It was amazing to spook Steven Spielberg: Paranormal director

New Delhi: Director Oren Peli, whose movie `Paranormal Activity` surpassed 1999 cult hit `The Blair Witch Project` to become the most profitable independent film in cinematic history, says the best moment of his life was when he heard that Steven Spielberg was spooked with the story. "It was one of the most shocking moments of my life to hear that not only he (Spielberg) saw the movie, but he liked it and was scared by it. He did call me and said that he had dumped the DVD in to garbage, because he believed, post watching the film, he had experienced some paranormal instances," Peli told reporters.

The movie is all set to hit Indian theatres on January 8 and the director is confident that the movie will find favour with Indian audience "because it taps into people`s fears". "People become very conscious of noises in their home once they`ve seen the movie, so it`s really getting under the viewers` skin. The other reason I think that the movie is so effective is because of the realism of it. I am sure Indians will find this film really connected with themselves," the director said. Made on a shoestring budget of USD 15,000, the film has already collected a whopping USD 106 million at the Box Office, making it the most profitable movie ever made. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. Peli came across the idea after moving into a new house with his then girlfriend. He became conscious of every little noise, especially at night. "I thought it would be interesting to set up a camera to catch what was going bump in the night. I quickly came up with a script and ran with the idea. That is how it started," said Peli, who shot the entire film on a handycam in his house with the help of his two friends. Peli's supernatural blockbuster has already started a trend of spin off and the director too is amazed by the success of the movie, which was made on the "used footage" concept. "Paranormal made me realise that a great concept is what counts. But I didn't really know what to anticipate. However, after the first screening at Screamfest, when I saw the audience's reaction, I started thinking that maybe it could play well in theaters. But I didn't anticipate the kind of buzz we're getting now," Peli said. Initially, the film had three different endings but Peli finally decided to stick to the one suggested by Spielberg. "We tried a couple of endings in test screenings and the ending that's currently in the movie is suggested by Steven Spielberg and it tested really well. People loved it and went crazy for it so the decision became really easy as far as which ending we're going to go with," the director said. Peli also shot down speculation on a sequel to 'Paranormal Activity'. "I am working on 'Area 51' as of now and most of what people are reading nowadays concerning a sequel is just speculation," the director said. PTI