10 Films That Should Never Have Become Franchises

You might think Paranormal Activity is about ghosts, but it’s really a savage critique of the banking industry with a demon wreaking havoc on a day trader for his role in the 2008 financial crisis.

Nah, just messing with you. That’s thinking too deep because there is absolutely nothing at the core of Paranormal Activity, whose found footage gimmick was looking shopworn even in 2009. It was still good enough for five sequels as well as several imitations and parodies, though, so you have to credit Paramount for having the chutzpah to pull it off and blame the audiences who fell for it.

The found footage gimmick means the filmmakers aren’t required to bother with such things as structure, dialogue or likeable characters so each sequel is another trawl through the same old routine where a bunch of idiots end up videotaping themselves while sleeping. Talk about your first world problems.