Paranormal Activity recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 2007 · Film

Paranormal Activity recap

In 2006 in San Diego, Katie and her boyfriend Micah set up a video camera in their house to record the strange noises at night. Katie tells him she has been followed by a presence since she was eight, after a fire at her childhood home. A psychic, Dr. Fredrichs, tells them they are dealing with a demon, not a ghost, and that they should not try to contact it. The nights grow worse: footsteps, a slammed door, a lightbulb shattering, a Ouija board that catches fire, and inhuman footprints in powder Micah lays down. A photo of Katie as a child, believed lost in the fire, turns up in the attic. Katie is dragged from the bed by her feet, and is later found with a bite mark. She starts standing by the bed for hours at night, and Micah ignores repeated warnings not to provoke it.

How Paranormal Activity ends

One night, Katie gets up and goes downstairs, and then screams for Micah. He runs down, the screaming stops, and footsteps come back up. Micah's body is thrown at the camera, and Katie, possessed, crawls toward it, smiles and lunges. Text explains that Micah's body was found by police and that Katie's whereabouts are unknown. The later films reveal where she went and why the demon wanted her.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene; the credits open with a dedication.

No. 02 · 2010 · Film

Paranormal Activity 2 recap

In 2006, Kristi and her husband Daniel bring home their newborn son, Hunter, and live with Daniel's teenage daughter Ali and their dog, Abby. After an apparent break-in in which only Hunter's necklace is taken, Daniel installs security cameras. Doors slam, the pool cleaner climbs out of the pool at night, and the housekeeper Martine burns sage, convinced there is an evil presence, and is fired. Ali researches and learns that a family ancestor made a deal with a demon for wealth, promising the firstborn son; Hunter is the first boy born in the family since then. Kristi is dragged down the stairs and possessed, and Daniel and Ali sedate her.

How Paranormal Activity 2 ends

Daniel uses a ritual from Martine to pass the demon onto Kristi's sister Katie, who has none of the family's sons, and Kristi recovers. Weeks later, on the night of the first film, Katie, possessed after killing her boyfriend Micah, kills Daniel and Kristi and takes Hunter. Ali survives because she is away. Title cards explain the timeline, and Katie and the baby vanish, setting up the hunt for Hunter in the later films.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 03 · 2011 · Film

Paranormal Activity 3 recap

In 1988, young Katie and Kristi live with their mother Julie and her boyfriend Dennis, a wedding videographer, in California. After strange noises during an earthquake, Dennis sets up cameras around the house, including one on an oscillating fan. Kristi has an imaginary friend named Toby, who she says lives in her closet and wants things from her. The haunting grows violent: a babysitter is frightened by a figure under a sheet, Dennis's friend Randy is attacked while playing Bloody Mary, Katie is choked by her necklace, and a kitchen collapses around Julie. Dennis finds a witch's symbol in the girls' grandmother's house and learns about a coven that makes deals with demons for firstborn sons. Julie takes the girls to stay with their grandmother Lois.

How Paranormal Activity 3 ends

At Lois's house, Dennis and Julie find the coven waiting. Julie is killed by Toby, and Dennis finds the women of the coven, Lois among them, in robes and covered in blood, preparing the girls. He is killed, and Katie and Kristi are led away, now promised to the demon. The film sets up how the sisters came to be bound to the coven.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 2012 · Film

Paranormal Activity 4 recap

A prologue shows the possessed Katie killing Kristi and Daniel and taking baby Hunter in 2006. Five years later in Henderson, Nevada, teenager Alex Nelson lives with her parents and her younger brother Wyatt. A strange boy, Robbie, from across the street, comes to stay while his mother, Katie, is in hospital, and he and Wyatt grow close. Alex and her boyfriend Ben set up laptop webcams and the Kinect in the house, whose infrared dots reveal a figure in the dark. Wyatt talks to Robbie's imaginary friend, Toby, and a symbol appears on his back, used to prepare a person for possession. Wyatt is adopted, and his real name is Hunter. Katie visits, then tells Wyatt she is waiting for him to be ready.

