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Produced for $15,000. Filmed in the director’s own home. Championed by the people. Paranormal Activityhas become the the most profitable film ever at the world box-office. The movie’s quietly-scary director Oren Peli tells DONALD CLARKEhow public screaming at a public screening convinced DreamWorks to give it a major release

WE WERE supposed to be having this conversation every other week. Ten years ago, a no-budget horror flick named The Blair Witch Projectsurprised everybody by not changing Hollywood. For a few months, breathless commentators argued that henceforth box-office smashes would regularly emerge unannounced from the garages of hungry amateur film-makers.