SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!
If you have not seen Paranormal Activity yet and don’t want to know how it ends, DO NOT read any further.
Before Steven Spielberg suggested the finale you see on screen in the current cut of the super low-budget horror flick that’s taken the box office by storm, writer-director Oren Peli considered a handful of other options. “There were a lot of different endings that were shot,” says Micah Sloat, who costars in the film as Katie Featherston’s dubious-about-the-supernatural boyfriend. “We could probably do a chose-your-own adventure DVD of the entire movie, we have so many separate story threads didn’t make the final cut of the movie for whatever reason.” Here are three of those endings.
THE COPS
In the original, Katie returns to the bedroom, bloody, in a trance, and holding a knife. Time passes until a neighbor drops by the house to check on them, only to find Micah’s dead body. She screams, calls the cops, they come, and after encountering Micah’s corpse, they climb the stairs and find Katie in the bedroom. She snaps out of the trance as soon as the cops shine a flashlight on her. She comes toward them. Then, when a door slams (the demon at work, again!), a startled cop shoots her dead. This one was available on Youtube earlier this week, but has since been deleted by Paramount.
THE THROAT
In this version, which the actors say “really disturbed audiences,” Katie goes back to the bedroom after the melee downstairs. She grins at the camera — and slits her own throat. The demon then leaves her body, and Katie falls lifelessly to the floor.
THE CAMERA
A possessed Katie corners Micah and bludgeons him with his precious camera, while viewers watch from the camera’s POV. This version of the ending was so complicated — not to mention brutal — that Peli never actually shot it.
For more on Paranormal Activity, including why the film almost didn’t make into theaters and details of the seven-day shoot, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands now.
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I have to say the ending that’s being used in the movie now is a bit of a letdown once she kind of lunges at the camera. The audience I was part of seemed to want more, but the lead up to it is still so incredibly creepy that I still get chills thinking about the movie at 2 am.
The Throat ending sounds really good/gross/creepy. But I liked the ending in place in the actual movie
the second ending seemed scary.
both that stuff was creepy
I think the cop ending would have been pretty good as well, I heard that it was about a day and a half that passes after Katie kills Micah and just rocks back and forth over his body as the camera fast forwards 36 hours, until the neighbor shows and notices them.
yeah, EW is really late on this, and they got a few of the endings wrong. and the cop one is sooo much better than theatrical. it’s much more fitting in the tone of the rest of the movie
I watched the cop ending on youtube and I thought it dragged (drug?) out WAY too long. The theatrical one was much better. But I do find the one where the demon rises out of her body sorta interesting.
I watched a bootleg with the cop ending- disappointing. she rocks for about 5 minutes then the cops come in and search for 2-3 minutes then she wakes up from the trance with a knife in her hand. she is disoriented and keeps calling out for micah while the cops tell her to drop the knife then gets shot.
I saw the cops one and yes, she is sitting beside the bed for like an entire day rocking back and forth before you hear someone walking in the door, discovering the body and then minutes later the police come. I saw the theatrical ending on youtube. I think they should have mixed both of those together.
what is the actual ending in the movie? i’m not going to see it and just curious for context. since this is already so spoiler, i’m assuming it’s ok to say..
meant- what is the ending in the theater version
theatre version -
katie disappears downstairs, screams for micah, who runs down… there is an obvious struggle.. then silence.. then sounds of heavy footsteps coming back upstairs.
micah is thrown into the room very suddenly, then katie walks in possessed, all jerky walking, and then lunges at the camera – goes black.
“police found micah’s body, katies whereabouts unknown”
THE ENDING IN MOVIE THEATRES IS NOT VERY GOOD IT LEAVES YOU SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD! I LIKE THE ENDING WHERE SHE SLITS HER THROAT! THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GREAT ENDING!!
How does it leave you scratching your head? I loved the ending, it’s the first time I jumped in a theater since the girl crawled out of the TV in The Ring.
the reason i think they cut that ending is cause last week they released that they’re going to make a sequel.
The end was lame. They should have just had her kill him and walk back out the door – no camera/eye contact, so it was still intact, but maybe lying on the floor to show there had been a struggle. That ruined the whole thing.
I think many of the comments that express dissatisfaction toward the movie’s ending are missing the point of that final shot. When Katie gets down on all fours and hovers over Micah’s body then looks up at the camera then attacks it make perfect sense because through out the entire film Katie repeats that the demon does not like the camera. The ending which many think is the demon coming after the audience, is actually the demon ridding the house of the two things it hated most…Micah and the camera. I felt that the ending was very effective and true to the story.
That’s what I got from the ending too… still though, I was one of the people in the theater that was waiting for more after the ending. The build up was so good, and the ending just seemed so abrupt.
