Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity

A young couple moves in together and so does a ghost.  Katie has been plagued over the years by a supernatural presence and after she moves in with her boyfriend this paranormal activity starts up again.  Her boyfriend sets up a video camera to document what happens and tries to find a solution that will make it go away.

• This movie starts out pretty slow.  We see the happy joking couple waking up, going about their day to day activity and sleeping in their room.
• As it goes on and the paranormal activity becomes increasingly more pronounced and frightening the couple becomes extremely agitated and night after night it builds to a very shocking conclusion.
• The format of this film is documentary style and set up to appear as if it is based on a true story.
• This movie is worth watching just for the ending alone.  I can't wait to see the next one!

4/5 Stars

Just Me

Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2009)

THE SCOOP
Director: Oren Peli
Plot: After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Awards: -
Runtime: 86min
Rating: NC16 for language.

IN RETROSPECT
Ten years after the release of The Blair Witch Project (1999), its influence still resonates among the younger generation of filmmakers. Credited as one of the few films to popularize the contemporary docu-realist movement, The Blair Witch Project changed how we look at cinema by showing that independent (and amateurish) filmmaking can succeed through clever marketing. Paranormal Activity is this decade’s Blair Witch. Many comparisons can be drawn – the most striking of which is its style of ‘documentation’.

Using a hand-held video recorder, director Oren Peli attempts to create his version of the cult hit. “What happens when you sleep?” says the film’s tagline. Peli wants you to find out as you view the footage that is Paranormal Activity (there are no opening titles or end credits), and witness for yourself the horrible things that besiege a couple in the confines of their house in the wee hours. The film is obviously not a raw footage as Peli would have led any fool to believe; even though it is ‘raw’ in the sense that there is a lack of the composed framing of scenes, it surprisingly features polished scene-to-scene transition and edits.

While the smooth transitions somewhat provides temporary relief in a highly disorientating film, Peli’s over-reliance on it is the film’s most glaring drawback. Day-to-night-to-day transitions appear too frequently, affecting the development of effective tension. For Paranormal Activity to be truly scary, Peli should have devoted the last thirty minutes of the film to the recording of the happenings in a single night so as to have a sustained sequence of horror and tension (instead of breaking it up into several nights which weakens the suspense quotient).

For most parts, the suspense occurs in the bedroom while the couple is sleeping. A video camera records any supernatural nocturnal activity in the room (they do ‘appear’ in many forms and in increasingly bizarre fashion). Admittedly, there are some moments which are disturbing and hair-raising but they are fleeting moments, they come and go with a snap of the finger. Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) made many wary about taking a shower; Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) made millions think twice before dipping their big toe into the sea. Paranormal Activity, on the other hand, never comes close to the greatness of these two films. Does Peli’s film make me afraid of going to bed at night? Not at all. And for that it fails.

SCORE: 4.5/10
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Recommendations: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), The Visitor

Singapore's Most Prolific Film Blogger @ www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com

Last updated: 2010-06-08 22:24:08 by eternality_tan

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity - Written and directed by Oren Peli, starring Katie Featherston and M

icah Sloat - Rated R

This movie's creepier than Chigurh.



Paranormal Activity is the low budget horror sensation about a young couple, Micah and Katie, who decide to film themselves to get evidence of their haunting. Micah seems to find the whole situation funny while Katie takes it quite seriously. Of course, things start to get creepy. While this might sound like the set up to a ghost hunter TV show, it’s actually a great set up for a truly freaky movie.




The big question with Paranormal Activity seems to be, “Is it worthy of all the hype?” It’s certainly an understandable question. The film has been creating an internet buzz for quite some time. In fact, the film gained its wide release through an internet campaign in which one million people requested it to play in their hometown. Then there are the previews (which you hopefully ignored, since the ending is arguably ruined in the TV spots) which showcase audience reactions.

My answer to that question is definitely “yes.” This movie is scary: cheap scary (its budget was only $11,000). So that means no excessive gore, no computer animated monsters, no shrill violin infused score, and no big name actors. Is that a problem? Not for me.

Cheap scary means real scary. I’ve seen countless slasher movies in which the terror is supposed to be derived from a madman with a blunt object chasing teens and while I enjoy some of those movies, I haven’t been scared by them since elementary school. I can never really imagine myself in those situations. Can I imagine being in a Paranormal Activity situation where I hear a knock, or a door creak in the middle of the night? Put myself in those positions? I’ve been in those situations. Those times alone at night where you scare yourself for no reason at all. That is what this film thrives on.

Much like The Blair Witch Project, this film preys on pre-existing fears. Honestly, if those fears don’t exist for you, then you’ll probably find this movie boring. But there might be something in the film even for the detractors. For instance, the movie is actually funny early on. Micah is the skeptic and his reaction to the haunting and Katie’s fear is hilarious at times.

The film is a slow burn, though, and the laughs stop eventually and the film becomes completely terrifying. There’s nothing wrong with that, though. It’s just surprising that the film contained so many laughs. Micah and Katie interact perfectly as a couple and their banter lightens the mood immensely. It works so well when you think about human nature. What’s the first thing people do after they’ve been scared but they realize everything is okay? They laugh. An audience at a screening of Paranormal Activity could be used as a social experiment on the human reaction to fear.

Speaking of the audience, the crowd at the theater is vital for this film. It also adds to the comedy. My theater got quite a kick out of a group that left near the end of the film because they were so scared. The audience also accentuates each fear when there’s an entire group of people hiding their eyes or screaming. I didn’t happen to hide my eyes or scream, but when that’s going on around you, you tend to tense up.

Tension is the real scare element in this film. Since the movie uses the mockumentary (á la Blair Witch Project) style, the audience is subjected to multiple scenes of the couple sleeping. It’s tense because you know something is going to happen, it’s just a matter of where. Your eyes dart around the screen, trying to catch the moment. It places you in the movie and amps up the fear. Let me put it this way: every time a night scene ended I was relieved. Not because I was bored or anything, but because it was tense to the point of being stressful.

Some of this might make it seem like Paranormal Activity isn’t an enjoyable experience. At times, a scary movie shouldn’t be enjoyable; it should make you tense and nervous. That’s what Paranormal Activity does. Does it live up to the hype? Yes. Do I ever want to put myself through the experience of it again? No way. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

Paranormal Activity

I do have a soft spot for movies where there’s only one cameraman who is also a character (a diegetic camera), even though it requires some suspension of disbelief to work in a movie. After all, if you were trying to make a realistic film of, say, a huge monster terrorizing New York as filmed by an amateur cameraman, you’d be lucky to get a coherent image every twenty seconds and even luckier not to be vomiting on the first ten. But hey, it’s a movie about a monster stomping New York — fuck realism.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is another movie with a diegetic camera where the camera receives more attention than the premise — which is basically a haunted house. Well, okay, so it’s the girl who’s haunted, but she never leaves the house and the demon seems to get a kick out of making noises around the place, so it’s a goddamn haunted house. This particular unlucky girl is called Katie, and she seems to be a more interesting version of Christine from DRAG ME TO HELL, or maybe it’s just the movie that’s much better than that one hour and thirty-nine minutes of Sam Raimi masturbating. Katie has a boyfriend called Micah, who lives with her. Katie has been haunted by a demon since she was a child, and recently things have been getting worse. Wanting to help his girlfriend and to get some impressive footage, Micah buys a camera in order to film them both sleeping, and any apparitions from the bothersome hellspawn.

Which boils down to haunted house. In fact, this is one of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY’s greatest flaws — even in the face of overwhelming evidence that there is indeed a demon in the house, and that this demon indeed doesn’t like them very much, and that it’s indeed a fucking demon and not Casper The Friendly Ghost, the two protagonists always sleep in the house they’re being haunted in. They call a specialist (or Mr. Exposition, as I like to call this character that EVERY horror movie requires at some point), who explains that leaving the house will do them no good, since it’s Katie being haunted, not the house.

Yes, surely going to a hotel, or sleeping on friends’ houses, or on a park bench, or in the middle of a party aren’t better alternatives than sleeping in the one place you’re bound to be haunted in. You could argue that they couldn’t do it forever, but for most of the movie the characters are waiting for a demonologist — apparently the only demonologist in the planet — to become available and help them; surely they could have bought some time until then, instead of staying in the damn house suffering from increasingly dangerous apparitions. “Oh, they didn’t want to put their friends in jeopardy as well!” Yes, this kind of selfless behaviour is exactly what to expect from pants-shittingly terrified human beings.

However, Katie and Micah turn out to be likeable protagonists, and their failure to react to the situation in a more self-preservational manner can actually be forgiven considering their personalities and circunstances. Micah walks the thin line between absolute asshole and lovable manchild with impressive balance, and while I wanted to punch him at times, his sense of humor always got the best of me (which is exactly the effect he has on his girlfriend, so she’s immediately relatable, also I feel a little gay now). Always looking forward to the next apparition so he can capture supernatural footage, Micah seems to be unimpressed by the demon’s technique, while Katie, who has been putting up with this for far longer, doesn’t want to tease the creature into raising its cruelty standards.

