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Trivia: As part of a marketing gimmick, the film wasn't going to receive a traditional release. Instead, audiences could click a button online to "demand" their local theaters get a copy, and once an area got enough "demands," a copy would be shipped there. This was done because the studio was worried they wouldn't make enough money if they did a wide release. So many people ended up "demanding" the film, that the studio eventually caved and gave it a wide release. It became a massive hit.

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Trivia: At one point before the film was widely released, the studio was interested in remaking the film with a larger budget and more well-known actors, and including the original version of the film as a DVD "special feature." Thankfully, this idea was eventually shot down, and the original version of the film was released in theaters.

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Trivia: When the movie was being shopped around for a distributor, Steven Spielberg was given a copy. He loved the film and found it absolutely terrifying, and agreed to distribute it through Dreamworks/Paramount. He also made one major contribution to the film - the theatrical ending, which differs greatly from the original director's cut ending. He felt the original ending was too closed off, and that a more open ending would not only be appropriate, but also leave the door open for potential sequels. Director Oren Peli shot the new ending at his suggestion, and the rest is history.

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Trivia: The film was written to be a spin-off the "Paranormal Activity" series aimed primarily at a Latino market. Hence, it was not called "Paranormal Activity 5."

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Trivia: The only film in the series not to feature "Nights." (Ex. "Night 1," "Night 2," etc).

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Trivia: The only "Paranormal Activity" film not released in October. Its production ran long, so it was instead released in January.

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Trivia: Strangely enough, despite being the fourth film, "Paranormal Activity 4" is actually the first proper sequel in the series. Both the second and third films were prequels to the original.

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Trivia: The actors who play Alex's parents were actually married in real life. Tragically, the actor playing her father (Stephen Dunham) had a heart-attack and passed away less than a month before the film hit theaters.

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Trivia: The movie takes place in the 80's, and is supposedly being filmed on an old VHS camcorder. In actuality, it was filmed on modern-day HD camcorders, and digitally "aged" to look like old VHS footage.

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Trivia: Reportedly, so much footage was shot during production, the producers suggested that they could construct an entire second movie out of the leftover deleted and unused scenes.

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Trivia: Spoilers: An alternate ending in which Katie kills baby Hunter instead of kidnapping him was filmed, but never shown due to it being too bleak. It was also decided that Katie kidnapping the child was far scarier, so the new theatrical ending was shot to take its place.

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Trivia: Notably, the previews for this film (and several other sequels in the series) contained footage not seen in the finished movie. The previews were often made primarily of footage from alternate and deleted scenes. The producers and directors hinted that this was done to help keep the story secret, despite being a bit shady on their part.

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Trivia: Originally, Kevin Greutert, who edited the first five "Saw" movies and also directed "Saw VI" and "Saw 3D," was attached to direct. However, Lionsgate enacted a contractual clause to remove him from the film. While an exact reason was never given, it has been widely speculated that this was done because the "Paranormal Activity" movies were the only direct competition for the "Saw" series at the box office.

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Trivia: Several of the exterior shots of the house are either entirely CG or have CG elements added to them. For example, the overhead shot of the delivery truck pulling up to the house was entirely digital. And some digital greenery was added to live-action shots of the real house to make it seem more secluded. Due to the low budget nature of the film, it was easier (and cheaper) to use simple digital effects than to rent helicopters for overhead shots and add in fake trees and plants.

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Trivia: Co-Writer Ivan Raimi has a cameo as a doctor in the film, in the same scene in which John Landis and Jenny Agutter also cameo. (He's the doctor who is front and center in the frame after Agutter says the line "I'd give him a nine on the 'buzzard scale.'") In addition to being a part-time screenwriter, Ivan is actually also a doctor in real life.

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Trivia: If you pay attention, the Cenobite "Chatterer" first appears eyeless, then has eyes later in the film. This is because the actor underneath the makeup (Nicholas Vince) hated performing blind and requested the makeup be redesigned to give the character eyes. A scene was filmed that showed Pinhead giving Chatterer eyes as a sort-of gift, but the scene was cut, leading to the continuity error.

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Trivia: The shop-owner who sells Bill back his old bike "Silver" is played by Stephen King, author of the original "It" novel and numerous other famous books.

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Trivia: Several of the child-actors who portray the "Losers Club" had to be digitally "de-aged" as they had grown up tremendously in the two years between films.

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Trivia: All of the episode titles are references to dialogue from the original 1982 film.

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Trivia: A sequel to the original film, titled "The Power of the Dark Crystal," was initially planned. However, the film spent many years in development hell with several different writers and directors being attached at different points. Eventually, French director Louis Letterier became attached to the project around 2012, and it was subsequently retooled into this prequel series for Netflix. "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" was finally released in the Summer of 2019 - almost 37 years after the original debuted in Winter, 1982.

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