How Paranormal Activity 4 ends

Alex's mother is killed by an unseen force, and Katie breaks Ben's neck. Alex's father goes to Katie's house to find Wyatt and disappears. Alex follows, finds the house dark, and escapes a demonic Katie by jumping out a window. In the yard, Wyatt and a crowd of women from the coven surround her, Katie leaps at her, and the camera falls.

Post-credits scenes

Yes. After the credits, a short clip shows a man entering a convenience store and a woman urging him back out, a teaser for the spin-off The Marked Ones. It was cut from the home release.

No. 05 · 2014 · Film

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones recap

In 2012 in Oxnard, California, recent graduate Jesse Arista and his friend Hector film their neighbor Ana, whom everyone calls a witch. When she is murdered, they see their classmate Oscar running from the scene. In her apartment they find black magic objects, tapes and journals. Jesse wakes with a bite mark and new abilities, then grows aggressive and suicidal. Oscar, with black eyes and the same mark, warns that something inside them will take over, and kills himself. Below Ana's apartment, a secret room holds photos connecting Jesse, his mother, Ana, Oscar and Lois, the sisters' grandmother. Ali Rey, the survivor of Paranormal Activity 2, tells Hector and Jesse's friend Marisol that a coven called the Midwives is building an army of possessed firstborn sons, and that Jesse is marked.

How Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones ends

Jesse pushes his grandmother down the stairs and is taken by the coven. Hector, Marisol and Oscar's brother Arturo storm Lois's house; Marisol is killed, and a possessed Jesse chases Hector through a marked door. Hector finds himself in Katie and Micah's house in 2006, the night of the first film, as Katie kills Micah. Jesse attacks Hector, and a witch switches off the camera.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 06 · 2015 · Film

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension recap

At Christmas 2013, Ryan Fleege, his wife Emily and their six-year-old daughter Leila live with Ryan's brother Mike, who finds a box of tapes from 1988 to 1992 and an odd video camera in the garage. The tapes show young Katie and Kristi being trained by a mysterious man, and some seem to be aware of the Fleeges watching. The camera can see spirits, and Ryan records everything as Leila talks to an imaginary friend named Toby. Their house stands where the sisters' home burned in 1992; Katie, posing as a real estate agent, sold it to them. Leila was born on the same day as Hunter, and Toby needs her blood to take a physical form. Leila opens a portal in her room, and the family calls Father Todd, a priest.

How Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension ends

Father Todd's cleansing fails and he is dragged away. Ryan traps the demon in a sheet soaked in holy water, but Mike and his girlfriend Skylar are killed and Ryan is impaled. Leila runs through the portal, and Emily follows into the sisters' home in 1992. Emily is killed, and Leila walks off with Toby, now in human form, as the camera goes dark.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 07 · 2021 · Film · optional

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin recap

Margot, who was abandoned at a hospital as a baby, sets out to make a documentary about her birth mother, Sarah, with her cameraman friend Chris and soundman Dale. A DNA site connects her with Samuel, a young Amish man, who leads them to the Beiler family farm in Pennsylvania, where Sarah grew up. The patriarch, Jacob, Margot's grandfather, welcomes them, and Margot is told Sarah broke the community's rules and is presumed dead. Strange things happen: a girl in the barn says Sarah is still there, and Margot sees a figure in her mother's old room. The crew secretly films a ritual sacrifice of a two-headed goat and finds paintings of the demon Asmodeus and a deep pit in the church. Margot learns Jacob and Samuel planned her arrival, and she is attacked and left catatonic. A mailman tells them the people on the farm are not really Amish.

How Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin ends

Margot is the next woman in line to carry Asmodeus, which is why Sarah sent her away. Chris kills Jacob and rescues Margot from the pit, and a skeletal creature, the possessed Sarah, kills Dale. Margot calls her mother by name and kills her, and Asmodeus is released over the farm, which burns as its people turn on each other. Margot and Chris escape, but a possessed Samuel drives away after making two police officers kill themselves.