The horror genre is especially receptive to franchises, legacy sequels, and reboots. It’s a rare case in which a franchise’s seventh entry can suddenly bring in the highest box office revenue to date. Audiences are hungry to nostalgically return to the horror franchises that have scared them the most over the years, whether that’s Halloween, Scream, The Exorcist, or Paranormal Activity. 

Paranormal Activity, created by Oren Peli, first hit theaters in 2007. Its groundbreaking minimalist approach to found-footage ghost stories has spawned a seven-film franchise that’s grossed nearly $900 million worldwide and is likely to cross the billion-dollar threshold after the release of the recently announced upcoming installment.

It’s been five years since Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, a standalone sequel and soft reboot that ditched the franchise’s lore and failed to commit to its signature found-footage angle. It’s been a decade since the last conventional Paranormal Activity film, which has been long enough for this terrifying tradition to come back into favor.

Paranormal Activity was a defining horror franchise during the 2010s that helped revitalize the found-footage genre for modern audiences. So much of these films’ success comes down to the directors who are shaping these stories and constructing the scares. Ian Tuason, the writer and director of A24’s viral aural horror film, undertone, has been announced as the creative force at the helm of “Paranormal Activity 8.” Paranormal Activity’s DNA can be felt in undertone, a claustrophobic and small-scale experience where an investigation into mysterious audio recordings unleashes something considerably more sinister.

However, these tonal similarities are no accident.

Courtesy of A24

Ian Tuason explicitly turned to Paranormal Activity during undertone‘s construction. “The audio files in undertone were based on the first Paranormal Activity movie, in terms of the couple who were recording themselves,” admits Tuason. “It was a very big influence on the movie.” Tuason’s meticulous control over his craft led to a fortuitous meeting at Blumhouse with both Jason Blum and James Wan, in which he explicitly voiced his interest in Paranormal Activity.

“Jason Blum initially talked to me about a bunch of different IPs, and I expressed the most interest in Paranormal Activity,” explains Tuason. Tuason is the perfect choice to reboot Paranormal Activity since he’s well aware of how to get the most out of a smaller budget, which was essential to the bare bones indie-esque approach to the earlier Paranormal Activity films.

Tuason outlines that James Wan was interested in his angle for the revival and where he would take future Paranormal Activity films. “This was a spontaneous meeting because I just happened to be in LA at the time. I pitched him [James Wan] something in one minute that I thought of the day before. And that was it.

“I felt like the franchise couldn’t be rebooted in any other way.”

Tuason is keeping the specifics of his new Paranormal Activity film close to his chest. It remains unclear if the franchise’s de facto demon mascot, Toby, will return. However, Tuason explains that the advancements in technology since The Ghost Dimension‘s release are what excite him most about his new entry. “Technology — camera technology — has advanced to a point where it’s become a big part of the film and what I want to do there,” admits Tuason. It’s an encouraging direction for the franchise, considering how well Tuason incorporates audio and visual technological elements in undertone.

More details about the next Paranormal Activity will develop in the coming year, but one subject that Tuason can definitively rule out – at least from him – is the possibility of a Paranormal Activity VR expansion. Tuason cut his teeth with VR horror films before undertone, but he’s not interested in returning to this space, even if Paranormal Activity is a property that lends itself to the medium. “No,” confirms Tuason on the prospect of a VR Paranormal Activity promo tool. “I went from cinema to VR, and then I realized how much I love cinema. I went back to the cinema, and now I’m not leaving.” With undertone’s breakout success, Tuason will hopefully have a rich, long career in cinema ahead of him.

undertone is in theaters on March 13, courtesy of A24. Paranormal Activity 8 is currently scheduled to be released on May 21, 2027.

Photo by Dustin Rabin, courtesy of A24