Latinos will get their very own Paranormal Activity

By Sean O'Neal | April 9, 2012 | 2:43pm

Aux Features Film

In the same spirit of melting-pot multiculturalism that has inspired CBS’s ¡Rob! and Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco, Paranormal Activity producers Oren Peli, Jason Blum, and Christopher Landon are planning a Latino-themed offshoot of their popular supernatural franchise, combining the prepackaged tropes of the American version with the colorful, spicy zest of exploitable Latino culture. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new Paranormal Activity: Diversity Ghosts won’t be a sequel, reboot, or spinoff, nor will it actually be called that. Instead—much like the “officially sanctioned” Japanese offshoot, Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night—they’re terming it a Latino “cousin” to the franchise, thus allowing the other Paranormal Activity movies to casually drop their cousin’s name to prove they aren’t just boring and white.

Making an all-Latino Paranormal Activity will also allow the producers to take advantage of the fact that Latinos tend to see more movies than non-Latinos, as well as the fact that their “heavily Catholic” beliefs drive them to see movies with Catholic themes, especially horror movies that just throw some crucifixes and exorcisms in there—as the disproportionate success of The Devil Inside proves. Not much else is known about the micro-budgeted film as yet, other than it will feature an all-Latino cast speaking all-English dialogue, play off “Catholic-based paranormal mythology,” and inspire jokes about a Latino family being terrorized by a wrathful Lou Dobbs, like that one.