Paranormal Activity grace the cover of 'Entertainment Weekly'

Paranormal activity graces the cover of 'Entertainment Weekly' in 2009 with the stars of the film - Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat.

The text on the magazine cover says, 'How the $11,000 movie became a big scary smash.' This shows how the magazine is highlighting that the film had such a small budget but has become a huge box office success-similar to 'The Blair Witch Project' in 1999.

However, I don't think that the image on the front cover relates to the film very much. Although it includes a photograph of the two stars in a bed - which is where most of the film takes place - I don't think it is a consistent theme when looking at the trailer and the official movie poster. The trailer and movie poser are shown in night vision to give it a more eerie feel which definitely matches the narrative and genre of the film. However, the magazine cover is done in bright studio lighting and I just feel it doesn't follow that same scary theme.

Although having the night-vision style photograph on the front page might not fit with the magazine's usual style, I think for promotion of the film, doing this would be beneficial because the readers will be able to get the feel of what the film is about and might potentially look like. For example, Empire magazine usually make their magazine covers look like part of the film which really gives you a taste of the visuals and feel for the film.

I have uploaded images of both the paranormal activity cover for Entertainment Weekly and an example of an Empire magazine cover to show you the difference and enhance my point written above.