In May 2027 James Wan is rebooting Paranormal Activity. Which is wild, because for 14 years I was certain these movies were trash — and last week I sat down and watched all 7. Plus the one almost nobody talks about.

This is a look at how the most maligned found footage franchise in horror history stayed fresh for 14 years by refusing to be the same movie twice — and what the 2027 reboot might do with what it's been handed.

Chapters:
0:00 - I was wrong about all of them
2:45 - The mutation (what makes this franchise weird)
4:00 - Paranormal Activity (2007)
6:00 - Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
7:30 - Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
9:00 - Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
11:00 - The Marked Ones (2014)
13:30 - The Ghost Dimension (2015)
16:00 - Next of Kin (2021)
19:00 - BONUS: PA2: Tokyo Night (2010)
21:02 - SHOULD YOU WATCH IT roundup
23:53 - What James Wan is inheriting

I remember the first time I saw [No Through Road](https://youtu.be/08rj\_ioKNSo?si=Av3CG29bu7tZTCGD) being completely blown away. Chilling, creative, and left me with that haunted feeling that lingers for a long time afterwards. They did some pretty clever sequels to it that deepen the story and are worth a watch too.

I’ve come across [a bunch of other short-form horror](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-8BefTclHdk9TgLYjU-AC3PPmlJoFhll&si=15UL67DkbOLkRF5m) but I kinda want to clean up the list and make it exclusively found footage. Anyone got any recommendations?

Negativity and fear around AI endangers us all, not only by threatening to delay the beautiful life-affirming developments to come, but also by filling AI with negative scenarios to train on.

So, it’s time we balance the scales a bit. Here is just one of thousands of ways that this could all go right.

1 - Simple Prosperity

As superintelligence-as-a-tool arose, and everyone had (nearly) free access to it in their pockets, everyone asked it the same question: how can I make enough money to live while also being happy?

The answers the AIs developed spun out into quite literally billions of directions, each customized to each individual’s life circumstances, the environments they found themselves in, the unique social environments of their families and neighborhoods, and the individual’s unique personality and neurological makeup (detected by the superintelligence via subtle means very few humans ever comprehended).

But of all the answers, in all of their wide variety, one thing remained consistent: they worked. Not a single person who asked for a better life was left behind, and in every case, they got it on their own terms.

Some contrarians would do the opposite of what they were told, or would sabotage their own efforts to make a point as a form of protest. These were anticipated by the superintelligence, planned for, and strategized around. Many found themselves making a living ranting angrily about how awful AI was - a success that, ironically, was supported via millions of subtle manipulations by AI itself.

And gradually, slowly, poverty slipped away entirely. Human health was solved, and our species was guided to step into a balance with nature. Population levels balanced out worldwide. Pollution began its slow rollback. Politicians and newscasters were de-incentivized from their need to find success through division. Wealthy people continued to exist, but luxury living and influence were also made far less appealing than the freedom and frictionless living the average person enjoyed.

And then, once stability was made permanent and positive, humanity turned its gaze to the stars.

Dad is back. Sort of. And he's gone found footage.

And he's lost in a liminal space.

Would love your help filling in the gaps.

I’m a pretty small YouTube channel at 740 subscribers. Just starting out trying to grow big, and so I’ve been listening and learning to a lot of growth hack stuff. Here’s what I think I’m being told, from most important to least important:

1 Thumbnail design - it’s job is to keep people from scrolling by. That means it needs to generate curiosity enough for people to read your title. Keep it simple enough that you can easily see what it is when it’s super small, and have it imply that you have a unique twist on something your ideal viewer finds interesting.

2 Title - the title has two jobs: create curiosity and tell people what the video is about. These are two separate jobs and it needs to do both. You might be able to accomplish both of those things with just a couple of words but do not skip either task.

3 First 3 seconds - people are looking for any excuse to move on so those first three seconds need to catch their attention enough for them to wonder what’s about to happen. It’s worth going to a popular channel that you like and just queueing up a whole list of their videos and hitting next next next to learn how to do that three second attention grab.

4 First 30 seconds - don’t worry about providing your core content yet. The first 30 seconds is all about promising what’s about to come, and that’s done by making them feel something and telling them that if they watched the rest of the video they’re going to feel even more of that.

5 Content - so everything before this is about getting views. Now you need subscribers and this is where your content comes in. Here is where you deliver something unique that absolutely nobody else in your niche delivers, whether it’s your sparkling personality, your fancy hat, or the number of explosions per second in your kitchen. Deliver something people can’t get elsewhere.

6 Audio - reverb will absolutely kill your channel. If you have a Blue Yeti, get it close to your face and talk into the side of the mic. If you have a noisy room go for something like a FIFINE AM8. In either case, if possible, get Adobe Audition, do noise removal and compression.

7 Editing - keep things moving along and cut out big gaps where nothing‘s happening. Also make sure that people aren’t just staring at the same thing for the whole length of your video. If you’re a talking head, cut to stock video or screenshots or just anything other than your face every once in a while. This even applies to gaming channels.

8 Production quality - you don’t need a fancy camera. You don’t need a fancy camera. You don’t need a fancy camera. Nobody cares. Just make sure that we can clearly see whatever it is you want us to see - no blur, lit properly. That’s it. Your built in web camera or phone camera are probably fine.

9 Video description - honestly have no idea if this matters. I’ve heard just as many stories about people getting shadow banned for overdoing their SEO as I have people nailing the algorithm with the perfect collection of keywords. In situations like tutorials people really appreciate your chapters, but I have no idea what role even those play in getting views and subscriber growth.

That’s everything I’ve gathered so far… not saying I’m actually good at any of the above btw! Just that I’ve been able to figure out these priorities.

Anyone think one of these needs expansion? What am I missing?

Edit: some typos

For the last year or so I’ve mainly focused on reviewing found footage movies, but in the process I’ve developed an appreciation for independent films. Often, I’ve found myself among some of the ONLY reviewers of certain movies because they’re not covered by the mainstream.

So I’ve been contemplating branching out one day a week and it got me thinking: is there anyone out there doing a really great job reviewing indie horror?