Blumhouse's Paranormal Activity reboot nabs Disturbia scribe & Underwater director

It’s never too late to keep one eye open and the bedroom light switched on. The creative team behind the Paranormal Activity film franchise has reportedly named a director for the much-buzzed reboot of the lo-fi horror series, which will retain the same found-footage formula that made its preternatural predecessors such a big box office success.

Via The Hollywood Reporter, series creator Oren Peli and horror mastermind Jason Blum of Blumhouse are producing the yet-untitled new entry in the Paranormal Activity franchise, described as “an unexpected retooling” of the intimately creepy sub-genre that the earlier films helped make famous. The producers reportedly have tapped Will Eubank, who directed Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel in last year’s sci-fi horror feature Underwater, to direct the new movie.

Eubank will reportedly share creative duties with all-around horror talent Christopher Landon, who’ll be penning the new movie’s script. Landon comes to the Paramount project with a big-screen scare pedigree that includes writing credits on 2007’s Disturbia, as well as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th films in the Paranormal Activity movie-verse — not to mention directing the cult horror favorite Happy Death Day (2017) and last year’s Freaky.

Story details and casting information are staying hidden in the dark for now, but the report indicates the new film, while bring something new to the mix, will still “continue [sticking] to the found footage device.” Though no title has been set, the reboot also comes with a tentative Mar. 4, 2022 release date. When it arrives, it’ll be the first big-screen visit fans have paid to the franchise since 2015’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.

First crawling out of the shadows in 2009 (after lighting up film festivals in 2007), the original Paranormal Activity was created, written, and directed by Peli, and spawned a massively profitable horror franchise that drew fans in droves to the theater, rewarding its tiny production budget with big box office returns. So far, the six films in the franchise have combined to rake in more than $890 million worldwide against a scant all-time production cost of some $28 million, according to The Numbers.