Hard to judge for certain without actually seeing the option, but I think I prefer the current ending too. It’s not just that Micah is thrown into the room, but he’s thrown AT THE CAMERA! And when Katie lunges at the camera her face morphs for just a split second into a demonic visage (it’s so quick it’s subliminal, but quite chilling for those who notice it).
I totally agree. You had to pay attention to what she was saying about the camera and the demon not liking it.
arguably THE stupidest movie I have EVER SEEN. asked for my money back from the theatre manager. she said I wasnt the only one and gladly gave me free passes.
WHAT I COULD HAVE GOTTEN MY $$ BACK! WOWZERS!! DIDNT EVEN THINK TO ASK!! :[
I didnt see the theatre version, I saw a bootleg my friend had, (the cop version)I think they did a great job. Someone diving at the camera to destroy it seems like something you’d expect from a fiction story. However, with the cops coming in and doing what they would have normaly done, it keeps the whole ‘is it real or is it fake’ feeling going. I’m very impressed and was not disappointed at all. For those of you who were disappointed, to each their own.
that’s doubtful.
You are not supposed to get your money back after you don’t like something and sit through the entire thing! That would be like eating an entire meal and then asking for your money back. You are a cheapskate!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! IT IS NOT THE THEATERS’ FAULT! PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE THE REASON MOVIE TICKETS ARE SO EXPENSIVE! THAT IS STEALING!
Nik, you missed the whole experience by watching it on bootleg. you dont get the same traumatizing feeling that u get from watching from the theatre with lots of people
couldn’t agree more it was by far the most rediculous movie I have ever had the displeasure of sitting through.
This was one of the most boring and stupid movies I’ve ever seen, and it angered me to know that I wasted money on it. The trailers make it seem terrifying, when in reality, what they show on TV is the only “scary” part of the movie, and since everyone has seen it already, it’s no longer a surprise. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
I don’t think it was scary at all. When it ended, I was starting to enjoy and that was it.
I am disappointed
I’d love to see an alternate ending: the complete rehaul of the whole second half. How do you expect me to dote upon a horror movie when I’m laughing and rolling my eyes for the last twenty minutes? Ugh.
For me it was more of a subtle freak -out. My sister and I were laughing throughtout the movie, because they never turned a light on when they’d go through the house and we both felt Micah could’ve manned up and slept by the door..lol. It still scared me though in really subtle,creepy way. I didn’t think it was that scary until I had to go into my house alone at midnight while my husband went to 7-11 real quick….. I waited for him on the porch like the coward I am.
Well obviously they didn’t use the other endings because a second is in the works. With Katie still being out there it leaves it open-ended. Although the second ending would have scared the crap out of me.
Kari, I agree with you. Maybe they chose the ending they did BECAUSE it was open ended. Gives them an option of whether they’d like to do a sequel or not.
I wish they would have made the house burn with them inside. I think that would have tied everything together.
Ooo that’s a good one! Maybe with Katie standing over Micah’s body as the house burns… yeeeshhh! So bored by the theater version.
that would’ve been EPIC
The Spielberg ending is the worst.
I can’t believe there were options other than the really lame, really obvious, ending we ended up with.
This movie is easily the least scary “scary movie” I have ever seen and heard plenty of “was THAT IT?” comments as I left the theater.
Thumbs down.
the cop ending is great. when the neighbors come to check on them, she stops rocking back and forth and it seems like the demon left her and killed the person that entered the house. and i guess the cops came b/c the lady that entered the home never left….
If you watch the time at the bottome though, she comes in and sees Micah, then twenty minutes pass before the cops arrive. She left the house to call the police, no one would report her missing after twenty minutes.
the alarm caused them to come. the cops would be much more urgent if their neighbor had told them there was a dead person. instead, they were just like, “hellooo? anyone home?”
I think it’s left to the imagination though, but i like to think it killed her because when the neighbor comes, Katie stops rocking, and then starts again when u hear the slamming.
I’m with you, Rebecca. Me and my bf both thought she left the house and called the cops.
i dont think its the alarm. when she comes in you hear her pressing buttons (im guessing it was the alarm)
The friend did leave. You heard her scream and then the door slammed. The cops came because the alarm system went off when the friend entered.
There is actually a 4th alternate ending as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yETgkSZxmrE
I just got done watching the movie and would have to say that the ending could be better in my opinion. I do feel that throat cutting ending would definetly be better, and a lil gore never killed anybody.
in this case it actually would
In the youtube clip I saw, you see a light unexplicately turn on and off as Katie is rocking on the floor in the bedroom.
Then when she gets up with the knife in her hand, she’s calling for Micah. She is then shot by the cops.
This is the one I saw!! I thought the film was great. Another example of budget, fringe horror movies doing well at the box office (like Saw/Blair Witch).