Working with guidelines instead of scripts on how to behave and what to discuss for every scene — and therefore ad-libbing the dialogue, all this according to IMDB — actors Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston act naturally and convincingly, making it clear how much their characters care about one another while having their own interests at heart: Katie wants the demon to go away, Micah wants it to do something amazing (but preferably harmless) for his camera. The actors’ impressive characterization is the main reason their slow and some times plain dumb reactions to the demon can be forgiven.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY also pulls off a diegetic camera that doesn’t require you to change your perception of reality to accept it; throughout the film, the camera is placed carelessly on tables, forgotten while something happens in another room, poorly-angled, but never to a point where it actually bothers the viewer. Director Oren Peli cleverly came up with situations where the camera being forgotten or badly-aimed actually enhances the effect he’s going for, since this is a film that relies on your imagination to be scary. And the clumsy camerawork is deceptively clumsy, just enough to give us the impression it’s an amateur filming it, while still allowing us to see what’s going on when that’s the director’s intention — an example of good diegetic camerawork.

And is it scary? Fuck yes. And this coming from a guy who can sleep watching THE EXORCIST (but who still can’t fucking play SILENT HILL II without shaking, I admit). The director escalates the tension very well by having the demon become increasingly angry and dangerous, and by leaving the protagonists’ totally helpless; especially, of course, when they’re asleep. The sleep sequences, in fact, are the film’s obvious highlight and live up to the hype, being absurdly tense without resorting to typical horror film techniques or flashy special effects (except in one sequence, when it’s called for). Commendably, Oren Peli avoids repetition despite the rigidly repetitive structure, coming up with new situations and scarier sequences that go above and beyond the couple’s bedroom.

The film’s ending, however, comes unexpectedly and can be kind of disappointing for that reason. But even so, despite some script flaws, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is a well-acted and well-directed horror film that more than lives up to its ambition: to scare. It lets your imagination to do most of the work, and imagination has always been a fantastic horror technique.

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http://andrenavarro.wordpress.com/

Last updated: 2010-04-18 19:46:07 by andre_navarro

FILM REVIEW : Paranormal Activity (2009)

Paranormal Activity has been cited by some as the scariest movie of all time. While I'm not sure it fills those shoes, it is amazing to see an actual horror film as opposed to a cheap knockoff that seems like camp (The Stepfather) or a series that relies on nothing but gore and blood for thrills (Hostel).




The film chronicles couple Katie Featherston (Katie Featherston) and Micah Sloat (Micah Sloat). Katie has had paranormal events happening to her throughout her life. Now the activity is starting to increase. Micah decides to set up a video camera in their bedroom while they sleep, which basically taunts the spirit or spirits. The film accounts for about one month.

Paranormal Activity is a unique film, which borrows its storytelling device from The Blair Witch Project. This film would have not been scary at all, had it not used the "documentary-style" of film. The performances here are incredible, considering that the film doesn't do much than give good scares. I also enjoy how the lead actors in the film portrayed characters of the same name.

Oren Peli both wrote and directed the film. This person knows a great deal about horror. I'll say nothing more on that.

Overall, the film has a very strong scare impact. I got out of this at about 8:30pm and I'm still freaked out! Don't expect this moviegoer to get too much sleep tonight! That can be completely attributed to the last few minutes of the film. The overall film is really not too scary, but it all sets up those last few crucial happenings that make this film a truly scary one.

Recommended (only for those who can handle true horror... unfortunately for me and the amount of sleep I'll receive in the upcoming week, I'm not sure I'm one who could truly handle it)
 
Rating: 7.5 out of 10 stars (4 out of 5 stars)


Photo Courtesy: Sci Fi Scoop

Julian Stark (pen name)<br />
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Founder/Editor: Movies and Other Things<br />
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Last updated: 2010-04-10 04:19:10 by user07

Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed Review of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Final Proof: 2½ Shots

You know how you go camping with buddies? You leave the attachments behind and cut loose in the woods for a weekend with a cooler of beer, a box of cigars and a case of homo humor so no one thinks you’re gay. You drink beer for breakfast, Jack Black for lunch, vodka at tea time and Southern Comfort with dinner even if you swore you’d never even smell it again after you got sick on it in college but one of the other guys brought it so what the hell, it’s gotta get drunk, right? Then after not eating the fish you forgot to catch (good thing the idiot who brought the Southern Comfort also brought some steaks—turns out he was good for something after all), you sit around a campfire, hitting straight gin because no one thought to bring a non-alcoholic mixer, and swap ghost stories because you’re just that drunk. Oh it starts out innocently enough with some guy (pro’lly Southern Comfort Steak guy) talking about a night he saw weird light hovering over his trailer and before you can say ‘boo’ the rest of the lot is spilling their guts about things the freaked the schlitz out of them. Then one of the buds other than Southern Comfort Steak dude tells a story where the words flow smoother than the gin, his voice shakes like your hand on the bottle and his eyes grow emptier than your glass and you suddenly notice how dark it is beyond the fire. You begin to wonder what else is in the woods. In that instant you’re not scared, but you’re still a little freaked. As soon as he finishes you all try to laugh it off and you go to your tents not really afraid anymore and you sleep the sleep off the drunk without any nightmares and when you wake up it’s all forgotten in the hangover you’re brushing off. Paranormal Activity is kinda like that.

Let’s get real… Paranormal Activity isn’t that scary. It especially isn’t the scariest movie ever made. Hell, if you want to get into comparisons, PA wasn’t even as scary as The Blair Witch Project (which i really liked, btw). What we got here is a good idea, well executed and great marketing. Swear to god, future dweebs in  econ are going to be reading textbooks with chapters dedicated to this  movie. Which hides but doesn’t change the fact that PA is well put together, builds nicely and has a pair of solid actors.

In a nutshell, what we got  here is a good ghost story. Nothing more, nothing less.

Buzz Kills (Watch Out for Spoilers)

Sex: 0 Shots

No nudity, but we get to see Katie Featherston running around in tank tops. i’m not gonna replay the famous “bra in bed” debate from the comment section of the Pippa Lee post, but there was a lot of that going on here and i was not pleased.
Anyways, here’s Katie:
On to the Silken Butterflies, those sweet, temporal visions that flit across the screen.

First there’s Ashley Palmer, who plays Diane (the other haunted girl who we don’t get to see commit suicide in the final cut).  Here’s to hoping we see more of you Ashley:
Also, there was the cute friend Amber, played by the lovely and talented Amber Armstrong. Unfortunately, there are no photos of her anywhere to be found on the Wild Wonderful Web. Amber, babe, if you’re out there, how ’bout hooking us up?

Drink: 0 Shots

Can you believe it? You’d think people who are being jerked around by ghosts would hit the bottle and more than once, am i right? So much for realism…

Rock & Roll: 0 Shots

There’s a heavy metal video on the TV at the beginning of the movie but i’ll be damned if i can find out what it was. ‘Course i’ll be damned anyway, but still…

Boring Technical Crap

Written by: Oren Peli

Directed by: Oren Peli

Starring

Katie Featherston – Katie

Ashley Palmer – Diane

Amber Armstrong – Amber

Micah Sloat – Micah

Bottom Line

See it if you like ghost stories.

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Al K Hall<br />
Functional Alcoholic Slurperson<br />
(No, REALLY. Google &amp;quot;Slurperson&amp;quot; if you don't believe me.)

Last updated: 2010-04-02 19:30:44 by user08

Paranormal Activity

"...if a spirit starts haunting you don't start filming it, you'll just p*** it off"
A generally scary film, a great compelling piece of indie film-making.
Katie and Micah are enjoying a happy and care free existence. Their future looks promising until bizarre events begin to occur at night. In order to get to the bottom of things, Katie and Micah set up a video camera in their bedroom (no - not like that) to find out what happens at night while they sleep.

Paranormal Activity has some genuinely scary moments that fill you with a deep sense of dread. Like 'The Blair Witch Project', its not so much what you see that is frightening but more the lead up and the anticipation of knowing that something is about to happen. The film is broken down into day and night scenes with often very little happening in the day but once the night scenes start, prepare to be scared. It is a very effective piece of independent film-making, the film looks almost non-fictional and gets you closely attached to the characters early on. The acting is realistic and makes the disintegration from the chirpy couple we see at the start of the film, to the sleep-deprived wreck of a couple towards the end, very believable.  
. *WARNING: SPOILER ALERT *
The first time you watch it you never know if your going to actually see the demon or not, which is exactly why it's been so effective at scaring people. Again it's not what you see its what you don't see. Early on in the film we learn that they will not be able to run from this particular spirit, Katie is told by the psychic she calls on that it will follow you where ever you go.
I've seen both versions now, the theatrical and original. I have to say if you can see the original opposed to the theatrical ending, do so. I feel like the 'new' scenes (like the body thrown across the screen - far too dramatic and also the botched up Exorcism scene) look far too thrown in there and show no coherency whatsoever.

