The upcoming Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin appears to reboot the franchise, but the movie could prove to be a Paranormal Activity sequel thanks to the slippy timeline of the series. Released in 2008, director Oren Pelli’s original Paranormal Activity was a huge hit that went on to become one of the most profitable movies of all time. Like fellow contenders for that title, such as The Blair Witch Project and the low-budget original Mad Max, Paranormal Activity combined a simple story with a tiny budget to produce maximum tension with minimum investment.
Paranormal Activity’s ingeniously straightforward plot told the tale of two suburbanites, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a seemingly demonic presence. Although the original Paranormal Activity was light on plot and heavy on slow-burn tension, its five sequels gradually increased the amount of lore that the Paranormal Activity franchise featured. By the sixth and final movie, 2015’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, there were time loops, cults, demons, witches, and ghosts involved in the knotty plot of the series.
2021 sees the release of Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, the first installment in the series since The Ghost Dimension. Understandably, fans are curious about whether the new movie will be a sequel or a reboot, but the answer is not an easy one to discern. The ending of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension undid the events of the series so far, as the villainous demon Toby succeeded in possessing a human body back in 1992 and, in the process, erased the timeline where the preceding Paranormal Activity movies took place. As such, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin could reveal that its villain is Toby in another guise, or could (as the trailer implies) focus on an entirely new demonic threat.
The trailer for Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin shows a group of teenage protagonists accompanying a woman who is meeting her estranged, anti-technology family for the first time. Soon, the demon Asmodeus ensures the reunion is not a fun one, and all manner of haunted proceedings ensue. As this summary proves, the trailer involves no connection to the existing movies. However, Happy Death Day director/time-loop enthusiast Christopher Landon scripted Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin and also wrote the second, third, fourth, and fifth movies in the franchise, meaning there is a strong chance that this seventh installment will turn out to be a sequel in disguise.
It could be a mistake for the Paranormal Activity franchise to bring back Katie, Toby, and the rest of its recurring characters. The later additions to the series were nowhere near as critically acclaimed as the original Paranormal Activity, and the box office returns of the franchise dwindled as fan enthusiasm waned with the fourth and fifth. However, the lengthy break between movies combined with Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin’s stylistic shift could mean that the belated outing can bring back the existing characters without annoying fans and critics. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare proved that changing the approach to a horror franchise could reinvigorate familiar characters, and the Paranormal Activity series might be able to repeat this success if Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin does end up being canonically connected to the earlier movies.