Paranormal Activity is a low-budget horror movie apparently destined to make it big based on the number of people across the U.S. who are clamoring to see it. Over 1 million people have gone online to demand the movie’s release. (Click here to read the story in Monday’s USA Today.) But in my opinion, the real reason for the movie’s success is neither the way it has been distributed nor the online buzz it has generated. It is the fact that the movie is reported to be genuinely scary. In a world hungry for great content, news spreads fast when someone comes across something noteworthy. And it was always thus, even before the existence of social media.

Yes, Paranormal Activity is the first movie likely to be released nationwide as the result of online requests from the public. But I believe that distinction was cleverly engineered into the marketing plan. Based on the positive response to initial screenings, Paramount Pictures hired the company Eventful to create a Web site that allows people to vote for the nationwide release of the movie by clicking on the “Demand” button.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Jordan Glazier, Eventful’s chief executive, downplays the movie’s subject matter. In this article, he says that he had expected the campaign for the movie to achieve only a fraction of the buzz that it has, and credits its success in part to fans use of social media.

But the truth is that there is nothing unusual about the buzz surrounding Paranormal Activity. It is a tried-and-tested formula. A great product—in this case, great content—generates word of mouth. Then, limiting supply of that product adds interest and excitement. Word spreads—and in 2009, that word spreads across the Internet. But the Internet does not create the word; it merely provides a means for it to travel.

The success of a low-budget movie like Paranormal Activity is not unprecedented. Think back to The Blair Witch Project, released ten years ago. Much has been made of the role that the Internet played in that movie’s success, but it was really good old-fashioned email and face-to-face chat that spread the word.

But let’s go even further back in time. I remember well the extraordinary buzz that surrounded the release of The Exorcist back in 1973. In fact, the word on the street was that it was the scariest thing people had ever seen – which was enough to guarantee that I was not going to see it.

My belief is that Paranormal Activity is the exception that proves the rule, and the rule is that great content still rules. Some people love to watch scary movies. If they hear a movie is really scary, they will go see it, and if the experience lives up to their expectations, they will talk about it and recommend the movie to others. If there was anything clever about the marketing surrounding Paranormal Activity, it was the choice to focus on how people felt about watching the movie instead of featuring lots of clips from the movie itself.

For me, the real question to be answered now is whether or not Paranormal Activity can break the jinx that has dogged many other successful low-budget movies. Assuming the film is as successful as the buzz suggests, will it be able to spawn an equally successful sequel? The Blair Witch Project could not. The Book of Shadows was a flop. Just like many consumer-generated ads that end up as one-hit wonders, the original movie’s thrill proved tough to replicate.

Mmm…maybe there is a lesson in that. What do you think?

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