The $15,000 budget is a true wonder considering it's sold over $250 Million seats in the US alone, a tremendous achievement and perhaps making it the most successful indie horror flick ever? Just a little over-hyped for me though, yes it is pretty scary but I slept fine last night. Just a piece of advice though... if a spirit starts haunting you don't start filming it, you'll just p*** it off!

Paranormal Activity is released Nationwide Friday 27th November (UK)

http://robinollysays.blogspot.com

Last updated: 2010-04-02 04:35:31 by Robinolly

Paranormal Activity: Movie Review

No one can deny that “Paranormal Activity” has hit a certain note these past few months - a film that initially cost only $15,000 (around Php720,000) to make went out and made more than 7 thousand times that amount. Some may see this as the result of a one-of-a-kind marketing scheme in which people “beg” for it to be screened at their hometown. Others may say that the film is so good that the word spread like wild fire. Honestly, we think it is a mix of both. But simply put, “Paranormal Activity” is the film to see this quarter and maybe even the whole year. The last time we saw an independent film garner this much attention was “The Blair Witch Project”. Now that “Paranormal Activity” has finally hit our shores, can it bring forth the gauntlet against all the hype? Read on to find out what our opinion is.

Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherston) is a soon-to-be-engaged couple living together. Katie has always thought that a ghostly presence have been with her since she was a small girl. She believes that the ghost has followed her on their two-story house - Micah believes that this is more imagination than fact. Micah one day decides to buy a camera and film the couple while they are sleeping in the hopes of capturing some evidence of paranormal activity. For the first few days, nothing happens which prompts Katie to consult a psychic. The psychic deems that the presence is not a ghost but in fact a demon. This is not his specialty and so leaves the couple without any much help – he only advises not to provoke/contact the entity or else it might amped up its temper causing more harm. Micah does not listen and actually mocks the demon several times, even trying to speak to it through the Ouija board. As the nights progress, the paranormal activities become more frequent and more physical.

“Paranormal Activity” is a slow ride that might disappoint people who expects too much out of it. This film is truly unique in its approach and how it was able to present the various paranormal activities but for us, the film could have been a better experience if more time was put into pacing and cutting some excesses. The primary problem is the length of the segments where nothing actually happens (this is more apparent in the first part of the movie). It made the film boring and the scare factor was slightly affected. The best part of the movie is obviously the middle of the night segments - the tension of expecting something to happen is very stressful and yet so thrilling and gratifying. Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston played their roles well. They acted really natural – if not knowing that this was a movie, we could have mistaken it as the real deal. Ultimately, we think this film’s performance suffered with all the massive hype it had to go through. If we saw this before all the glitz and glamour, the experience could have been way, way better. We advice people to see this just to experience something out-of-the-ordinary for the horror genre.

Rating: 3 and a half reels

Why you should watch it:
- the tension you feel is something else
- superb acting that comes frightfully natural from both actors

Why you shouldn’t watch it:
- film is composed more of talking parts than scary segments which makes it very slow on some end
- ultimately suffers with all the hype surrounding it

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Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-12 02:29:19 by user06

Paranormal Activity

This low budget movie with basically 4 characters is about a couple  named Katie and Micah who live together in San Diego. Micah buys a  camera and starts recording their daily lives. He does this because  Katie claims she hears weird noises at night.

This story is brilliantly paced, with a few false scares, and odd  occurrences that at first could be explained simply. (Houses often make  weird sounds at night that people think are ghosts) It then builds and  builds into more intense and unexplainable phenomenon.

We also get moments to know the characters. The film opens with Katie  asking Micah how much the camera was, wishing he hadn’t bought it. He  of course jokes about having sex on camera, to which she doesn’t oblige.
A psychic is brought in early on, through whom we get some exposition  that Katie’s had these experiences since she was 8.

Also during her  childhood her home was destroyed by an unexplained fire. The psychic  notes that there is not a ghost in the house, but in fact a demon.  Demon’s aren’t his field of expertise, but he refers them to someone  more qualified. The way the plot works out this person never comes into  the picture. (The only other character is a friend of Katie’s.)
Further research by Micah reveals a girl in the 1960s who had similar  experiences ending in her death. (A sort of nod to the Exorcist) I  wanted more from this point and from the angle about the Demon expert.

I didn’t like Micah. He’s naturally curious about what’s happening,  but once he knows it’s really something supernatural, that truly is  scaring the woman he loves, he’s still like “Oh cool.” I know horror  movies need people to act dumb, but that took me out of the picture a  bit. Later he buys a Quija board against Katie’s wishes, and it has an  upside down star on it. As far as I know they don’t have those, and it  was hard to believe she didn’t throw it out immediately. There’s  conflict over using the camera use but it gets repetitive and derails.  (Also just leaving the house won’t work because it’s suggested this  thing just follows her.)

Still it’s a really scary movie, the kind that needs to be seen in  the theater.  The beginning scared me more, as once Micah started annoying me it hurt  the more intense parts, but they were still good. It’s one of the  scariest things I saw in the theater. We get visual scares of things  moving, unexplainable shadows moving by, as well as auditory frights  that get picked up on Micah’s computer equipment.
(Also they go for the “This really happened” angle, but the first  credits have show the part about “The events in this film are  fictitious,” etc.)

The story of how this movie was made is interesting too. The studio  bought it with the intention of remaking it on a bigger budget. Once it  was tested on audiences though, it was released as is. This kind of  movie would have been hindered by a big budget. They probably would have  added more CGI, where you actually see the demon and it wouldn’t have  worked as well. Nothing scares us like our imagination. Movies like this  and the Blair Witch Project come along once and a while to remind us  that good horror, and good movies in general, can be made on  shoe  string budget. 9.5 out of 10.

http://jemurr.wordpress.com/<br />
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http://www.youtube.com/user/murmanpoet

Last updated: 2010-04-05 21:46:23 by jemurr

Paranormal Activity

I give the movie: 3.5/5

Whenever I tell someone I've watched Paranormal Activity, the first question is this - Is it scary? Well, I guess it is inevitable, since this movie is gathering rapid word-of-mouth, along with the fact that this is supposed to be this generation's Blair Witch Project. The answer is this -

It is scary. And for the faint-hearted, it'll haunt you for nights to come.

Why nights? Well, save to say, the movie has successfully created so much fear in a single setting alone, you become afraid even for a single, open door.

Micah and Katie are engaged and have moved in together. It is only recently that Katie has revealed that since she was 8, a restless demon has been disturbing her. Micah decides to bring in a video-cam to film their bedroom every night to see if they can detect any paranormal activity, because to him, seeing is believing.

It doesn't take long before he believes. For consecutive nights in a row (eerily at 2:09am), strange sounds of footsteps and unexplained movements have been detected by the camera, and the impatient Micah starts to taunt the demon to show himself, much to the distress of Katie.

I shall not reveal anymore of the plot, but clearly, it is precisely these nights that we witness, one-by-one, the horror that is unfolding before our eyes in 'real time'.

Although we don't really get to see the demon itself, a scene depicting a violent contact with Katie will go down in horror film history as one of the most frightening sequence ever.

FINAL SAY:
Forget about the lack of a strong storyline. This effective ghost story will still work its scares even after you watch the final shocking scene, simply because it hits so close to home.

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Wilson Ng - http://wilsoniscurious.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 2010-03-14 04:44:27 by wilsoniscurious

Paranormal Activity

There are enough spoilers in this review to warrant a warning to anyone that has not yet seen the film...sorry.

When you have a movie such as Paranormal Activity, you are going to run into a wide variety of reactions from an even wider variety of people. Whether it be genre fans, or just your average casual moviegoer, it is almost fascinating what one person finds frightening and another person doesn't. Much like The Blair Witch Project,Paranormal Activity is a story of success, a story of simplicity delivered through a means created by budgetary restraints and a desire to make a movie no matter how many roadblocks were faced. And of course, the desire to scare people.

Written and directed by Oren Peli, Paranormal Activity has a plot as basic as my cable. Katie (Katie Featherston) and her semi-long-term boy toy, Micah (Micah Sloat) have been experiencing...ahem, someParanormal Activity (I suck) when they decide that they want to try to capture these ghostly-goings-ons on video tape. Of course, they do capture something and this something they capture might not be the friendliest of ghosts, and things escalate for Micah and Katie as they try to deal with this unwanted visitor.


Easy enough, right? Sure, but here's the thing, the ghost, or spirit, or whatever, has been following Katie around since she was a little girl, creating havoc for her throughout her entire life. With Katie dealing with such torture for so long, she has grown very fearful of this invisible antagonist, almost to the point where she knows not to instigate it anymore than need be. Micah, on the other hand, is fascinated by this unseen menace and not having the same history as Katie has had with this haunting, he has no real fear of it, nor any sense of respect for what it is capable of...whether or not Katie warns him before hand.

This is really where some of the strength in Paranormal Activity lies, the characters are extremely well written and very realistic in many ways that some would not like to admit. You are seeing very broad typical characterizations of the average man and women, and how they interact with one another, especially when faced with trauma.


