Paranormal Activity (2009): Sure, the phenomenon existed long before this horror movie came out last year, but this is a film that really capitalized on the power of Twitter and cheap online promotion, that rode a wave of excited, instantaneous word-of-mouth. The movie itself had a pretty simple concept: It created the sensation that we were watching actual home video, shot in a bedroom overnight to capture whatever demon was haunting its young, ... more 

Paranormal Activity (2009): Sure, the phenomenon existed long before this horror movie came out last year, but this is a film that really capitalized on the power of Twitter and cheap online promotion, that rode a wave of excited, instantaneous word-of-mouth. The movie itself had a pretty simple concept: It created the sensation that we were watching actual home video, shot in a bedroom overnight to capture whatever demon was haunting its young, female hero. It only cost about $10,000 to make, opened in just a few theaters at first to generate even more curiosity, and went to gross nearly $108 million. Hence, a year later, we have a sequel. less