'Paranormal Activity' Paves Way for 'Experimental Activity'

It didn't take long for the shock waves of Oren Peli's incredibly successful, record breaking Paranormal Activity to start influencing other horror movies. However, this time around we're not (yet) talking about The Asylum banging out Abnormal Activity in a weekend. Nope, this is a revival of an old twist on the cash-in-on-something-popular formula.

In the two years since PA finished production, Katie Featherston, the gal at the center of Peli's haunting tale, started laying down roots in the acting world. She took on a role in another indie horror production called Walking Distance about a small town that befalls government medical experiments. That was before PA exploded like a pipe bomb packed with money, giving theater goers all over the country a new use for talcum powder in the process. Now that Peli's title is rolling off the tongues of viable demographics the country over, THR tells us the owners of the finished-but-unreleased Walking Distance have seen fit to capitalize on Katie Featherston's new found popularity by renaming their otherwise off-the-radar film Experimental Activity.

Yes, it's shameless, but what's saddest about this story isn't how low independent filmmakers will stoop to get their work noticed, rather that poor Featherston has fallen into a trap she probably wanted to avoid. Fledgling actors, particularly those who start in the horror genre, normally hate to be typecast as, say, the curvaceous, girl-next-door type. It's tough to avoid this repeated casting at first, but even if the actress was thrilled to get another role in an indie horror film, now she's going to have to have this conversation the next time she auditions for anything:

Director: "Thanks for coming in, let me just say that was a great read. Can you tell me what else have you been in?"
Featherston: "Well, I played the clueless, in over-her-head girl next door in Paranormal Activity..."
Director: "Anything else?"
Featherston: "I also played the clueless, in over-her-head girl next door in Experimental Activity..."
Director: "Well I hate to break it to you kiddo, but my movie doesn't have Activity in the title..."

There's no release date set yet for Experimental Activity, but if it pops up the same day as the retail release of Paranormal Activity, I would not be the least bit surprised.