Katie is a little whiny, needy, and open to any sort of suggestion, that isn't coming from the man she loves, Micah. She will only rely on him for protection when she chooses - shuts him down when she doesn't need it and she is easily irritated by anything he does, almost to the point that it is unfair to Micah. Katie has every reason to be scared by what is going on in a way since she has been plagued by this menace for so long, but it is unfair for her to think Micah can fully understand what is going on, when this is his first exposure to such events. The fact that she didn't share her past haunting experience with Micah until she has already moved in with him and it started happening to them both shows her selfishness also.

Micah is not afraid of the haunting's so much as he is fascinated by them. It is his idea to set up the cameras and even when Katie constantly warns they are making things worse, he still continues to use them. Micah is all for communicating with the ghost via a Ouija board no matter what the warning are, and much like a child, he almost sees it as fun at first and it shows his immaturity. When things do escalate, he feels it is up to him to take care of the situation, he feels he must protect his girlfriend and his home without any help from anyone else. Like most men, including myself, Micah is slightly egotistical and his ego clouds what would be better judgment for the fear of not being in control. He constantly promises Katie that he will figure this out for her and he really does try to, because he cares about her, but he also doesn't want to not be in control of the situation as much as he wants to protect her.


Now, do I think the film is scary? Paranormal Activity has been heralded as the scariest movie of all time, or of this decade and so on, whatever. How any movie can live up to that expectation is unfair to say the least. Especially when "average asshole Joe" has no clue about the movie outside of it being referred to as the "scariest movie of all time," then seeing Paranormal Activity and ultimately being disappointed by the lack of visual apparitions. This is the same shit that happened with Blair Witch...many disliked it saying that it wasn't scary because they didn't see anything, because nowadays, people are so used to seeing everything, that when challenged to use their imagination, they are not capable of doing so.

What you are seeing in this film is what I would guess you would see (or not see) in real life and that is what either frightens people, or completely turns them off. For me, I find the simplicity of a door shutting by itself, or a chandelier rocking back and forth from an unknown force to be scary, as opposed to being shown an actual ghost or having a creature be shown. Being shown something can be scary too, if done well of course, but it is easier to distance myself from the events in a movie like The Orphanage, for example, than it is a film set in a normal everyday house with a faceless assailant. This almost goes back to what worked in the first half of Jaws; it was more frightening to see the results and actions of the shark, without actually seeing the shark itself. You know what's there creating the chaos without seeing it, and it's what it is capable of that is the most effective aspect.


Some can say you do not see anything in Paranormal Activity, yet when you do in the form of a possessed Katie; it is the worst part of the film and seems like an unnecessary sight used just to put a face to the menace. Putting a face to the menace to appease moviegoers who want to see "something." That is really my only complaint about the film and I much prefer the alternative endings that I have seen/read about, but it is what it is. I found Paranormal Activity to be quite scary and it is a scary that has lasted with me for a few days...it is easy to relate to the events because they are plausible and they can happen to you in your natural setting. I will forever be creeped out by the often-used static camera shot from inside Katie and Micah's bedroom, waiting to see what was going to happen next in what area of the hallway...or seeing nothing, and only hearing loud bangs or footsteps, not knowing what was to come from those noises.


As I have expressed in a recent post, I am extremely happy thatParanormal Activity has done so well and this is the second film in ten years to come from nothing and sweep the nation. This film is the opposite of Hollywood and for it to do well almost balances things out in the big picture. It takes thing back a little and shows that you can do so much with so little, and I don't completely mean money wise either so much as I mean what can be done to scare people with simple film making techniques. Whether or not it scared you is one thing, but it has put a little poopie in a whole lotta moviegoers pants to make it one of the most successful films of the year...so it has done something right. Word is born.

Recommendations: High Plains Drifter , Dalkomhan insaeng , Dial M for Murder

parnormal Activity: Domestic Equation Sum Zero

Micah struggles for possession of his girlfriend, his ego exacerbated by the camera’s lens, while Katie is slowly consumed by the presence of two fiends: one flesh & blood and the other inhuman. Director Oren Peli uses the standard horror conventions to create a tableau of domestic terrorism, as a young woman is emotionally battered by her boyfriend and stalked by a demonic presence.

Filmed in the first person without credits or soundtrack, introduced with a brief acknowledgement of the survivor’s family, Peli seeks to transform a fictional narrative into reality by not severing the audience’s suspension of disbelief. The film is entertaining though it fails to sustain its burden by breaking its own unwritten vow: what could have been a chilling ending is reduced to trite shock tactics and needless explanation. The sheer terror is hidden in the minor occurrences; knockings and footsteps at night, an eerie shadow or soft whisper, or the flicking of lights. We are experiencing the film in real time and are sure that these things cannot be naturally explained, so we expect the bogeyman around every corner. Even a back story concerning Katie’s childhood births the frisson necessary to keep our attention, our imagination racing like a wild pulse, but it’s when Peli must objectively show us the evidence that the illusion becomes a thin ghostly vapor.

I think there is a legitimate subtext in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY regarding domestic violence, the all-to-real demon of power and control. Micah sees Katie as an object to own and place in his house; he isn’t as concerned with her welfare as he is in guarding his possession. He is threatened by another force for control of Katie who is torn between the two, a woman whose choice has been exorcized and like any battered woman can’t run away because the abuser will only follow. Micah mugs for the camera, his Cheshire cat persona dominating while Katie is relegated to a subjective pronoun. He lies and breaks his promises then blames her when violence is their domestic equation’s sum total.

Their relationship disintegrates within the three weeks of activity but it seems to be on that long road to nowhere, reflected in the scene with the psychic when Micah says “We’re engaged to be engaged”: obviously a reference to his unwillingness to commit. Katie begs him to contact the Demonologist or turn off the camera but only HE knows what’s best for her…and it leads to murder. A modicum of horror homage adds spice to this delectable stew with references to both POLTERGEIST and PSYCHO (with MONTY PYTHON’S HOLY GRAIL thrown in for good measure). The fear is in the things not seen or understood, and Peli begins to show us the monster lurking under the bed…but we’ve all seen that creature feature before. Final Grade: (C)

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Recommendations: The Birds, Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Funny Games

All reviews copyright Korova, Ltd. Visit Alex at his Home Theatre Blog, http://korovatheatrepresents.blogspot.com/

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity
Starring:
Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston
Director: Oren Peli
Genre: Horror
Rated: R

A couple in San Diego are experiencing weird noises and odd things going on in the night, They get a Video Recorder and set it up to record the phenomena.

Let me start off by saying I bought into the hype of the Blair Witch Project only to feel disappointed and cheated and wondering why people though any of it was scary. Paranormal Activity is another film in a similar vain that is entirely shot by primary characters minus the shakiness and constant screaming. I didn’t want to buy into the hype and be disappointed but when a movie makes you fill out a request just to get it to play locally I was intrigued. I had learned my lesson from The Blair Witch however and approached this with high hopes but lesser expectations.

The film starts off introducing us to Micah and Kate and what is going on, you see candid moments that share a glimpse into there relationship and soon you feel like your watching some friends home video. Utilizing two unknown actors for this film really brings the audience in and the way Micah and Kate act towards each other is sometimes funny but mostly real and believable. After an introductory period they meet with a physic who explains what is happening and how the house isn’t haunted but a demon is haunting Kate which was a great explanation for why they don’t leave this freaky house. Through time lapse and night vision we see the haunting progress from sounds to more shocking phenomenon.

Paranormal Activity is the type of movie you want to recommend to people but you cant really say why without giving too much away. Let me just say I have seen a million “Scary Movies” with the actual Scares being few and far between. This movie will freak you out then scare you and then scare you some more. I have never seen so many people in an audience jump as many times as I did seeing this. The Scares come so easily because they seem so plausible within the context of the story and you feel like it could happen to you. Whether you believe in Demons, the Paranormal or not the fear of the unknown resides in every one and nobody knows what is going on around them when they are sleeping.

