The 2007 found footage horror movie Paranormal Activity revolutionized the genre in many respects and became one of the most successful independent movies ever made. It would go on to receive 5 sequels of varying success before ultimately billing its sixth installment as its last.

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This would, as it so often does with profitable horror movie franchises, turn out to not be true, with a long-awaited seventh movie being officially announced by parent studio Paramount to be released for the seemingly much more appropriate age of streaming. Nevertheless, the Paranormal Activity series did very well as a multiplex horror icon and even hit Certified Fresh status on Rotten Tomatoes once upon a time. Here's every movie released under the Paranormal Activity banner so far, ranked by its Tomatometer score.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) - 14%

Kristi On Bed Staring Into Ghost Dimension

For its final release to date, the Paranormal Activity franchise would deliver more special effects and gruesome kills than ever before but it was not enough to recoup the steady losses that the series had been experiencing with scores from critics, who were once quite enthusiastic about the premise and its execution, and returns at the box office, that were generally very high even when not taking the low budgets into account.

The Ghost Dimension would prove to not only be the most expensive of the series to date but also the lowest-grossing, making it no mystery as to why producers put the franchise on hold for a while.

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) - 23%

Paranormal Activity 4 Entity Over Bed

After expanding the mythos of the franchise by delving into its history a bit more in the previous movie, Paranormal Activity 4 marked the moment when the series would finally modernize and start using smaller personal cameras for its footage, such as laptops and even games consoles. Unfortunately, fatigue had begun to settle into the public perception of the franchise, as reflected in its low critical ranking despite retaining directors from the previous–and much more highly-rated–entry.

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Paranormal Activity 4 was able to use lots more locations for many more types of scenes but this would ultimately prove to alienate its supporters who considered the franchise's simplest aspects to be its best, not to mention the extremely convoluted handling of the running story within the series.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014) -39%

Jesse Recording Himself In The Mirror

Longtime writer for the franchise Christopher Landon, who was the solely-credited screenwriter on the previous two movies in the series, stepped up to directing duties for the fifth movie after the critical–and minor financial–stumble of the fourth installment and continued the evolution into different types of cameras being used for more outdoor shooting in wider urban environments.

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Sadly, this could not turn the critics back onto the franchise's side and it appeared that the series had passed a point of no return in the eyes of reviewers, becoming too confusing and complicated to fit with its simple structure.

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) - 58%

Hunter's bedroom in Paranormal Activity 2.

The first sequel in the series got things off to somewhat of a rocky start. Though still a financial hit, critics were far less enthusiastic in comparison to the previous installment despite a much wider scope than the original and the real beginnings of a running narrative that would expand on smaller details from the first movie and last throughout the rest of the franchise.

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Focussing on the sister of the original movie's main character and her own family, Paranormal Activity 2 got a bigger house, bigger scares, and way more cameras but began to exhibit the early signs of chronic problems that befall every horror movie franchise sooner or later. Certain aspects felt so stereotypical that it would become the first of the series to be deemed worthy of parody by the Scary Movie franchise, and the parts that were lampooned felt right at home.

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) - 66%

Christi and Katie in the Paranormal Activity 3 mirror scene.

The series decided to switch things up a little for its third installment and it worked very much in the franchise's favor, resulting in its second-highest critical ranking and its highest-box office taking so far.

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Directed by modern docu-style icons Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, who were in the public eye due to the smash-hit success of their documentary feature Catfish (which would go on to become its own successful series), Paranormal Activity 3 is an '80s-set prequel about a segment of the strange childhoods of two of the key characters of the franchise's overall mythos and the retro style of the camera certainly helps create an extra layer of atmosphere that both critics and fans responded well to.

Paranormal Activity (2007) - 83%

Final possession scene in Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity

The original movie is, by a considerable margin, the most well-liked of the series amongst both critics and fans alike. The first installment not only had the benefit of appearing to be much more of a fresh concept than any of the sequels, which retained much of the basic formula no matter how much they deviated from the previous movie, it also kept things much simpler.

The movie never has a scene with more than three actors at any given time and only uses one location. In terms of low-budget filmmaking technique, it accomplished something that many before it had tried and failed at miserably. Through the simple application of a single camera setup with minimal actors and a little visual audio and effects magic in a suburban house, record-breaking box office gold was struck.

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