Paranormal Activity 7 debuts a creepy new teaser trailer ahead of its debut on Paramount+. The original 2007 found-footage horror film Paranormal Activity famously was made for just $230,000 and went on to gross a massive $193 million.

Box office returns like that are what studios dream of, so it’s no surprise that a Paranormal Activity franchise was quickly launched. That franchise indeed continued to churn out hit movies, with budgets remaining consistently in the $5 million range and grosses easily topping $100 million, with 2011’s Paranormal Activity 3 hitting a high-water mark of $207 million. It wasn’t until 2014’s Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones that grosses fell below $100 million. The last chapter in the franchise, 2017’s Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension, then sagged to a relatively low – but still not terrible - $78.9 million.

Perhaps sensing that the found-footage ghost movie craze had run its course, Paramount put the Paranormal Activity series on-hold after 2017. But now it’s coming back for a seventh film, entitled Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin. This time though the movie will be a streaming release on Paramount+, as the entire Paramount company begins pivoting away from theatrical franchises and focuses on producing content for its small-screen service. Even though Paranormal Activity is now a streaming release, things look much the same as before in Next of Kin’s teaser trailer, which can be seen in the space below:


Details on Paranormal Activity 7 were kept entirely under wraps until just recently when its title and R rating were revealed. As the teaser indicates, the movie’s plot involves its lead character returning home, apparently to a religious cult. Not surprisingly, paranormal activity starts happening. The found-footage format of the franchise is obviously being preserved here, so there should be plenty of grainy, shaky shots and jump scares.

It’s interesting in fact that no plot details have been released at all about Next of Kin. Normally one would expect something to have been revealed by now, with the movie just weeks away from release. But on the other hand, preserving mystery could be the desired approach. Of course, the plots of the Paranormal Activity movies are all pretty much the same anyway. It’s obviously not a franchise that depends on intricate storytelling and its underlying mythology doesn't feel that important to its effect. All the series ever needed was its found-footage gimmick, which worked astoundingly well for a lot of years.

Of course another big part of the franchise’s success was the fun audiences had watching the movies in theaters full of people (indeed images of moviegoers screaming at the screen was a major part of the original movie's marketing). Unfortunately that experience is now going away with Next of Kin heading to Paramount+. So fans will just have to get some friends together and watch the film at home in a group in order to capture some of that fun horror movie camaraderie. Paranormal Activity 7 releases on October 29, 2021.