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Oren Peli moved to the United States from Israel when he was 19. An intensive studier of animation and graphic design, he worked on video games to pay the bills, but really wanted to direct and edit feature films, so he made it happen. In 2009, he took some inspiration from The Blair Witch Project and made his own first-person-style horror movie, Paranormal Activity. The budget was only about $15,000, but Peli used his skills as a filmmaker and editor to create terrifying suspense, so much so that audiences who caught the movie during its initial, limited release, created a massive buzz, full of stories about theaters full of screaming patrons.