When producers of the “Paranormal Activity” series announced plans for a Latino-targeted spinoff, it wasn’t clear how close the story of “The Marked Ones” would come to the world Katie and Toby. Now that the first trailer has debuted on the official YouTube channel, we know that there’s a lot that connects the two.


“The Marked Ones” follows Jesse, a resident of Oxnard, California, who comes home one day to discover that his downstairs neighbor has passed away. Thinking that it might be worth checking out, he and a camera-wielding friend decide to explore the dead woman’s apartment. There he finds, among other things like lots of blood and witch paraphernalia, a picture of himself that he can’t explain.



There are also boxes of VHS cassettes labeled “Katie and Kristi” in the apartment. Fans of the series will recognize those names as belonging to the two tormented sisters that have been at the center of the series up until this point.


The day after exploring the apartment, Jesse wakes up with what appears to be a large bite mark on his arm. Oh, and he pulls a big black hair out of his eyeball and has super demon strength.


Desperate for answers, his friends turn to someone who has had some experience with this kind of demonic possession. In “Paranormal Activity 2,” Molly Ephraim played Ali, the only member of the Rey family to escape the wrath of the possessed Rey. Ali explains that the mark on Jesse’s arm means that he will soon become fully possessed and no longer be himself.


We might be mistaken, but the two little girls that pop up with blacked-out eyes certainly do resemble the young Katie and Kristi that we met in “Paranormal Activity 3.” Maybe this is less of a spinoff than we thought.


“Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” opens in theaters January 3, 2014.