Paranormal Activity: Why Katie Is Integral To The Franchise's Success
While a malevolent spirit is what makes Paranormal Activity scary, the character of Katie is what is most integral to the franchise's success. Katie's haunting and subsequent possession is what kicks off the series, but the movies are weak whenever they move away from her story, as they become too focused on what causes her haunting and possession, rather than why they're scary. Let's take a look at why Katie is so important to the Paranormal Activity series.
The now-iconic horror film, Paranormal Activity, follows Katie and her boyfriend Micah, as they move into a new home together. The couple becomes disturbed by what seems to be a demonic entity, later established as "Toby," in their home. Micah sets up a camera to try and catch whatever might be haunting them, but it turns out the demonic spirit is attached to Katie, and not their new home.
Katie's presence grounds the Paranormal Activity franchise, as she reminds users of what made the franchise so scary to begin with — a normal every day couple tormented by a demonic spirit. Subsequent Paranormal Activity movies flounder a bit when it gets too far away from Katie's story, because it tries to explain too much about that original haunting. But the movies find their footing again whenever she returns, as it reminds. Here's what happened to Katie after the first Paranormal Activity movie, and why she's so important to the franchise.
By the end of Paranormal Activity, Katie is possessed by Toby, who she says has been following her and her sister Kristi their entire lives. Katie violently kills Micah and flees, completely evading the police. While the Paranormal Activity timeline jumps around a bit, chronologically, Katie's next move is to break into Kristi and her husband's home to kill them and kidnap their young son. Paranormal Activity 3, a prequel to the first two films, revealed that Katie's grandmother made a deal with the devil that required her to sacrifice the next male born to their family. That male was was Kristi's newborn son, Hunter. Katie was possessed in order to deliver Hunter to the devil.
Katie's arc is the scariest part of the Paranormal Activity franchise, so it's a missed opportunity when she's left out of or barely mentioned in films throughout the series. The first Paranormal Activity movie had a very organic feel thanks to the fact that it was shot on a digital camera and it lacked a structured script. That optimized the scares in the movie because it reminded audience that terrifying and unexplained things can happen to ordinary people.
The less Katie is featured, the less the Paranormal Activity series works. Paranormal Activity is at its scariest when it's a small and contained story with less answers and more questions. While it's revealed later on that her grandmother belonged to a Satanic cult, Katie is perfectly ordinary. It just proves that no one is safe from the unexpected things that go bump in the night, even a student trying to live a quiet life with her boyfriend out in the suburbs. When the Paranormal Activity franchise starts to pull focus away from Katie in the later films, the movies lose that spirit.
Rumor has it that fans can expect another installment in the franchise in 2021. In order to retain the integrity of the series, the new film should return its focus to Katie. When Katie is a side character or just merely mentioned in the films, the Paranormal Activity movies focus too much on answering what happens to Katie and who her demonic tormentor is. The Paranormal Activity films need Katie as a reminder of the spirit that made the original film so scary. An unexplained supernatural phenomenon is truly terrifying, and should have been left at that.