This is definitely the freakiest movie I have ever seen and probably the scariest. You know its good when the audience leaves the theater not knowing if they just watched a documentary or a movie and are talking about how they are going to have nightmares. One of the best movies I have seen all year and possibly the scariest movie ever made.

paranormal activity

all i can say is i’m too freaked out to go to bed right now.  that’s why i’m writing this tonight instead of in the morning.

i just read “the greatest shaky cam movie ever” on imbd.com.  and it’s hard for me to disagree.  this is the best over the shoulder, mtv style, cam corder, you and an idiot friend could pull this off over a couple of weekends if you’d had this idea first, movie i’ve ever seen.  it puts blair witch to shame.

but of course, the blair witch paved the way for this type of film.  it’s shot from the perspective of two normal folk.  one of which is this incredibly racked young woman who has been plagued by a haunting since she was 8 years old and her douche bag idiot of a boyfriend who gets the idea that to buy a video camera and try to instigate whatever entity is haunting his girl would be a good one.

i mean, i’m actually rooting for this d-bag to get impaled or something.  he’s an idiot.  i’m almost afraid to write anymore.  so let me say, spoiler alert.  please come back and read after you’ve seen this movie.  because you need to go see it.  and make sure to take someone with you.  boy, girl.  whatever.  go with a friend.  pick up a stranger on the street, but take someone with you.  i watched this with three other grown men and we were all talking to the screen at various points in the feature.  “turn on the lights, you moron.”  “oh my god.”  “holy #$@%!”  “no effing way!”

this thing keeps you on the edge of your seat from the word go.  it really is brilliant.

but on to the spoiler alert.  and i call this a spoiler because it really could be a true story.  we’ve all heard stories and rumors of stories of stuff like this really happening.  but it’s completely scripted.  when that fool brings a weegie board into the house, if this was had really been happening to a woman since she was 8, and he brings a weegie board in, there ain’t no woman in this world would stay with him.  i don’t care how good looking he is, or how much money he makes, this chick, any chick, would be the eff out of that place and staying with a girlfriend.

but other than that, it is very believable.  and even still, i was on the edge of my seat just waiting for what happens next.  and that’s the beauty of this film and the style in which it is made.  it’s what happens next makes it so compelling.  because you never really see anything happen.  at all.  you start to see some stuff happen as the movie progresses, but it’s the sounds and the tension keeps you rivitted to the screen.

like i said, i watched with three other grown men and we were all afraid to go to the bathroom by ourselves after the screening.  we split up in pairs until we were all home.  it’s crazy.

i’ll see this movie again.  maybe a third time if i can talk another chick into going with me.

i’ma give this film a five out of five.  i went in not knowing a lot about what i was going to see, and had a great time.  and i’m probably not going to sleep for another few hours.  it scared the crap out of me.

i might not buy the dvd, because i’m not watching it in my house.

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Cal Reed

Paranormal Activity (2009)

Directed By: Oren Peli

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

What It’s About:

The story revolves around Katie and Micah who are experiencing paranormal events in their home. This activity has been following Katie for most of her life. Filmed as a documentary, Micah places a video camera in their bedroom as they sleep at night in an attempt to find out exactly what is happening.

The Verdict:

It’s the things you don’t see, the suggestive terror that lurks in the house that makes Paranormal Activity a scary movie. Unlike similar style horror films like The Blair Witch Project orQuarantine, Paranormal Activity sucks you into Micah and Katie’s world, and have yourself thinking “is this real?”. Believable situations that never seem over the top along with honest characters are the reason why this movie works so well. The ending is a little of a let down and manages to slash away the terror, but all in all one of the better horror films of 2009.

3/5

Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-04 20:17:43 by hellerphant

Paranormal Activity

"Paranormal Activity" is a horror movie that was made in 2007, on one of the smallest budgets the universe has ever seen. It started playing in a few areas a couple months ago and due to popular demand is now released nationwide and making an awful lot of money. It would be kind of pointless to list the director and the actors here like I usually do since they are all no names...and this is either their first movie or darn close to it.

"Paranormal Activity" is about this couple, Katie and Micah, who move into a house together. Of course their house is not normal because if it were then there would be no point in this movie. The house is essentially haunted...all of the strange occurrences happening at night. Katie thinks it may be demons that have been following her throughout her life. So her boyfriend decides to set up cameras while they sleep to try and figure out what is going on in the house. The whole movie is the footage from his camera.

The movie got a lot of a hype. And for the most part I did not think that it lived up to it. Although the movies is not boring - it's not really long enough to get boring and the plot is pretty interesting - it could be very slow at times. This mainly is seen in the beginning where very little happens...or so we think...leading up to the climax.

Like I mentioned before, the movie is low budget...we are talking only thousands of dollars here. It is basically all handheld cameras used throughout which leads to an extremely shaky movie. Which makes sense for the kind of movie this is, but it can get distracting. The movie doesn't even have opening are closing credits...so that kind of caught me by surprise. I've got to say that it is really impressive that such a low budget movie is now being shown all over the country.

The acting in the movie is okay...nothing too awful. We essentially are just working with random people here as opposed to actually actors, so that makes sense. The guy in this is also pretty annoying. He's trying to solve the whole possessed-house thing on his own when in reality all he and his girlfriend need is Tangina (aka: the midget from "Poltergeist") to remove any unwanted spirits from the house.

I feel like the poster lied to me...I was told "Don't see it alone" and after seeing it I feel like I could, in fact, definitely see it alone as it wasn't as scary as so many people are making it out to be. Then again I don't get scared during movies...but if I was one to get scared I would have only been scared a couple times...mostly near the end.

So basically, I found the movie just a little scary near the end and for the most part pretty slow...too slow to call it suspenseful...but given what little they had to work with it's pretty impressive...just don't believe all the hype that has been heaped on the movie. 2 out of 4 stars.

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Paranormal Activity

Dear Dad,
I’m really glad that you and Mom were able to come down this past weekend. Missy and I had a great time, and I especially liked the spontaneous trip to the movies. Missy hates scary movies and I know Mom does, too, so I thought we should seize the opportunity to go see “Paranormal Activity” together.
You may not realize it, but my love of movies comes from you. Sure, you may not be a “cineaste,” but you have always influenced my movie viewing. Everything from Westerns (“High Noon,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”) to war movies (“Bridge on the River Kwai”) to action flicks (“Terminator,” “Die Hard”) to scary movies (“Silence of the Lambs,” “Deliverance”), you have introduced them all to me. So who better to see “Paranormal Activity” with than you?
We got to the theater just in time for the previews and the theater was pretty full. We were both fairly surprised considering the movie had already been showing for a week. I thought we were going to get annoyed because everyone was restless and talkative, but once the movie started the restlessness turned to excitement. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a movie where the audience was so engaged with the movie as they were at “Paranormal Activity.”
The movie started out a little slow, but I think it was the best way to introduce the characters and the story. The two main characters, Katie and Micah, recently moved in together (I know you don’t approve. They’re unmarried.) and strange things began to happen in the home. Just like you or I would do (I remember the story of you in college setting up a tape recorder in an office to see if you could capture anything on it. To your surprise, you caught the sound of the door opening and closing. Only then did you realize that it was security.), Micah buys a video camera to document everything that’s happening, and that’s when things start to pick up.
He captures footsteps, strange voices, Katie “sleepwalking,” and eventually a Ouija board moving itself and bursting into flames. That’s the point they started to lose you. I think you were absolutely right when you said that it was the one big mistake that writer/director Oren Peli made. Up to that point everything was as believable as a movie about a demon haunting a home could be, but the burning Ouija board took it too far over-the-top.
Everything else had been small, quiet, unexplainable happenings, but then Peli threw that understated mood away for one scene and took it too far. In a film full of mostly correct choices and smart writing/directing, this was its big mistake. The other problem I had was with its pacing. At times it had a smooth rhythm, going back and forth between the images captured at night in the bedroom to Katie and Micah discussing their discoveries the next day. But there were times when things seemed to slow to a grueling pace. The movie did manage to regain its footing eventually, and the pace shifts into overdrive.
We find out that the girl has been haunted by this demon her entire life, but this time it’s different. The activity is getting more and more intense. A picture is smashed, doors are being slammed shut, something unseen is “breathing” on the girl, and in the scariest and most intense scene the girl is drug from her bed and down the hallway. It’s just the kind of stuff we like in our horror movies. There’s no teenage serial killer or excessive gore or any of the torture-porn that’s become so popular. It’s simply full of  small, quiet moments that leave more to the imagination than is actually shown on the screen.
After the movie ended, we both agreed that what exists in our imaginations is exponentially scarier than anything Hollywood could ever concoct. That’s what made “The Blair Witch Project” so scary and it’s what lingered with us both after we saw “The Sixth Sense.” What if we find ourselves lost in the woods? What if we begin to see ghosts? The “what ifs” are what make a scary movie a good scary movie, and “Paranormal Activity” was a good scary movie.
I know you didn’t know much about the movie going in, but you seemed like you enjoyed it. We had a pretty good time getting scared together. That’s all the movie intended to do and scare us it did. I’m really glad I was able to see it with you. It’d been awhile since we’d been to a movie together, and I don’t remember the last time it was just me and you at the movies.
We’ll have to do this again soon. You can choose the next one. Maybe Eastwood, one of your favorites, will have a new movie showing. It’ll be like old times watching movies in the living room together. I’m a little too big and old to sit on your lap, but we can still share the bowl of popcorn.
Love you, Dad.
Matt
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 86 minutes
Starring: Katie Featherstone (Katie); Micah Sloat (Micah); Mark Fredrichs (The Psychic)
Directed by: Oren Peli; written by Oren Peli; produced by Jason Blum and Peli. A Paramount Pictures release.

Paranormal Activity

In 1999, a low-budget horror flick made by guerilla filmmakers caused a splash at film festivals, got picked up by a Hollywood distributor, became a word of mouth sensation and earned everyone lots and lots of money.

