“We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do Paranormal 2 and we’re looking to see if that makes some sense.”

That quote comes from Paramount Pictures chairman, Brad Grey, and I can tell Mr. Grey, without hesitation, that making a follow-up to Paranormal Activity would be a terrible mistake. Not only does it have a 99.9 percent chance of bombing at the box office, but making it would tarnish the sheer genius and creativity of the first movie. Anyone who has seen Paranormal Activity has to agree with me. Its novelty does not extend past one film. Period.

I get that Paramount is excited about the success of Paranormal Activity but they need to be cautious. Sure, the movie has made $61 million in limited release (it just expanded to nearly 2,000 theaters) and that’s a massive profit when you consider they bought the film for $300,000. However, just ask Artisan how making a sequel from a one-shot, gimmicky film turned out. Yeah, I’m talking about The Blair Witch Project. Back in 1999 it made $140 million domestically and a sequel was greenlit and released on October 27,2000. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 made roughly $26 million domestically and is nothing short of a fantastic failure.

Brad Grey and Paramount Pictures would be wise to pat themselves on the back for a helluva marketing job with Paranormal Activity and kudos to Oren Peli on a turning a $15,000 nugget of ingenuity into a absolute sensation. However, if they want to cement the movie’s place in cinema history as one of the best scary movies of all-time, they need to erase all thoughts of continuing the story and move on to another project. Any attempt at a sequel will produce scant revenue and spoil the applause and reverence extended to it’s predecessor.