5 million worth of tickets so far domestically.

"We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do 'Paranormal 2' and we're looking to see if that makes some sense," Paramount Chairman Brad Grey said in an interview today.

In an industry obsessed with building franchises, a second "Paranormal Activity" seems like a no-brainer. The studio acquired the movie for just $300,000 and has spent less than $10 million on marketing, relying primarily on word-of-mouth and Internet buzz. It is on track to gross more than $100 million domestically. That would make it, Grey said, the most profitable film for Paramount since he took over in 2005 and, quite possibly, in the studio's history.

Producing follow-ups to low-cost movies that unexpectedly capture the nation's attention can be difficult, however, making a "Paranormal" sequel a potentially perilous task for the studio. "Book of Shadows," the 2000 follow-up to 1999's indie horror phenomenon "The Blair Witch Project," was very poorly received and grossed just $26.4 million domestically, compared to $140.6 million for the original.

Paramount has an extra reason to make a sequel to "Paranormal Activity" beyond trying to duplicate its success: Although the studio has only domestic rights to the current film, it would have worldwide rights to a follow-up, Grey noted.

If it owned the movie overseas as well, "Paranormal Activity" would be even more profitable for Paramount. The film, which starts playing in foreign countries Friday, is being sold to international distributors by IM Global.

I don't understand how you can make a sequel on this movie? Wasn't this movie based off of true events? Also, didn't Paranormal Activities sum up all of the events?