Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity (R, 1:29) — Fantasy: Supernatural, bargain basement, original

"Significance" is one of several dimensions I use to categorize SF&F films. It refers to the amount of resources — writing, acting, sets, costumes, effects, promotion, etc. — thrown into any particular movie, and I drop things into 4 pigeonholes: biggie, 2nd string, 3rd string, and bargain basement.

Earlier this week I put The Age of Stupid into the last of these (movies that could have been made in somebody's basement), but Paranormal Activity is even basementier. In fact, compared to its siblings, The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield, it may be the basementiest feature film ever released. You could make 10 of these for what Transformers probably blew on latex alone.

But that brings us to the "bargain" part. Dollar for dollar, you get about a zillion times more entertainment out of Paranormal Activity than you do out of even good blockbusters like Iron Man, let alone such overblown, overfrenetic, overloud crap as Transformers.

The movie is set entirely in a single house and features only 2 actors, both nonentities, aside from fleeting appearances by a couple of equally unknown supporting actors. It's all filmed with a consumer video camera, and much of the film is devoted to what that camera, mounted on a tripod in the young couple's bedroom, captures on its ultra-low-light setting as they sleep each night away for 2 weeks in late 2006.

As we learn in the opening sequence, it's a pretty expensive camera, and Katie Featherston (playing a character of the same name) is fretting over the cost, but her boyfriend, Micah Sloat (ditto), assures her that he makes that much money in a single morning. It develops that she's an English-lit student and he's a day trader.

Of more interest is why they acquired this geeky gizmo. Katie's been haunted by strange apparitions at least since she was 8 years old, and at the beginning Micah is humoring her by indulging his penchant for guy toys with a view toward capturing some of her more recent paranormal visitations on audio and video. He's pretty skeptical, but soon enuf weird poltergeistic effects start showing up on tape, just tiny little things, but inexplicable, and gradually he dials down the scoffing and (honest, well earned) chuckles and starts thinking this is "cool" (and, we are left to infer, possibly profitable). Katie, meanwhile, gets increasingly jittery and frightened. Neither is sleeping well, and they start snapping at each other, followed by regrets and reassurances.

The dialog and performances are absolutely, totally, 100% realistic. Katie and Micah behave and talk exactly as you would expect of any happy young couple. Nothing is forced or artificial. The film completely avoids all horror-movie clichés. No cats jump at you out of the dark. Every time they flip a switch, the lights reliably come on. There are none of those cheap tricks where you see a character all alone in a wide-angle shot, then cut to a close-up as a hand appears out of nowhere from behind. In fact, almost all the shots are long, fixed- camera, wide-angle perspectives, and you can see exactly what's going on at all times (including the time stamp in the lower right corner).

All of which make this the kind of movie that I'm always hoping for — an original story, well told, effective, using believable characters and, at least in this case, not needing a huge budget to get the job done.

Since I saw it the same day as Pandorum (3), with its seizure-inducing stroboscopic credits, I must also say a good word about the closing credits for Paranormal Activity: 3 minutes of total black screen. True to the producers' conceit, they maintain the illusion of documentarihood to the very end.

Did the hype kill the movie? I watch a lot of horror movies and normally I would really have liked this one. In the endless stream of b-movies and even expensive crap, this movie really stands out. Paranormal Acivity is a scary and straightforward movie and it isn't boring. But of course there is the hype. After I heard this was the scariest movie ever, expectations evidently went up. Eventually resulting in a slight disappointment. This movie would have been much scarier, creepier if I hadn't had any expectations, if I hadn't read any reviews. I guess Public Enemy was right about the Hype.

The movie is scary indeed. After watching Paranormal Activity I noticed that the nightly sounds of my 200 years old house were louder and creepier than ever. But I did not let my good night's sleep for it.

The acting was good but sometimes slightly overdone, which made it difficult for me to connect with the characters. I understand that Micah, the bf, had to be annoying, the character was written that way. But their is something wrong if you start imagining in the middle of the movie gruesome ways he could die. The movie should have been scarier if I had had more empathy for the characters.

Anayway I enjoyed watching this film, but the hype made me expect more.

I was fortunate to see this film about a year ago, and have become curious as to why it still has not seen the light of day. A little research has indicated it still might.