I thought the cop ending was ok, but the others sound pretty intriuging too.
Keep listening out for those bangs…
Well, I see the dedicated haters have managed to infect the comments here as well, probably because this article was linked to from the IMDb where they are running rampant.
Don’t listen to them. This movie is subtle and suspenseful very much like a classic Alfred Hitchcock movie. It is not bloody or gory, and it takes its time developing – this seems to upset some people.
As for the endings, the original ending with the cops shooting Katie is more in character with the rest of the movie than the one in the theatrical release that some people like to complain about, which was added at the suggestion of Stephen Spielberg.
Hopefully when Paranormal Activity is released on DVD they will included not only the other endings that were shot, but some of the other plot threads that they didn’t include in the release. I’d like to see the missing material.
The forth ending as shot has Oren Peli entering the scene and says “Thanks for giving me your money you dumb S$&%@’s!” It was great and Oscar worthy ending.
hey at least the movie had some intellegent thought behind it unlike your comment.
I thought bjing’s comment was more intelligent than the movie. That was the most un-scary movie I have ever seen. How can it be suspenseful when you KNOW that something scary is coming up (i.e., when the time stops fast forwarding at the bottom, something spooooky will happen). TERRIBLE MOVIE.
I’ve seen both the theatre ending and the Spielberg ending and can safely say the spielberg ending is more effective and concise than the original cops ending, which didn’t fit the atmosphere of the film. It dragged on, wasn’t suspenseful and felt amateur in it’s execution. The throat ending, though sounds effective, doesn’t make sense either regarding demonic possession. The demon wants Katie, not kill her. Again, Spielberg got it right. If only he could have done the same with his disastrous finale to A.I. Ugh…
More A.I. hate? Yawn.
The ending of A.I. is actually quite brilliant, if completely devastating. Most read it as a sappy sentimental dreck, when it is actually as disturbing as any Kubrick film. Nothing on the screen is real. Those are not aliens–they are advanced robots. Everything in the end is artifice, robot-made–David is the only man-made robot left! The movie is totally unappreciated–read A.O. Scott’s review in NY Times.
I understand that the figures that discover the boy are robots, though I still dislike the ending. Spielberg may use sentiment to devestate, but Kubrick prefers a cold, more cynical approach. To better befit a Kubrick ending, Spielberg missed the opportunity to end the movie at the bottom of the sea. This would have also shortened the run-on ending while still exhibiting the
Cynicism so prevelant in kubricks work. But again, all art is subjective, so I appreciate your outlook.
The AI ending is perfect. First Humans build a robot son for a grieving mother. In the end (Super)robots “build” a human mother for a grieving robot boy. The movie’s themes and story circles and upends itself. Ending the story at the bottom of the sea wold have just been left all the themes about Robot/Human relations, Creator/Creation relationship, Fairy Tales, Mother/Son arc and more underexplored. The final act wraps up Kubrick’s and Spielberg’s vision beautifully.
Actually, Phil, it’s not like a Kubrick film, the movie is still more uplifting than the Kubrick version would have been. Kubrick and Spielberg work on different plains, Kubrick was a much more cynical filmmaker, whereas Spielberg looks to the bright side of things. Because of that, Spielberg missed the point of Kubrick’s vision. Not to mention that Spielberg doesn’t have the same eye for picturesque shots that Kubrick has.
honestly, what’s all the hype about? I was so bored throughout the whole thing. katie being dragged down the hall was the only “scary” part (if you can call it scary). it’s a let-down. all the good reviews must be paid people.
Or people who actually liked the movie.
I’m sure Saw XVI is still playing somewhere if you need a ton of gore to get scared.
Sigh. Again with the presumptions that people who didn’t care for PA are nothing but teens weaned on torture porn. In the other PA thread in popwatch, there were numerous people who dislike the Saw series that thought PA was overhyped.
I understand that you don’t want people who didn’t care for PA to attack your love for the film, but claiming all of them are idiots fed on torture porn is the pot calling the kettle black.
I’d have to agree with a lot of the people commenting, i liked the build up to the end it was really creepy, but the cinematic ending where she gets shot is just kinda lame and doesn’t really tie it up for the viewer. disappointing…
I saw the Cop ending (it’s on the internment if you look for it–and IMDB has many posts that point to it)…however what is the Theatrical ending?????
I heard Spielberg made it…(and ave also heard they are already talking a PA-2===which means that Kate still has to be alive—–so I guess the Camera is the ending????
I Second and Third and Forth everyone’s comments on Paranormal. The scares were lead on by the low hum music , all of the good scares were in the trailers and expected.
As to the A.I. haters. The ending to the whole Pinochio tale was brilliant, from teddy saying “You’ll Break” to the Blue Fairy, just awesome. A very much underrated film.
