Here’s the meaning behind Paranormal Activity’s Thaumaturgic Triangle symbol. The original Paranormal Activity was a no-budget, independent found footage movie from director Oren Peli. The story followed Katie and Micah, a couple who set up cameras around their house once they suspect they’re being haunted. The truth turns out to be darker and the film milked a lot of suspense from this very simple idea. Paranormal Activity was the movie that made Blumhouse, but while the original plan was to remake it with a bigger budget, a successful test screening convinced producers to release the original version.

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That said, the movie was given a makeover in post-production and a new, jump scare ending was added, which Steven Spielberg suggested. Paranormal Activity became a word of mouth success and since it was made for practically nothing, this made a sequel inevitable. The sequels would open up the mythology behind the franchise’s central demon, which was dubbed “Toby,” and what it wanted with the Rey family. Prequel Paranormal Activity 3 and The Marked Ones are considered the best of the sequels, though “final” entry Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was largely met with disappointment.

There also exists a 2010 Japanese spinoff dubbed Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night, though the events of this film haven’t been acknowledged in the main series. Paranormal Activity’s sequels revealed Katie’s grandmother Lois made a deal for wealth and power with a coven of witches, but in exchange, she agreed to let a demon take the soul of her family’s first-born son. The demon “Toby” ended up waiting a long time, as a male wasn’t born into the family until 2006 in the franchise’s timeline. One recurring element that made its debut in Paranormal Activity 3 is the strange Thaumaturgic Triangle symbol, which is a circle with a triangle inside of it.

The Thaumaturgic Triangle is used by the coven to summon and control a demon – in this case, “Toby.” Since they’re seen in the third Paranormal Activity after granny Lois makes a visit, it’s assumed she drew these markers in the house herself. The symbol reappears again in later entries like Paranormal Activity 4 and The Marked Ones, and in the franchise’s official timeline (via Dread Central) it’s explained MCL comes from “Mi Cha El,” calling on the Archangel Michael to offer protection from a summoned demon.

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It was revealed in the final entry of Paranormal Activity that Toby’s goal was to take a physical form, which he succeeds in doing. A seventh movie is scheduled to arrive in 2021, which might explain what happened to the evil spirit now he has a body of his own.

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Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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