8 Once-Popular Movie Franchises (That Will Never Work Again)

3. It's Become White Noise - Paranormal Activity

The thirties had monsters, the fifties had sci-fi, the eighties had slashers, the noughties had torture porn and the teenies (please can someone come up with a better name than that before it catches on) have jump scares. Oh, don't be mistaken, jump scares have already been a part of horror for a long time (the violin screeches of Psycho's signature score pumps adrenaline in a similar way), but now they're so ubiquitous that a film not using them becomes something of a minor masterpiece (although The Babadook is admittedly awesome on its own merits anyway).

Which nicely brings us to Paranormal Activity, the inheritor of Saw's crown of annual Halloween scares and a key propagator of cheaply-made yet-massively-successful horrors. The first film was noteworthy for being made for a pittance, but, like Blair Witch before it, succeeded because it built a genuine chill though realism. The ending featured a conventional jump scare (which was forgivable, if a cut below the original, non-sequel-enabling finale), but the whole thing wasn't your usual cattle-prod cinema.

Not so of the sequels, which relied more and more on a string of jolts interspersed with stretches of bland plot made interesting just because there's the potential for an unexpected shock at any moment. Which is rather similar to... oh, every horror movie made at the moment. Good job to turn something semi-creative into mediocrity.

They've also seriously bungled that whole momentum thing - Saw released a new movie every year with skull-cracking regularity, but Paranormal Activity's been spluttering, with the original run of annual sequels halting any major audience experience.