MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Critics and viewers alike seem to agree on at least one thing about Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)—the conscious choice to move away from the immediate family of haunted sisters Katie and Kristi resets the found footage franchise in a curious way. This installment’s Latino-centered changes of geographic, economic, and cultural scenery have been deemed refreshing, if not overdue. Arguably, contemporary American horror continues to present narratives that promote white-driven /middle-to-upper-class-driven plots as the dominant perspectives through which the viewer navigates a film’s diegesis. Characters that embody the opposite, the Othered embodiments of these Hollywood-reinforced traits—experiences from the point-of-view of a person of color, from a lower economic status, from any double consciousness pairings—are continuously relegated to the roles of sidekicks, “extras” background noise, and body count fodder—often with problems of stereotyping and tokenism. Or conversely, the intersectionality of race|class|gender|etc. in horror films has often been effaced through the complete absence of characters of color (a visible issue of invisibility). Whereas Jesse, Hector, and their loved ones in PA:TMO function as representatives of a marginalized demographic often disregarded or caricatured in (horror) films, these fictional Oxnard, C.A. residents are predominantly portrayed as likable, relatable, and resourceful while still succumbing to the usual fear-induced anxieties PA viewers expect when forced to respond to the franchise’s familiar, invincible antagonists.

So what merits and skepticism arise from this installment’s diverse narrative additions to the franchise? This presentation will incorporate cultural theory and critical race studies to contextualize how the nuances and applications of “difference” in PA:TMO offer an important exercise in horror-specific Other|Norm relationships (e.g. good versus evil, human versus non-human, them versus us), which centers the Latino experience as the sympa-/empathetic dominant experience in juxtaposition to whiteness (e.g. a Eurocentric demon, white-helmed coven, and creepy possessed children) as the evil invasive Others.