Paranormal Activity 4 vs Alex Cross: John Gosling previews the week's new movies (10-19-12)

The Paranormal Activity franchise is a multi-million dollar global phenomenon and shows little sign of stopping. The origins of the series stretch back to 2007 when director Oren Peli gathered a group of unknown actors together and shot a very small scale scare flick utilizing the 'found footage' technique (to keep costs costs down he even converted his house into a shooting location and set just seven days aside for filming). The story followed a young couple who encounter strange goings-on in their house. Katie claims an evil presence has always been with her, while her partner Micah is skeptical Setting up a video camera in their bedroom, they soon discover unexplained events, which escalate in the space of a few days. Made for just $15K, Paranormal Activity began gaining strong word of mouth thanks to an impressive showing at the ScreamFest Horror festival. This screening ended up securing Peli an agent but attempts to get the film a distribution deal stumbled even after the director (and Miramax's Jason Blum) re-edited the feature for its Sundance debut. A number of DVDs were sent out to any potentially interested party and one managed to catch the attention of Dreamworks execs Stacey Snider and Adam Goodman, who brought the film to Steven Spielberg's notice. The studio quickly cut a deal with Peli, on the proviso that he re-shoot the picture with an increased budget and higher production values. He agreed, on the condition that he could screen his original version for an audience first. When people walked out not long into the screening, Goodman figured they'd backed a failure. However, when he realized that the people had left due to being frightened by what they'd seen, his opinion changed. The remake idea was scrapped and the studio quickly moved to purchase the domestic rights to distribute (via their deal with Paramount) and the international rights to any sequels. Peli then re-edited the film, and altered the ending from the one seen at Screamfest. But, due to ongoing talks between Paramount and Dreamworks regarding their partnership, all of the latter's productions were delayed for the foreseeable future. Only when Adam Goodman became head of Paramount in summer 2009 did Paranormal Activity gain a release date.

Winter's Bone wins Best Feature at the Gotham Awards, starting the awards derby on the right note.

The first major awards show of the year started the season on just the right note. Winter's Bone, easily the best live-action picture of the year so far, scored the Best Feature Award, while also winning Best Ensemble Performance (yay for John Hawkes). Somewhat surprisingly, Jennifer Laurence did not win the Best Breakthrough Performance award (she lost to Ronald Bronstein), but she'll have to make due with a surefire Oscar nomination in a month or so (if I had my way, she and Natalie Portman would just both win the Best Actress Oscar and call it a night). The film and its cast and crew landed seven Film Independent Spirit Award nominations this morning, including Best Picture, Best Female Lead (Jennifer Laurence), Best Director (Debra Granik), Best Screenplay (Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini), Best Supporting Male (John Hawkes, who damn-well better win), Best Supporting Female (Dale Dickey), and Best Cinematography (Michael McDonough). Winter's Bone is the best film of the year that isn't Toy Story 3. Glad to see the awards season on the right track from the get-go.

Scott Mendelson