The storytelling here is simple but also inspired. Young couple Katie and Micah plan to film their home at night while sleeping in hopes of capturing evidence of a ghost that seems to haunting them, or more precisely Katie, since this is not the first time she has experienced these type of visitations. We watch the footage of the young couple sleeping and gradually things do start to happen. Katie and Micah also film themselves discussing the situation, a visit from a spiritualist, and a few other random moments. Doesn't sound like much, right? Or that it could possibly be the slightest bit scary. Well, Oren Peli's little indie film is everything a scary movie should be. In other words, it is indeed very scary.

Peli accomplishes the improbable through utilizing tension, character and imagination. The found footage concept used in the movie, a la "Blair Witch", "Cloverfield" and the recent "Quarantine", is perhaps slightly more effective in this situation. It's usually a still camera with things sometimes occurring just beyond what we can see. The result is a heightened sense of reality and a greater sense of dread as to what those sounds could be. We've all been there. We here a noise out in the dark and are frightened by the unknown. Peli seems to understand this greatly and uses it to great effect. When the camera does move it is often done slowly, perhaps in an effort to avoid the shaky-cam effect, but it also helps create greater tension.

But perhaps the one element most important to this film's success is the performance by Katie Featherston. In the beginning we meet a sweet young woman who has concerns about what could be happening to her. Perhaps a metaphor for fears regarding her relationship with Micah and their new home. As we approach the final scenes, Katie has been reduced to a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and we are deeply concerned for her well being. Each night as our young couple goes off to sleep we experience a deeper and greater dread that something bad is going to happen, and we don't like it. It helps that Ms. Featherston is an unknown (it's difficult to imagine caring this way about a recognizable actor) but her ability to create a believable and sympathetic character is remarkable and turns an effective thriller into something extraordinary.

It's not often that a movie will truly have me on the edge of my seat. Watching it I was reminded of those days long ago when I first saw "The Exorcist", "Halloween" and "Alien"; movies that have stayed with me over time as moments spent in a theatre genuinely frightened. It doesn't happen that often anymore, movies are either too gimmicky or too unbelievable or too music video flashy to get to me. But a little movie made with no money and no special effects did. To the cast and crew of "Paranormal Activity" - Thank you!

p.s. with regards to the future of this movie, the latest news is that it will be released and not remade as earlier planned. No idea when that will happen, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this special little film doesn't get left on a shelf.

Paranormal Activity is a creepy horror thriller with just the right amount of suspense from writer/director Oren Peli whose admirable in making this movie that doesn't rely on cheap scares and CGI effects to entertain the audience. I actually preferred this one over the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield because for the most part there weren't too many shaky camera movements. Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are effective as the two leads giving believable performances as their characters. The suspense build up was good which doesn't quite pay off but isn't exactly a failure either. The sounds they came up with for the demon or ghost terrorizing the two leads were very effective and well paced throughout the film. It definitely helped add to the creep factor and the special effects are equally impressive for a 15,000 dollar budget. I think the demon or evil entity is seen only twice briefly as a sinister shadow proving that sometimes the things we can't really see can be far more effective than the ones we can. I enjoyed the fact that instead of relying on CGI and cheap thrills writer/director Oren Peli chose to use more practical effects like the sounds of footsteps, growls, a door closing shut, lights going on and off, and loud bangs to scare the audience. I wasn't very scared watching this but it definitely creeps you out. I suggest you go in not knowing too much about the movie otherwise any spoilers might ruin the experience for you. Overall Paranormal Activity was better than I thought it would be and it's worth watching. The ending is a little predictable but the good outweighs the bad. This film might not be up there with The Shining but its certainly no Shutter or The Grudge to name a few that weren't the greatest at least to me. So if you're in the mood for a suspenseful horror thriller than Paranormal Activity is the movie for you.

I just saw this tonight and I'm positive I won't have any trouble sleeping. I find it hard to believe that there was so many people positively terrified after seeing this movie. It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't scary. There was a certain amount of suspense, I suppose, but I kept watching in hopes that something really frightening would happen. I think the actor and actress who played Micha and Katie were excellent. The characters were well developed. At a certain point, Micha was aggravating the hell out of me. I understood his motives for certain behaviors, but still, there were times I just wanted to smack him. The ending was interesting and not really expected. I just didn't think it was scary. This movie comes off more of a psychological thriller than a horror movie. Too be honest, I can't even remember the last horror movie that really frightened me. Anyway, I don't think I'd recommend the the price of a movie ticket to see this, but it's worth a look when it comes on cable. Maybe it's worth a rental fee. Perhaps I was expecting too much after all the advertisements and (so called?) testimonials to its scariness.