We all enjoyed "The Blair Witch Project."

Ten years later we are enjoying its reincarnation, "Paranormal Activity," a movie that copies "Blair Witch" in tone, style and structure -- almost down to individual plot beats. But somehow the movie establishes an identity all its own and manages to scare audiences just as effectively as its spiritual predecessor.

PA tracks the story of Katie and Micah, two live-in lovers who have a ghost problem. A real bad ghost problem.

The ghost in question -- which, we soon learn, is technically (gasp!) a demon -- has a thing for Katie. It's had a thing for Katie since she was a child.

And this is brilliant. It's the conceptual breakthrough that makes PA work. Since the demon is centered on Katie instead of being a standard house-haunter, there is no utility in leaving the damn house, which has been a logic problem for haunted house movies since the dawn of time.

The demon evidently has trouble breaking through the dimensional barrier (my term) separating its plane from ours, but if it could only do so it would grab Katie and take her home with him. Since it cannot, it is restricted to doing scary things like opening and closing doors and thumping the occasional wall in a threatening manner.

Enter Micah and his video camera.

Fascinated by his girlfriend's guardian devil, Micah starts videotaping every aspect of life in the couple's San Diego home. According to a visiting ghost consultant, this is unwise behavior that may provoke the demon to redouble his efforts to breach the plane separating our worlds.

Which is a great lesson horror films teach us: always do what the spooky occult master suggests. Curiously, one should apply the exact opposite lesson in real life.

In any event, our movie remains firmly rooted in the house, which suits both its budget as well as the fundamental Aristotelian unity of place. In fact, much of the action takes place in the bedroom (va-voom!), as the demon likes to make his presence felt in the depths of the night.

There is of course an element of cliche to this, but there's also an element of good sense. Sleep is an inherently vulnerable state, and the idea of someone... or some-THING... in the room with you while you sleep is inherently terrifying.

It was Theodore Roosevelt who said "three o'clock in the morning courage is the best kind to have." But I don't have it. Katie and Micah don't have it. I bet you don't have it. I bet even Theodore Roosevelt didn't have it.

So lots of effectively frightening things happen during the night. And despite Katie's repeated entreaties, Micah refuses to stop filming them.

It is established early on -- by Katie -- that Micah is an immature man-child who enjoys electronic gadgets and a false sense of his own invincibility. This gets both Micah and Katie in extreme trouble throughout PA. It also creates a suspenseful dynamic -- we're bringing this on ourselves! -- that serves the movie well. Even if, as an audience member, you don't like Micah, you do need him. Trust me.

Which brings us to the much-discussed ending. Supposedly the ending in the theatrical version comes directly from Steven Spielberg, whose Dreamworks shepherded the movie into theaters. It's a decent ending that provides a nice jolt, but it's not as psychologically upsetting as the ending of Blair Witch. (Remember that standing-in-the-corner bit? Yikes.)


PA was reportedly shot for fifteen thousand dollars over the course of seven days by software designer Oren Peli. I wonder how he chose to tell his boss "I quit!" when the first big check rolled in. Did he make a dramatic scene of it? Or was he just gone one day, like "Good Will Hunting."

PA is a good reminder that movies are, at their heart, neat ideas for stories. Nothing more nor less. As such, it was gratifying to see PA beat "Saw 6" in its first weekend of wide release. Once upon a time, "Saw" was itself a neat idea for a movie. Now it's an idiotic franchise with all the creativity drained out of it by the corporate automatons who run Hollywood studios.

The very fact that PA was so low-budget -- and crafted in the utter absence of the studio development process -- became its greatest asset. While the acting isn't of the highest caliber, the casting is spot on. Katie Featherston is particularly effective because she seems so real. She's good-looking in a real-life kind of way, not a Hollywood or fashion model kind of way. I think movies would be a lot better if they were populated with actors less physically perfect. And that's not idealist-Neil talking, that's scheming-for-any-possible-advantage-in-audience-sympathy-Neil talking.

He's a bastard, that one.

SCORE

How Accomplished: 77/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 79/100

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Paranormal Activity

So I was visiting the pirated DVD seller guy and he had the original version of Paranormal Activity, not the theatrical one showing in cinemas now, the original cut back in 2007 one. So like an idiot, I, someone who is freakishly afraid of any horror movie involving ghosts, watched Paranormal Activity, at 2a.m, alone and in the dark. Ok not alone la, Samantha Chow was bothering me every 10 minutes. But anyway... this show is freakin phenomenal!



Paranormal Activity is about a couple, Micah and Katie, who suspects that there's some kind of demonic presence in their house. Micah buys a video camera in the hopes of capturing paranormal activity on film. Each night, Micah leaves the video camera on a tripod in their bedroom to record whatever might be occurring while he and Katie sleep.


It's probably just my pussy-ness, but I was literally shaking after the movie ended. It was so scary. As the movie progressed, I just got more and more tensed, my heart was beating so fast, I think if I watched it in a theater, I would have just walked out.


The show is very original. It totally blows The Blair Witch Project away.That's all I can say


My big complaints are that the night scenes were too short. Most of the movie happens during the day when Micah and Katie are just talking shit. The fun stuff only happens at night. So the film does drag a bit too long. But when it was scary, it was really scary. Another thing is I felt that the ending was a bit anti-climatic. (note this is the original ending, there's a new ending done by Steven Spielberg which I heard is really freaky)


So.. who wants to borrow the movie?

RATING: 7/10

NicholasC

Super Marcey's Paranormal Activity Review

Rating: 1/5

Paranormal Activity ended up being one of the most talked about smaller films towards the end of last year. It was the little film that could, made for basically nothing it grossed millions at the box office and got a wide release. The film was being called one of the scariest films ever made, and needless to say it did not live up to that for me. But my issues do not only stem that I was not scared (rarely do films scare me these days) but I found this was a really badly made film.

Paranormal Activity had a good idea behind it, there is a couple who have moved in together and the woman since she was younger has had strange experiences with the paranormal and it has started again. Determined to get to the bottom of it, her boyfriend buys a video camera and they plan to tape every day in the hopes of picking up something on camera.

Now that does sound like a good idea, a creepy premise, adding realism by using a hand held camera Blair Witch style. Well good idea, bad execution I am afraid. I found the two characters to be extremely unlikable and very irritating and annoying. In a film like this I want the characters to be people I like, people I can relate to. I really did not get that at all and I wanted to really just grab a baseball bat and smash them one! Not only were they irritating, they were extremely stupid as well. Sure there are things that were done to serve the plot but it made no sense and it came off stupid and annoying. I am sure they could have written something better, no much potential down the drain.

The acting was hard to watch at times, it made me laugh at times I really shouldn’t have been laughing. No offense to the actors, I am sure they tried their best. But it came off so bad at times and the more intense it was supposed to get the worse the acting got. Some of the things that happened were supposed to be scary, but again I laughed so hard, it was really that stupid. Now this review is going to go into *SPOILER* territory so you have been warned. There was a scene where the boyfriend is in the bedroom and the girlfriend is screaming, he goes to help her but he runs back to grab the camera. Now I understand without the camera we can’t see whats going on but really? She could be in danger but apparently its more important that it be filmed … stupid, stupid, stupid. It wouldn’t have hurt this film to have had hidden cameras around the place and have the hand held stuff doing other things. Then there are the things that are meant to scare, a door slightly moving, um no not scary. The girlfriend apparently being possessed and spending hours at night watching the boyfriend sleep, um no. I laughed so hard watching it, it looked really silly! I can see some people might be freaked out, but sorry it didn’t work for me. Power footprints, silly! A Ouija board working on its own and then catching fire, man that was the dumbest and most hilarious part of the film! It did not work and it looked so stupid and fake (again hard to do on a small budget), and even worse the boyfriend was told not to do it, so what does he do? Find an Ouija board! Back to the stupidity of this film, the boyfriend! He is an idiot who does not listen and basically because of him the shit hits the fan. Why did the girlfriend put up with such a dick??

The psychic they call recommends they call this demon expert immediately, and that is what they should have done. But no, the boyfriend says no and it isn’t until this demon thing has taken over that they call him and he isn’t available, yes of course he isn’t. All this stuff is introduced and it goes no where. This film has three different versions and I watched the theatrical cut, the ending of the original version was changed at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg apparently. The ending in the theatrical cut just made this already terrible and stupid film even worse. It did not fit in with anything going on and obviously left open for a part 2. The original ending which I watched worked better and fit in with the film, and it was probably one of the only decent things the film did. I didn’t see the third ending but I read what happens and even that seemed better then the theatrical one.

I can’t recommend this film at all, it is really terrible I’m afraid. One of the worst films to come out of 2009 yet it managed to be one of the most hilarious and very unintentionally.