Do NOT go and see Paranormal Activity. It is one of the most boring films I have ever had the misfortune of sitting through. If the shaky camera doesn’t give you motion sickness.. the INCREDIBLY LONG TIME it takes for ANYTHING remotely scary to happen will simply put you to sleep. I’m serious. If you’re going, hoping to be scared out of your mind… you won’t get any action until the last five minutes of the film. It is NOT worth it. TRUST ME.
“If you’re going, hoping to be scared out of your mind… you won’t get any action until the last five minutes of the film.”
Anytime you read a comment like this complaining about the pace of the movie, you can bet the person that made it was expecting a gory bloody movie full of jump scares and didn’t know how to react to a movie that is realistic, intelligent and knows how to use time to build suspense. Amy was waiting for the blood & guts & “action” which is not what this movie is about. This movie presents the events in as realistic a fashion as possible – as if you are living through these incredible and frightening events along with them. Over the tope gore and effects would have ruined the atmosphere.
If you have an active imagination and are able to empathize with the characters and their situation, you will really enjoy the movie. If you are expecting lots of high tech special effects, unrealistic action scenes, monsters and “action”, don’t go – it’ll bore you.
ok, that camera wasn’t shaky at all, it wasn’t like Cloverfield with all the running and yelling everywhere. Plus, you are just a weak person for getting motion sickness from a movie.
I saw the ending with the cops online, I thought it was the one they actually saw in the theater and then when i went to see it at the theater was surprised to see a different ending. Either way it still sucked
New moon!!!!
Screw all you guys, I thought the movie was scary as hell. It wasn’t your typical gorefest, like Saw or w/e. It was psychological, and I personally belive it to be the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.
I agree completely. It was a very effective film in the theater. It is disappointing to see so many people who are numb to this type of storytelling. Apparently, lots of folks need to have shiny things waved in their faces constantly to stay entertained. I would hate to see most of these folks stances on books. Cause books are REALLY slow.
If you want to watch a good, (somewhat) recent horror flick that uses slow building suspense very well, watch Audition instead. It is miles above the chills Paranormal Activity provided, and this is coming from someone who thought Ichi the Killer (another one of Takashi Miike’s films) was overrated.
While I grew exhausted of the Saw series a few years back, PA did nothing for me.
It was a psychological ghost story geared to perhaps a more educated crowd. The Saw/Halloween crowd just couldnt comprehend it.
this. god forbid people actually have to think during a movie.
You honestly think it’s for the more ‘educated’ crowd? Give me a break. She’s constantly telling him to put the camera away, he’s constantly refusing to and you get two seconds of “paranormal” stuff while they’re sleeping each night. Hardly something you have to really concentrate on in order to understand. Oh my god, there was a noise coming from downstairs. Quick, what does that mean?! A shadow on the door, OMG! Wait, did you see her stand there?! WHAT DOES STANDING THERE MEAN? Perhaps it’s actually for those people who aren’t quite educated enough to realize just how absolutely stupid it really is.
Oh shut up. I didn’t like the last few Saw films and thought Halloween II was lackluster, and STILL thought Paranormal Activity left much to be desired.
Can’t you PA fans understand that NOT. ALL. PEOPLE. THINK. THIS. MOVIE. IS. ALL. THAT. SCARY?
I was prepared to love PA, and had an open mind the entire time, but when it ended, the phrase “that’s it?” immediately popped in my head. PA is well made for 11 grand, but it was overall disappointing.
If you liked it, fine, but if we didn’t, we have the right not to without being accused of being dumb slasher/torture porn fans. PA fans, get the f*** over yourselves.
yes we do understand. but what you need to understand is that just becuase you didnt like something doesnt mean it sucked. it just means you didnt like it. nothing against you just you bring up a good point. people say this movie sucked as if its a fact. the fact is many people will disagree with the people who say they didnt like it so dont insult something you dont understand. it makes you look like an ignorant neanderthal (if i even spelled that right)
Different things are scary to different people. This movie scared the shit out of me, I had to sleep with the light on last night and probably will again tonight. But other people may not find that kind of thing freaky. I think the subtle stuff is far more frightening than Saw or any slasher flick, but there’s a lot of yuks to be found in a good old gorefest. It’s all in what scares you.
Personally, I really enjoyed it. Although the hype from the trailers make u think ur gonna cake ur pants, the only real ‘jump’ is at the end. It is quite haunting in parts though, But largely it isn’t scary, that is due to the basis of the film relying on an unsuspecting audience. When u’ve heard it’s scary it loses that element, probs the reason some ppl think it’s shit
Have seen both endings. Original is much better IMHO. Though the shooting just made me pissed at the cops. The ghost should have pwned them as well.