When the first Paranormal Activity came to theaters in 2009, it spawned its own franchise and revitalized the found footage genre of horror films. Then it got...not particularly great, hence the reboot Next of Kin. Coming out alongside it, Paramount’s released a documentary about the making of the entire series for those invested in the films.
Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity features interviews from cast and crew members of the first six films, who all talk about the making of their respective movies and the gradual rise of the series overall. The documentary comes courtesy of a successful indiegogo campaign from 2019, and its existence will be especially important to longtime fans. Unknown Dimension marks the first behind the scenes look at the franchise, which hasn’t ever offered any such insight in the DVD releases of their films.
“Unknown Dimension will literally be the first time where cast and crew from all six films assemble,” said the documentary’s main page, “to reveal the incredible journey in a feature documentary that’s begging to be made.” The documentary’s got a quartet of horror buffs behind it: its director/writer, Joe Bandelli, is best known for the Hell House franchise and the horror mystery, Cabin Fear. Producers Nate Ragon and Anthony Masi have experience with documentaries on horror franchises like Halloween, Hellraiser, and Scream. Meanwhile, co-producer Rachel Belofsky created the horror film festival “Screamfest,” where the original Paranormal Activity first debuted in 2007.
Along with the interviews, the Unknown crew managed to get never-before-seen footage from original Paranormal director Oren Peli that he’s kept to himself for years. (“We’ve included a lot of it,” promises the indiegogo page.) There’ll also be some deleted and alternate footage from the films, likely stuff that’s been kept from the DVD releases of the first six films. Luckily, they were also able to spend some time talking to cast and crew from Next of Kin, for what it’s worth.
Unknown Dimension: The Story of Paranormal Activity is out now on Paramount+.