(Review written January 29th 2010, first posted on SuperMarcey.com)

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Recommendations: Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009), Milk, Hurt Locker, The (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009)

Last updated: 2010-02-14 20:17:04 by SuperMarcey

Paranormal Activity

      I (finally) got to see "Paranormal Activity" this Friday, at a midnight showing, at the Alamo Drafthouse.  In doing so, I gave this movie the best chance I could of actually scarring me.  At the Drafthouse, I am virtually guaranteed there won't be anyone breaking the tension by talking or yelling something during a tense moment, or other such sophomoric activities that you are likely to get at a regular theater.  Unfortunately, the movie did that its self.
 
     "Paranormal Activity" has been advertised as some kind of underground phenomenon.  During its first weeks of showings, it played only to midnight audiences.  Much of the hype around it was word of mouth.  It is being advertised as "one of the scariest movies of all time.*"(*note the poster on your right)  Perhaps it works a little bit better at midnight showings, where you don't know what to expect, and you haven't seen commercials or trailers, but now that the secret is out, and the trailers I've seen contain most of the movie's creepier moments, the experience falls a bit flatter than it should.  Maybe it will work better on DVD, just you and a loved one you want to scare, or a small group of friends who have never heard about it, but large groups of people in theaters who know what they are in for disarm some of the scare of "Paranormal Activity,"
 
     Over-hype isn't the only problem with this film, however.  The concept its self seems very strong.  The way that the creepy moments are shown in digital camera 'reality vision', so to speak, make them seem real and visceral, however, there was no need to shoot the rest of the movie in the same, shaky, reality style.  That tends to be the failing of every one of these Blair Witch clones.  There is no real reason for someone to STILL be filming EVERYTHING that is happening.  ("Cloverfield" is a prime example.  Put down the camera and RUN!!!)  The attempted explanation of the continual filming also tends to ring hollow.  I think the film would have really worked if the scary moments were all on digital camera, making them seem very real, and the rest of the movie were just that, a movie. 
 
     The main failing of "Paranormal Activity", however, is the idiot boyfriend, who, in the end, deserves what comes to him.  I'll elaborate.  "Paranormal Activity" is a kind of found footage movie.  There are a couple of lines of text at the beginning, no logo or credits, the movie just starts.  The movie is made up of footage from one digital camera that a couple, Katie and Micah, played by on one you're likely to know, has purchased to document odd occurrences that happen to Katie as she sleeps.  Now, if both people were sane, rational individuals, this movie could have been very frightening, because you could empathize with them.  You might internalize what is happening and imagine that it could happen to you.  For a moment, you could get lost in their reality, suspend disbelief, and feel what they feel.  Sadly, you can't do this, because Micah, is an idiot.  He thinks everything that's happening is cool.  He is excited to get it all on camera and actively tries to provoke more occurrences.  To a point, I was still with the movie.  I could see that happening.  However, when the occurrences did begin to accelerate and intensify and when Katie, who has been dealing with these types of things ever since she was eight years old, begins to mentally break down, he should have stopped.  They should have consulted the expert recommended by the first paranormal investigator who predicted everything that happened up to that point.  Instead, Micah continues ahead, fueled by an inability to see the obvious and an overblown male bravado, and the film degrades into one of those horror movies that beg you to yell at the screen just to relieve your own frustration at the apparent stupidity of the characters.  In the end, I didn't feel scared.  I felt sorry for Katie and I felt like Micah deserved his fate. 
 
     I understand the premise behind "Paranormal Activity."  The fact that it's all supposed to look so very real, like a tape you found out in the woods or cans of old film in the attic, but its been done, so the shock value is gone, and you are not actually filming reality, so you still need to pay attention to your characters and their development.  Personally, I recommend waiting a year or so, finding a copy on DVD, and trying to scare a few close friends with it, but I wouldn't bother seeing it in theaters now.  The moment has passed.

Brian
Ciné Critique Américain

Paranormal Activity

Someone was listening to me these past years on the state of horror movies. Director Oren Peli must have thought the same thing because he has made a simply scary and effective horror movie without blood and ugliness. Shot on a very low budget in Peli's house over a week with two unknown actors "Paranormal Activity" has already made back it's money in a few weeks starting out at midnight shows in a few select theatres. The word spread as it was released in more theatres at a full schedule. I knew people were hungry for good scares as opposed to blood and gimmicks. This is a very well done and clever thriller which knows that simple things scare people like doors slamming, bumps in the night and strange noises. What happens when we go to sleep at night? The clever premise of this movie has the two main characters set up a camera in their room as they film themselves sleeping. They wake up in the morning to check it out and as the days pile on more interesting things start to happen. This is genius because it becomes more suspenseful and scary as the movie progresses and then climaxes in an explosive and scary ending that made the people I saw this with jump and then let out big laughs after. That is what good and effective horror movies do. I don't mind gory movies if the story is good but I love movies like "Paranormal Activity". This is a fun and scary movie that knows to create very scary movies you don't need tricks, a complicated story or blood. You need characters you like and identify with and the couple in this film are likable, normal and funny. The two actors playing these characters are natural and do a good job. You also need a building of suspense and a simply eerie mood and simple scares and this movie has it. It is not groundbreaking or a masterpiece but it is fun and effective and really knows what scares people. This is a great date movie where you can grab your date, jump in their arms and have a good laugh after.

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Vincent Snavely

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2009)

BOTTOM LINE: “Paranormal Activity” is surprisingly effective, using its simple, no-budget techniques to create some genuine suspense out of a couple’s “video footage” showing them being terrorised by a demon. The film is only let down by stupid characterisation, and the inevitable question of why the characters keep filming when it becomes clear they are in mortal danger.

THE GOOD: Following in the footsteps of other no-budget ‘found footage’ films like “The Blair Witch Project”, Cloverfield and “Quarantine”, this film has a concept which manages to take full advantage of the genre. For the most part, the footage seems real, and director Oren Peli utilises such simple techniques to create genuine suspense that it puts a number of bigger budget horror films to shame. Taking the less-is-more approach, Peli slowly builds an atmosphere of dread and foreboding, as couple Katie and Micah try to capture on video strange paranormal activity that is occurring within their house. Much of the suspense occurs when they are asleep at night, and in a master-stroke of directorial composition, this one locked-off shot of the couple sleeping in bed on the right, and the bedroom door open on the left, manages to make your hairs stand up on end every time it appears, because you know that each new time this master shot appears, something even worse is going to occur than what happened before. One excellent example is when Micah lays white powder on the floor before they go to sleep, and then while they are asleep, you hear footsteps approaching, and then see the footsteps in the white powder appear in the bedroom, and then face directly towards the couple as they sleep. Or the moment when Katie wakes up in a catatonic state in the middle of the night and just stands in the middle of the room for hours before walking out of the room. When these moments occur throughout the film, “Paranormal Activity” fires on all cylinders and is gripping. The film fares well in its final payoff as well, in a chilling final sequence that uses soundtrack to its maximum effect, and employs a very subtle CG element that leaves you with a very disturbed feeling of knowing what happened to this poor couple. Although it lacks the polish of a normal budgeted film, “Paranormal Activity” does a great job of pushing your fear buttons and is definitely worth checking out on the big screen.

THE BAD: The problem with films like these is that believability gets strained significantly when it becomes clear that the characters are in mortal danger, yet they still have the sense to keep filming. It is a conundrum for the genre because if they do not keep filming, then there would not be a film. “Paranormal Activity” does suffer from this, particularly in the instances when Katie keeps insisting that Micah stop filming, yet he continues to do so, and she ends up just going along with it. In the moments where Micah himself is terrified, he still has the sense to remember to pick up the camera. Another problem is the characterisations; an attempt has been made to make these guys real, but from a film perspective, some of their actions are stupid and annoying. Micah borrows a ouija board from a friend, specifically contradicting the wishes of Katie who believes getting a board will anger the demon further. It leads to a very cool sequence, but the dramatic underpinning behind it is weakened because of his actions. Micah’s character in particular is not sympathetic because of this. In this respect, the film falls down whenever the suspense scenes are not active.

RATING: 7.5/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

paranormal activity

this movie disappointed me. i read all these critic reviews on how great paranormal activity was, only to watch it and see that it’s about some asshole demon constantly knocking on some couple’s door. it was like an irritable and irrational neighbour who wants sugar, and keeps knocking on your door at 3am to get it. how is that scary? give him the goddamn sugar.

you can always tell when the demon is coming, because he’s accompanied by a low bass sound that would put the best audio systems to shame. it’s like he ate some bose speakers, and now he wants to show off their quality. you might be picturing some ghost, in your head, with speakers inside of him. maybe that’s what he looks like, i don’t know. they never showed the bastard. that’s something else that angered me.

the boyfriend in this movie is retarded. i think he had a touch of down. he refused to let his girlfriend call the ghost buster and kept spurting out phrases like, “this is my house.” all that was missing was him beating his chest and following it with “i’m king kong.” so what does this mongoloid decide to do? keep in mind, this demon is hungry for sugar. he puts some powder down on the floor, and with a chuckle says, “let’s see him walk through THIS.” good work buddy. we’re all proud of you.

i give this movie a 3/7. it gets some points because i laughed. mostly at the movie.

