Paranormal Activity: Explained

**Paranormal Activity: Explained** was the 22nd post on the XOXOKalel blog.

## Content

As Paranormal Activity 3 came to a close and the screen shot to black- I, like many others, was left thinking, “WTF?! What? WHAT?!”. If you happen to be one of those people, I may be able to help! Lucky for you, I am an obsessive freak who can’t stand to leave any puzzle unsolved. I spent the past hour going back over the 3 films and piecing them all together. I’m not positive that my theories are correct, but I thought I would share them anyway.

The following is a brief summary of my interpretation of the trilogy:

Long ago, Katie and Kristi’s great-grandmother was part of a cult and made a deal with a demon named Toby. She offered her first-born son in exchange for wealth. She birthed a girl, but never a boy- so the curse was forwarded to her daughter (Katie and Kristi’s grandmother). The grandmother also only gave birth to a girl, so the curse was forwarded once more to her daughter, Julie (Katie and Kristi’s mother). The grandmother was tormented and possibly semi-possessed by Toby and forced to create a cult similar to the one her mother once held (I believe the grandmother faced the strongest wrath of all since she was the most direct relative of the one who made the deal). Julie, like her mother and grandmother, only birthed girls (Katie and Kristi) so the curse was forwarded one last time. From that moment on, it was determined that between the two sisters, whoever was to give birth to a son first- that baby boy would be sacrificed and given to the demon, Toby.

Toby communicated through young Kristi and they became “friends” (I believe this communication started by the Grandmother drawing the symbol inside the small closet). As the story progressed, Toby began to scare Kristi which led her to tell him that she would “do it as long as he left Katie alone”. When she said this, she was referring to going to her grandmother’s house to “marry Toby” (aka, be initiated into the cult). She then immediately went to her mother and asked to go to her grandmother’s house (as Toby told her to do). After a violent display in the kitchen from Toby, Julie agreed to take the girls to her mother’s house. Once there, the desperate and quite-possibly possessed grandmother prepared Kristi for the cult ceremony by placing her in a wedding gown. Night fell and Julie and her boyfriend, Dennis, went to sleep. They woke up as cars pulled into the driveway; these cars belonged to the other members of the cult. The ruckus made Julie go investigate, shortly followed by Dennis. The cult members gathered into a shed and started to prepare for the ceremony, but then Dennis walked in on them. Meanwhile, Toby (possibly using the grandmother as a vessel?) injures Julie and left her levitating above the stairs for Dennis to find. He found her and the levitation spell was broken, causing them to fall down the stairs. Toby (using the grandmother as his vessel), killed Dennis so that they could finally get to Katie and Kristi without any issues. The grandmother then takes the posessed girls upstairs to finish preparing them for the ceremony. Once they have been initiated into the cult, she brainwashes them to forget any of it happened.

This leads us to present day, when Kristi gives birth to a son, Hunter. It comes time for Toby to take Hunter, so he possesses Kristi. Kristi’s husband stops the possession by transferring this curse to Katie. A photo of Katie is burned and the curse is taken from Kristi. Katie is then haunted and possessed. She kills her boyfriend, then leaves to kill Kristi, Kristi’s husband and take baby Hunter. It is then assumed that Hunter was sacrificed. This is believed to be the end of the story, since Toby finally got his baby boy that he was once promised. But who knows what happened to Katie. Did Toby spare her? If so, she’d probably be checking into a mental hospital ASAP!

Whew! A bit confusing, huh? The only thing that I can’t seem to figure out is why the old VHS tapes were stolen from Kristi’s basement. Before any of this happened, they were once at Katie’s house, then she dropped them off at Kristi’s… and then someone stole them? Why would someone steal them? If it was the work of Toby, why did he wait all this time to finally destroy them? They held EXTREME evidence and could have caused major trouble for the grandmother. Not to mention, why did the girls never watch them? Could you imagine the terror if they would have? An even bigger puzzle is… once the tapes were stolen, who played them for us to watch? Muahahaha!!

Overall, I loved the movie. My only regret was going to see it opening weekend. The whole theater was filled with loud kids and even babies (yes, you read that right- BABIES). Nevertheless, it left me not only with chills but with many thoughts in my head. What did you guys think about it? I would love to hear your theories!