Actor Chris Murray dishes on the final chapter in the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise.
A demonic force claimed the lives of young couple Katie and Micah in 2007’s found footage horror film, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Since then, the malevolent spirit, known as Toby, has terrorized numerous families, but that’s all coming to an end. In PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION, the last chapter in the popular franchise, the Fleege family finds a strange video camera and a box of tapes that could explain the mysterious evil plaguing them. Now, they must use that information to save themselves or die trying.
Actor Chris Murray, who plays Ryan Fleege, spoke to SHOCK about wrapping up the Paranormal Activity franchise and finally meeting Toby.
SHOCK: THE GHOST DIMENSION is the sixth in the franchise, including the Marked Ones. What keeps audiences coming back for more?
MURRAY: I think it’s the way the whole thing comes together from the found footage, but also trying every time to have a new nuance to the found footage. They always have creepy kids. That freaks everybody out. There’s nothing freakier than a cute little girl getting terrorized by a demon. You’re like, “Really? They are stooping that low (laughs)?” And also the camera work. You are sort of in the lens as it were. Any time it’s dark and something moves around, you anticipate a scare is going to happen. I like it when they play with the audience and hold it off for a little bit. That’s all in the editing.
SHOCK: Every Paranormal Activity entry is linked in some manner. How do you feel this installment builds on the mythology that was previously established?
MURRAY: It ties up a lot of the loose ends. You realize the origin of the whole thing. You get to finally see Toby. He’s been trying to take a human form this whole time. This might be a spoiler alert, but we do get to see what he is. It’s a super-intense part of the movie. It really does answer a lot of questions. Where do these girls come from? Who is in control? I don’t know if I can say much more about the mythology. It ties up a lot of loose ends and comes full circle. The loose ends in 3 and 4 are fleshed out in this one.
SHOCK: Introduce us to your character Ryan Fleege and how he gets sucked into all this supernatural mayhem.
MURRAY: Ryan is this fairly successful video game designer. He’s had some hits, because his house is nice and big. He married his high school sweetheart Emily (Brit Shaw). They’ve been in the house for a while. Ryan’s brother, Mike (Dan Gill), comes to town and they are good buddies. They start hanging Christmas decorations because it’s getting closer to Christmas time. Mike finds a box with this odd, funky camera and a bunch of tapes in it. Being the curious weirdoes that we are, we think they are porn. We go into my office and we pop them in. That sort of starts the whole thing. It’s very strange what we see on these tapes. It piques my interest and then I get the camera going. I see stuff in the camera, which I think is a glitch. It turns out the more I get invested in the camera, the more I realize we’re not dealing with a glitch here. I can see in to some other world.
SHOCK: What is one of the other signs that something horrible dwells in this home?
MURRAY: In conjunction with watching the tapes, I hear some noises. Initially, because I’m a software designer, I know the camera is not a glitch. It’s not static. It’s not always in the same place as a glitch would be. I start to see this blobby material. I piece together the noises. The tapes are a little off as they start going into some ritual stuff. That combined with this blobby shadow, I start to piece together that this might not be a friendly presence in our house. I seriously go back to watch more of the tapes and there’s some time-travel element going on there.
SHOCK: Common sense dictates Ryan ditch the tapes and get the hell out of that house. What keeps his family there and digging for clues?
MURRAY: Here’s the thing. If it’s a demon, then it follows you wherever you go. Now, if it’s a spirit that needs to be exorcised, you can call a priest. By the time we figure it all out, it’s really late in the game. Trying to get rid of a demon is way over my pay grade.
SHOCK: How difficult was it to judge how the final product would turn out considering a lot of horror flicks rely on music, edits and effects?
MURRAY: I had no idea how this thing was going to turn out. When I watched it, I just had a giant smile on my face. It’s an awesome ride. There were some moments of doubt. We had shot so much footage. We literally shot this movie for pretty much a year on and off. I had no idea which way the thing was going to go. There were multiple versions of multiple different things. I was honestly pleasantly surprised. I was like, “Yes. This thing is awesome. It’s huge. It’s scary. It’s funny. It’s a great horror movie.”
SHOCK: You mentioned the creepy kids. Were you shocked by how effortlessly the child actors switched in and out of their ghoulish personas?
MURRAY: Ivy George, who plays Leila, is so sweet, so loving and so kind. There were moments where it did get a little much for her. We would try to reassure her that it was cool, but she loved being on set. She loved being weird and fantastic. She would walk around as this ghoulish kid. It worked for the character. She was really believable as this girl that instantly gets pulled over to the dark side.
SHOCK: THE GHOST DIMENSION is being touted as the final installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise. In what ways does this wraps things up and address any unanswered questions?
MURRAY: I guarantee that hardcore fans are going to want more. I feel we breathe new life into this thing. The effects, the 3-D and the sci-fi angle are going to leave people wanting more. It’s also good to go out on a high note. I don’t think you can wrap all the mythology up in one movie, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You’ll finally get to see what this thing that has been haunting everyone for the last five movies actually looks like.
