Paranormal Entity

I'm a huge fan of the first "Paranormal Activity" but I love B-movies and especially horror films so I gave this a shot. Granted, it's of course no masterpiece, but The Asylum's more or less direct rip-off of the "found footage" hit has its moments.

The film begins when Thomas invests in a few small home camcorders to videotape the odd and supposedly paranormal events that have been plaguing the house ever since his mother's attempt at communicating with their recently deceased father. The entity has had a particular inclination for terrorizing his sister, Samantha, who bears an intolerable likeness to Katie Featherston in terms of hairstyle and large endowment (which also of course get more screen time in this film than P.A.).

Beyond that, the film is more or less a cookie cutter copy of the original's even most minute details: the night-time photography, the possession scenes, the cinematography, the "low rumbling" sound when the spirit is present, the title cards for the night scenes, the idea that leaving the house will do nothing as the entity will "follow" the cursed, attempts at contacting a demonologist, footprint markings, you name it.

With that said though, this film does have its gems. This film is definitely more visual and graphic in its depiction of the entities' activities, which is in a way good and also bad. It's nice to see that they didn't skimp on special effects as what you actually see on camera is more interesting and in a way, scarier (one night in particular). However, it's also a lot less subtle than "Paranormal Activity," as the long, patient scenes of waiting for something to happen are less common. A lot of the original film's subtlety is sacrificed for immediate scares and it works against it rather than for it.

The bigger issue with this film is that, while the acting is not nearly as bad as one might think given The Asylum is behind it, the characters are a lot less likable and developed than the original, if you can actually believe that to be possible. Beyond milking the loss of their dad and the direness of the situation for all its worth, the characters are completely one- dimensional and the beautiful and entertaining chemistry between Katie and Micah is nowhere to be found. The scenes add up more like a series of irrelevant moments and transitions are far less smooth. The ending in particular is fairly abrupt and leaves you with a sense of complete and total confusion.

Also, the camera-work and editing in "Paranormal Activity" was far more subtle in the ways that it made you feel like it was legitimately a 'found footage' film (while the sequel did indeed break that formula). Beyond the fact that the multiple cameras break the laws of the film not feeling "edited," there are multiple scenes where any audience member could discern that there is legitimately no reason for the camera to be running at that given time and that certain angles feel very forced or deliberately edited, which unfortunately takes you out of the moment and works against the "mockumentary" style.

Overall, it's not bad, but it's certainly not as good as the original. Good for fans of the genre and style but not much else.

I have to give Shane Van Dyke some words...just because you come from a TV family does NOT mean you are capable of being a TV or film star! I have seen Shane in a few productions and to be honest, he is a talentless actor and now, as a writer and director, he proves he is also useless at these roles too. I have just sat through one of the worst productions I have ever seen. It was not only badly filmed (we all had a giggle at the shot of him on his lap top when he is pretending to press keys and scroll!), the acting was bad! The woman playing the mother in this film was terrible! if you want actors to improvise Shane, then get actors who can improvise! This woman was appalling. I watched Paranormal Activity a few years ago and found it boring and terribly written, acted and directed, however, having now seen this atrocious piece of garbage, I consider paranormal activity a genius production. I have read some reviews of this on IMDb and am totally surprised anyone could class this as good. Are these people part of Shane's gang? Look folks, before you consider watching this, let me save you time, it is a complete and badly done rip off, using a cheap camcorder and BAD acting. Writing wise, it's suffering a great deal from the fact it has no writing and seems all improvised. Badly Improvised I might add. Somebody should inform Shane that a new career really does need looking in to. It is surely not enough to merely trade on your family name, surely you Americans can see where the talent is and where, in Shane's case, it is so obviously lacking. I am a fan of Dick Van Dyke, but Shane, I am sorry love, you just haven't got what it takes.

Wow they ripped off the plot of paranormal activity so much I am amazed they were not sued! I would guess they got away with it because this "version" is so poorly acted and boring that no one would want to watch it. What a piece of crap movie, super generic and super boring. The acting and effects are terrible. Do not waste your time with this movie. Terrible, just terrible. For those that rated it high, you must have really low standards. How anyone could think this is worth watching is beyond me. Awful, just awful.

Paranormal boring. Paranormal poor acting. Paranormal piece o crap. No one should have to suffer through this trash.

I'm surprised that the same people who made Monster, Transmorphers the fall of man, and H.G. Well's War of the Worlds made a relatively descent movie. the Asylums rip off of Paranormal Activity isn't great, but it's definitely in the category of good.

The acting is, OK, it isn't amazing, but the actors do their jobs. The atmosphere is great, although stolen. The scares are pretty descent, and it's an entertaining time.

Can I say it's amazing, no. Paranormal Activity is far superior to this film. But if you want something to warm you up before you watch that scare-fest, watch this.

6/10

OK, the first thing that must be said about this movie is that yes, it is essentially the same exact premise as "Paranormal Activity." Therefore, it loses serious points in the originality category right from the start. It is unsettling to me that a filmmaker would make such a blatant copy of another film rather than trying to make something truly original but nevertheless, here we are with "Paranormal Entity." All that being said, I was surprised to find that this movie is actually good. Despite being upsettingly similar to "Paranormal Activity", it does set itself apart in certain subtle ways that make an interesting difference in the overall mood of the movie. The "real footage" gimmick is starting to get a little worn out, but it's used very effectively here.

While I think good film reviews in general should not compare films directly to another one, in this case I think it's safe to say that that's a little unavoidable, so I will say that next to "Paranormal Activity" this film almost comes out superior, originality issues aside. While I found the first version of this story to be a solid, suspenseful build-up to a satisfying pay-off, I felt that the "rip-off" was in fact more suspenseful throughout. While there were few actual scares, several of the scenes were incredibly tense. It did a very good job of putting me on the edge of my seat and getting my heart rate up from anticipation. I normally don't expect to be able to say this about such an unoriginal film, but I genuinely felt nervous about what was going to appear on the screen next during 2 or 3 of the scenes, which I have to admit is horror the way it should be.

Unfortunately it didn't quite pay off as well as "Paranormal Activity." The ending seemed rushed and while it was a bit unsettling, it didn't leave me feeling as tense as some of the scenes earlier on, and most certainly didn't leave me feeling terrified. The acting in the film is nothing Oscar-worthy but I found it to be adequate and mostly believable. There are a few continuity goofs that some may notice. I personally didn't find them to be terribly distracting, though they do suggest a bit of laziness by the filmmakers.

While some may feel that the obvious lack of originality should make this film completely dismissable, I feel that some of the content of this movie is indeed impressive and is worth checking out. Therefore, on a scale of good film-making i'm going to give this a fairly lenient 6/10. However, on the overall enjoyment scale I would give it an 8/10, and had this film been completely original and perhaps had a more exciting ending I would have given it a solid 8.5 or 9 out of 10 overall.

So in closing, it loses significant respect for obvious reasons but gains a little back in certain ways and is worth watching.