Why does paranormal activity have different endings

The first film became a hit back in , and the image of Micah hurtling towards the camera to end the movie became one of its most enduring shots. However, that wasn't always the way the film ended, and director Oren Peli recently lamented that they didn't use the darker original ending in which the cops shoot a possessed Katie. About the ending, Peli said:. The original ending, which if anyone's seen it, that is the one where the cops enter and end up shooting Katie, that wasn't a huge hit with the audience.

Some people loved it, but they wanted to find something a little bit more that will be more universally loved.

So, we tried a few different ideas I thought it was effective but I wasn't a huge fan of it, initially. But it played so well against audiences that I know It's not the greatest feeling, and I tried to fight for my ending, but at the end of the day, the movie did work as a whole with the new ending. Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia.

He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.

In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations.

He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh. By Jack Wilhelmi Published Jan 14, Following the appointment, Katie expresses interest in contacting the demonologist, but Micah immediately shuts the idea down. Not only does he refer to Dr. Fredrichs as a quack, but he is in disbelief that Katie seems to be buying into the concept of a demonic entity at all. For the time being, Katie decides to hold off on contacting the demonologist, and Micah continues with his constant filming.

Luckily for Micah, it seems like whatever has attached itself to Katie may be interested in communicating somehow with the couple. After a few strange occurrences begin to take place around the home, Micah is absolutely ecstatic that he's caught something seemingly impossible on film.

The first credible sign of paranormal activity begins with a door opening on its own, but the occurrences steadily continue to grow with each passing night. For example, lights turn on and off, household items turn up in different places without Katie or Micah moving them, and so on and so forth.

However, things start to get a little stranger as the filming progresses. After night five, Micah captures a strange grunting noise on an audio recorder, which he and Katie are unable to assign to any living creature or other corporeal objects.

Another odd occurrence happens on night 15 when the camera catches footage of Katie getting out of bed in the middle of the night in a trance-like state. For two hours, she stands stock still beside the bed before crawling back in and going back to sleep. When Micah shows her the footage, Katie doesn't seem to have any recollection of doing this the night before.

Though Micah starts out as a rather confident non-believer, he very quickly becomes consumed with capturing every paranormal event on film. More dangerous, Micah goes against both the psychic's warnings and Katie's wishes, trying to communicate with the demon himself. Micah invests in a Ouija board , which makes Katie absolutely livid.

Micah is made to temporarily abandon the toy, but the board's presence is enough to invoke the demon's response anyway. After a few moments of silence, the cursor on the board begins to move on its own.

Then the Ouija board actually catches on fire, leaving behind an engraving of a pentagram on its surface. When Micah discovers the engraving on the board and looks over the footage, he is convinced that the demon is trying to tell them something and begins trying to solve a puzzle that likely doesn't even exist.

Katie begs Micah to stop playing games and call the demonologist, but Micah continues to assert that he has the situation under control. On night 17, Micah decides to run an experiment of his own. He pours baby powder all over the upstairs floor to capture more evidence of the demon on film. Katie is confused about what the experiment will prove since the two know the demon does, in fact, exist.

However, she gives in and makes him agree that if things escalate after his baby powder trials, she is calling the demonologist to step in. On the night of Micah's baby powder stunt, Katie and Micah are woken up by loud creaks in the walls.

More alarming, they find that a trail of footprints has been left behind in the baby powder, leading up to the attic. Katie believes this is a trap meant to lure the couple into the attic and harm them there, but Micah is unfazed. After fearlessly venturing into the attic, he returns with a burnt picture of Katie as a child.

This discovery shocks Katie, as the image is from her childhood home that had burned down, and it's impossible that it could have found its way into the attic after all these years. Having finally had enough, Katie calls the demonologist despite Micah's continued protests. Unfortunately, the demonologist is abroad and doesn't answer their call, so as a last resort, Katie and Micah call Dr.

Fredrichs back to their home. As soon as the psychic steps through the front door, he immediately comments that the demonic energy in the home is overwhelming. He expresses that his presence in the house is only making the demon angrier and is likely making their situation even worse as a result. The double-layered voice Katie projects in bed when she says, "Everything will be fine from now on" and later screaming downstairs uses a different effect to achieve this.

Unlike the Theatrical Cut, the two voices are very distinct. The ending is completely changed. Katie awakes shortly after midnight on the final night, gets out of bed and stares at Micah for roughly three hours.

Unlike the Theatrical Cut, she does not move to his side of the bed to continue watching him, and the sheets do not fly off of his body. Instead, she goes straight downstairs. After Micah is awakened by the scream, he runs downstairs and we hear the ensuing scuffle. Like before, Katie slowly climbs the stairs, except the footstep effect is slightly altered and when she enters the room, she is holding a knife and covered in blood. Micah's body is not thrown at the camera; he remains downstairs.

Katie sits down on the floor against the bed and proceeds to rock back and forth, knife in hand, for several days. We hear her ignore phone calls and the door bell. Eventually, one of her friends comes in to check on her and finds Micah's body, which momentarily interrupts Katie's rocking. The friend lets out a scream and runs out of the house.