Paramount Pictures and Blumhouse have released the first official trailer for “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin,” the seventh installment in the long-enduring found footage franchise. Released in 2007, the original “Paranormal Activity” effectively launched Jason Blum’s horror studio and revitalized the trend of found footage genre films that exploded over the following decade. This latest iteration reboots the franchise while also capitalizing on more recent genre trends, including its period farmhouse settings (Robert Eggers’ “The Witch”).
While plot details have been kept tightly under wraps until now, the trailer offers plenty to parse about what Blumhouse has dubbed a “rebirth” of the franchise. The film follows an adopted young woman who goes in search of her biological parents, bringing a friend along to film. The search leads her to an Amish community, where she is initially welcomed with open arms. Things quickly begin to devolve as they notice disturbing forces in the community, which holds clues to the truth about her biological mother and the reason they were separated.
“There was no way to continue the road that we’d been down,” Blum told Collider in July of the franchise. “So I really encouraged all the creative people involved to think of something new. A lot of people who are going to go see the new ‘Paranormal Activity’ were 3 years old when the first ‘Paranormal Activity’ came out, so they don’t even know from those older movies. I thought if you were going to re-do it, you better really re-do it, not try and expand what we did all those years ago.”
“Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin” stars Emily Bader, Roland Buck III, Dan Lippert, Tom Nowicki, and Henry Ayres-Brown. It was written by returning franchise regular Christopher Landon and directed by cinematographer-turned-director William Eubank. Blum is producing alongside franchise creator Oren Peli, who wrote and directed the original film.
The movie premieres exclusively on Paramount+ on October 29. Check out the official trailer for “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin” below.
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