In 2007, Oren Peli’s supernatural found footage horror film Paranormal Activity spawned a franchise that includes six installments, with a seventh scheduled for spring of 2021. The films follow the history of two sisters named Katie and Kristi who are tormented by a demonic entity that stalks and, ultimately, murders multiple members of their family or whoever they come in contact with. As the franchise continued to grow and expand, sequels, prequels, and parallel installments necessitate the need for clarification on the exact timeline of events.
Throughout the franchise, various video cameras are used to give a candid experience of supernatural phenomenon and it crows increasingly violent. Paranormal Activity assisted in popularizing the found footage genre of horror films in the 2000s and 2010s. With others such as As Above, So Below (2014) and V/H/S (2012), the Blumhouse Productions franchise continues to prove to be one of their most popular and profitable franchises.
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Blumhouse is responsible for some of the greatest franchises in horror today such as Insidious (2010), but Paranormal Activity set them on a path towards becoming an iconic production company in the genre. It was the first horror film they produced and it was successfully distributed by Paramount Pictures. Paranormal Activity was the first franchise Blumhouse Productions established for their company and with all of its success, they produced nearly fifteen years of found footage films with an elaborate timeline.
September 1988: Paranormal Activity 3
In 2011, the prequel to the Paranormal Activity franchise, Paranormal Activity 3, released to dive deeper into the history of the demonic entity following the main characters of Kristi and Katie. It is set in September 1988, nearly twenty years prior to the first two films. At the time, the two sisters are living with their mother, Julie, and her boyfriend, Dennis. Kristi begins to see an imaginary friend named “Tobi”, who is actually the demon that will plague the family for years to come.
Dennis discovers a symbol that belonged to a coven of witches that brainwashes young women of child-bearing age into having sons and promising them to a dark entity. This bit of information explains the disappearance of Kristi’s son in Paranormal Activity 2. The film culminates to the family seeking refuge at Julie’s mother’s house only to find that she is a member of a coven of witches and is responsible for all of the evil the family experienced in September of 1988.
August 2006: Paranormal Activity 2
Paranormal Activity 2 begins a few months before the events of the first, but the two films merge together towards the end and become parallel to one another. That is, conversations about Katie and Micah’s experiences with a supernatural presence happen throughout the second film. Furthermore, when Katie disappears at the end of Paranormal Activity, the sequel reveals that she went to her sister Kristi’s house to take her son, Hunter.
Prior to these events, Kristi and her family are introduced shortly after she delivers Hunter, their first-born son. Shortly after his birth, paranormal occurrences begin to plague their home to the point where family members are physically attacked. Ultimately, Katie takes Hunter and she murders the majority of the family while seemingly under possession.
October 2006: Paranormal Activity
The first installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise is set in October of 2006. It follows Katie and Micah, a young couple who have recently moved into a new home together. As the film progresses, the supernatural occurrences around the home grow increasingly stronger to the point where Katie becomes possessed. The film ends with her throwing Micah into the camera and supposedly disappearing. While there are other alternative endings, they are not canonical to the franchise. Therefore, this timeline follows the original theatrical ending of Micah dying and Katie disappearing.
November 2011: Paranormal Activity 4
The fourth installment in the franchise seems to be a bit out of place and somewhat unimportant to the story line, being set in November of 2011. Except, it reveals that Katie has moved to the suburbs and lives across the street from the Nelson family, who is now plagued by the spirit named “Tobi” that only the youngest member, Wyatt, can see. Katie has, in some way, acquired a child to pose as her son named Robbie who becomes friends with Wyatt.
It is revealed that Wyatt and Robbie were both adopted and that Wyatt’s real name is actually Hunter. At some point between the second film and now, Katie lost Hunter, and is now trying to get him back in order to sacrifice him to the demons she and her coven worship. Before the audience finds out what happens to the Nelson family, Hunter/Wyatt, and Katie, the screen cuts to black. Paranormal Activity 4 still leaves holes in the timeline of the franchise that could get resolved in the upcoming installment.
June 2012: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones follows a Latino community in California dealing with the aftermath of eighteen-year-old Jesse Arista receiving the mark of a demonic cult. Jesse discovers a witch’s altar in his home and sees the apparitions of a young Kristi and Katie. As the film progresses, he becomes dark and depressed while slowly cutting himself off from the world around him. His friends, Hector and Marisol, visit Ali Rey, Kristi’s stepdaughter, who began to research demons after her family was murdered and half-brother went missing.
She reveals that Jesse has been marked by a coven of witches that call themselves the “Midwives”, who brainwash women into giving up their first-born sons to start a legion of possessed men. Regardless of their attempts to save Jesse, Marisol and Hector find themselves in a battle for survival against their friend. Jesse forces Hector through a door that leads him into the setting of the first film, Katie and Micah’s home. The fifth installment loops back to the first, but now the larger threat of the Midwives and their control is strengthened in the franchise.
2013: Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
What was thought to be the final installment in the franchise, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was released in 2015, but is set in 2013. It follows the Fleeges family who have relocated to a new home in California. Shortly after moving in, they discover video tapes of Katie and Kristi being initiated into the coven of witches called Midwives twenty-five years prior. Ryan and Emily’s six-year-old daughter Leila meets “Tobi.” The family discovers that the home they are living in was built on top of Kristi and Katie’s home that they shared with their parents back in 1988; Katie sold them the house.
The film later reveals that Leila was born on the same day as Hunter, so Tobi needs her blood to finish his transformation. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension culminates with a battle of religion and the paranormal as the family attempts to have the house exorcised without success. As Leila jumps into the portal to be with Tobi, Emily follows her. They are transported to 1992 where Emily confronts Tobi and begs for him to spare her daughter. At the end, she is killed and Leila walks off with Hunter into the unknown.
Paranormal Activity’s timeline is a long and confusing one with many twists and turns that transform it from a linear progression to a time traveling, portal jumping, inter-dimensional adventure through the paranormal. While the franchise has introduced various alternate endings, with the introduction of more installments, they become defunct and non-canonical. While Paranormal Activity has utilized its sequels, prequels, and parallel films to fill holes in the timeline, some of these holes still exist. With the seventh installment arriving in spring of 2021, it could either complicate it even more or give a sound resolution to the entire franchise.
