Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

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Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is a 2014 American found-footage horror film written and directed by Christopher Landon. It’s the fifth movie in the Paranormal Activity series and features a mix of new characters with returns from earlier films. The story is set in 2012 in Oxnard, California.

The movie follows Jesse Arista, a teen who begins to experience frightening events after investigating the death of a neighbor and a stash of occult items. With his friends Hector and Oscar, he discovers magic objects and a witch coven called The Midwives. Jesse develops a bite mark and gains strange abilities, like levitation, and learns he has been “marked” by the coven. A girl named Ali Rey helps them understand the danger. As the danger grows, the group uncovers a plan that ties into the broader Paranormal Activity mythos and culminates in violent confrontations connected to the events of the first film.

The film stays in the familiar “found footage” style and includes nods to previous entries in the series. It was marketed toward a Latino audience, though most of the dialogue is in English. Filming wrapped in mid-2013, and the release was moved from October 2013 to January 3, 2014.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones had a budget of about $5–9 million and grossed roughly $91 million worldwide. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the change of setting and tone but felt it didn’t deliver enough consistent scares to justify a fifth film. It holds about 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score around 42.

The movie was followed by Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension in 2015, continuing the franchise’s storyline and connections to earlier films.