“Paranormal Activity” Starlet To Appear in…“Experimental Activity”?

SHARE THIS

FACEBOOK

  DELICIOUS

  STUMBLEUPON

  REDDIT

The Paranormal Activity phenomenon is here; stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat appeared both on The Jay Leno Show and the latest Entertainment Weekly cover this week alone, in addition to their buzzed-about film consistently appearing in the top ranks at the box office. It’s only natural for Sloat and Featherston to move on to other movies after riding this fame wave. And that’s exactly what’s happened.

Featherston has starred in an independent horror movie called Walking Distance. Distance is written and directed by Mel House, whose directing career only goes as far as two little fright-fests called Fade to Black and Closet Space (the next Oren Peli?). The film is about government-controlled medical experiments that happen to a ghost town. But now the producers of the film have renamed their flick: Experimental Activity. Yes, it looks like House, even though already having one of the hottest stars in Hollywood right now and a promising plot has retitled Walking Distance to an obvious Paranormal Activity rip-off.

President of Showcase Entertainment, who has international rights to the movie, David Jackson gave this statement to Variety: “Clearly having the fastest-rising star in the business is a feather in the cap, but we feel the film stands on its own as a cool psychological thriller.”

We’re wise enough to expect a number of movies that try to be as big of a hit as Activity. This weekend we’re given the first, The Fourth Kind, which so obviously looks like a Peli copy. However Mel House’s film has a strong enough plot to not have to ride on anyone else’s success. Even if he has the star on film already.