'Paranormal Activity 2' Grabs 'Saw VI' Director

Oh, so this is how it's going to be, huh? Well...shit. Not that I hated Saw VI, at least in comparison to Saw V, but I kind of had higher hopes for the Paranormal Activity sequel than hiring the director of the movie it kicked down the stairs back in October. Heat Vision Blog is reporting that Kevin Greutert will direct Paranormal Activity 2 and Michael R. Perry will write the script. Perry, in fact, is coming off a well-regarded Black List script called Voices, so this signing might be something of a coup. Oren Peli, the man who made a $15,000 horror movie that went on to enjoy a 1,000,000% profit margin, is producing, and he's encouraged by the hires. "These guys get it, and the fans won’t be disappointed," says Peli. This is all shaping up a bit too much like Blair Witch, and I don't just mean the micro-budgeted movie making millions of dollars. If you'll remember, the sequel to 1999's big horror hit was whipped into production in a hurry, did not feature the creators of the first film in a real hands-on way, and it was a disaster of monumental proportions. Book of Shadows is one of the worst sequels in history by almost any measure. In this case, we have another surprise hit that will show up back in theaters a year after its predecessor and again, the responsible parties have moved more to behind-the-scenes roles. Even more curious, given the addition of Greutert, is that Paranormal 2 is going head-to-head with Saw VII on October 22nd, the same weekend the star-driven comic book movie Red debuts. I have a gut feeling Summit sensed that Saw was vulnerable after this past installment and decided to stare it down, but Jigsaw still has fans. Warner Bros. must have thought the same thing, because it is unspooling Prisoners that weekend, too, with Hugh Jackman. I don't know who wins in a four-way race to reach guys under 30, but my initial reaction is nobody does, at least not convincingly. However, Paranormal 2 and Saw VII will both have less money to make back and both are more established properties, so they may not be as antsy as their competition. So I think one of those other two will probably be shuffled a bit.