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Last updated: 2010-01-09 01:11:01 by user03

Movie Review: Paranormal Activity (2009)

Paranormal Activity
 
is the latest ‘is it real or not?’, low-budget horror movie pieced together with supposed amateur home video footage.  Think The Blair Witch Project for haunted houses.

While I liked the overall idea and it’s by no means a terrible film, Paranormal Activity didn’t really do it for me.  Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood to be scared.  It did have its moments, but certainly isn’t the ’scariest’ or ‘most terrifying’ movie of all time (or even the year) as it has been hyped up to be.

The footage begins when young couple Micah and Katie, living together in a fairly nice suburban house, decide to get a video camera to capture the paranormal activity they have been experiencing.  There is a bit of a back story and you get to know the characters are little through footage of their daily lives, but I found these to be time fillers than any real effort to allow the audience to get to know, and perhaps even care about, these people.

Like The Blair Witch Project, the tension in Paranormal Activity is built up slowly and gradually, with the intent of blowing the audience away with a ripper of an ending.  However, even at only 86 minutes, it felt like nothing was happening for a really long time.  A few bumps in the night, a few eerie things here and there, but for the most part they seemed like relatively minor incidents that were met with overreaction.  I understand director and writer Oren Peli’s intention to build an atmospheric film that utilises dread rather than cheap scares, but I spent much of the movie wishing something would actually happen.  I will say, though, that there were a couple of pretty cool things that happened towards the end, but unfortunately the final sequences weren’t as chilling as I had hoped.**

The film’s biggest problem, from which most of its other problems stemmed, was the restrictive nature of its format.  Of course, as the audience, you only get to see what has recorded by the inhabitants of the house.  But that raises some very difficult obstacles.  How much can you reasonably expect someone who is being terrified by demons to tape everything that happens to them?  Do you go the realistic route and miss out on some of the action?  Or do you come up with forced excuses to make them take the video camera everywhere and record everything?  Either way, the film suffers.

To its credit, Paranormal Activity tries to reach some sort of balance between the two extremes.  As the inhabitants actually set out to capture and document the haunting, a camera is set up in the bedroom and runs throughout the night, and that is when most of the creepy stuff happens.  In my opinion, that was by far the cleverest idea in the film.  Every time the bedroom cam is set up and the residents to go bed, I start to swell up with anticipation as the clock fast forwards to when ’stuff’ happens.  Occasionally, they venture out of the bedroom in hand-held mode, but thankfully the footage is not as shaky or nauseating as it could have been.

However, what this system also means is that some scenes are left to your imagination because you can’t see what is going on – sometimes that may be more frightening, but that’s not always the case in this movie.  It also means that at least one of the characters has to be a totally unreasonable prick so the camera can be kept running, but it gets to the point where it becomes a stretch.  With this type of film format, you just have to take the good with the bad.
Paranormal Activity also suffers from a few other issues.  This kind of film thrives on the gullibility of the audience.  The more you believe it is real, the scarier it becomes.  The problem is, while both leads were adequate, there were a couple of occasions where they felt unnatural.  Could be the dialogue or the acting, but I wasn’t convinced I was watching authentic footage.  One of the reasons why The Blair Witch Project was so successful was because it misled people into believing that the footage was real.  The film was presented and marketed as authentic.  10 years later, this has become a lot more difficult to accomplish, and as a result Paranormal Activity doesn’t have quite the same impact as its predecessor.

In the end, Paranormal Activity is a film worth watching simply because it is fresh and not done very often.  And to be fair, it also has some solid, atmospheric moments.  That said, lower your expectations if you want to be genuinely frightened.

3 stars out of 5!

** Apparently there are at least 3 alternative endings for this film, and I don’t quite think the one released in the cinemas is the best one.  See here for more details.

PS: a sequel is already in the works thanks to the success of the film, which is already the most successful independent film ever in terms of return on investment.  Let’s just hope the sequel is at least watchable, unlike that dreadful sequel to Blair Witch which I still rank up there as one of the worst sequels of all time.

PJM

Last updated: 2010-01-05 08:57:51 by user04

Paranormal Activity — 10

I have never been so scared in a movie my whole fucking life.

I cannot recommend this movie to anyone because even 2 days after i have seen it, i am still jumpy from it, and its hard to fall asleep. Not to mention that i have 2 cats, and when they make even the slightest bit of noise when i am trying fall asleep i get scared and wake up instantly.

I am not even going to go over the basic plot line of this movie at all. I am not going to plus and minus this movie at all. I do say that no one should see this movie. Its just that fucking scary. I do not even like scary movies because they are boring and i already know whats going to happen by the end of them. And not to mention that more recent ‘horror’ movies aren’t really scary, they just try to gore you out. This one goes back to just the atmosphere effect, and that’s all it need.

Base Score = 10
+0 I am not giving away anything, I cannot recommend this to anyone its so scary
= 10/10

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Last updated: 2010-01-12 01:54:14 by Tolll

Movie Review: Paranormal Activity

It has been a very long while since I last attended a horror movie in a theater viewing. Partly because I don’t get much out of horror movies (other than annoyance and disgust), and partly because the genre itself is mostly cooked up as my least favorite meal: Cold cliche surprise, with a little torture gore on the side, of course! (would anyone want it any other way? I think not). While America’s fetish for torture/mutalation films is seemingly never-fading (See the six “Saw” movies released), many of us still do appreciate good old fashioned creepy, suspenseful horror as well (A few of us do anyway). So it was kind of weird and kind of nice going in to see Paranormal Activity. Weird in that I have been so long absent from the genre that I knew little of what to expect, and nice in that I knew little of what to expect, other than that it was supposed to be scary, as even the most aloof of us are not immune to the gossip of a surprisingly good movie. Though by no means am I “aloof” from movie gossip. That notion is laughable. Oh right, the movie review…

Paranormal Activity is about a young couple living in San Diego. The female counterpart to the couple is, and has been throughout most of her life, the subject of a haunting, or, in other words, has  encountered Paranormal Acitivty (dun dun dun!). So we start off quickly with that premise after discovering that her modestly skeptical boyfriend has purchased a video camera to potentially record some of the hauntings his girlfriend is experiencing. Not very skeptical mind you, as the “investigative” camera he purchased is damned nice (That thing must have set him back about 6,000 bucks at least, the lucky bastard). Well, we should all hope it is nice, as the entire movie takes place from it’s point of view. So yes, in a nutshell the movie is about paranormal activity from the perspective of a camera used by the ones being haunted (sort of Blair Witch style, except less shaky).

So with that covered, we can go straight to the heart of the matter: Is this a scary movie? Yes, yes it is. Of course, that being dependent on what your idea of “scary” is. I personally would describe the movie’s effect as “very creepy”, rather than downright scary. Though admittedly, I have difficulty distinguishing the difference between the two terms. For the sake of this review, I will define “scary” as more along the vein of “shock” horror, whereas creepy is more along the lines of a goose-bump, chilling type of effect. The latter being my primary form of reaction, as I was infected by a deep sense of creepiness all throughout. But more powerful than anything, even “creepiness”, is the suspense of the movie. This movie masters horror suspense in ways I have not seen in a movie in ages. In fact, I found it so grippingly suspenseful that upon reflection I would say the last movie that had me so involved in a theater was Scorsses’s The Departed a whole three years ago. So in terms of entertainment value, this movie succeeds valiantly, as it had my attention glued throughout, with little to no pause.

Even more admirable than its ability to hold my attention is the fact that literally the entire movie is shot within the confines of a single two story house. Every. Single. Shot. (Except when they go into the backyard briefly). Rather than serve as an indicator of low budget (the movie only cost 15,000 dollars I’ve been told), the confined camera work is instead a powerful testament to effective movie design. In addition, this movie manages to manipulate our emotions without the use of a musical score. Don’t expect that shrieking violin here. That is too easy for these film makers. They do things the good old fashioned way. (Though I suppose the shrieking violin is the good old fashioned way, isn’t it?) At the most, you’ll get some ambient background noises that are, as it happens, very very creepy.

That silence though is more than a testament to the film makers ability for creating creepy suspense. It is amongst the most valuable assets this movie possess, as it practically is a character in and of itself, like music is for most similar movies.  Without that silence, the whole effect of the movie would have been broken. That effect largely being the “real-ness” of the scenario. I am sure most everyone has had a moment in which they’ve stepped into the dark of a room and eerily stood, quietly listening for an unnatural sound amidst the silence, and then eventually retreated with speed to the safe confines of their bed for fear of what they might find (or is that just me?). Well, imagine if you did that, and actually heard something very much unnatural. That, my friends, is where the creepiness of this movie arises. It totally captures that idea. It nails it to a level of awesome satisfaction. This would of course be shattered by such things as music, because how can one hear the creaks and moans of an empty house if music is blasting away?

Other key naturalistic aspects this movie nails is lighting (or lack-there-of). When the characters look into a room it feels like how it might if I were to look into a dark room. There is no steady, even Hollywood lighting of every crack and facet. Dark in this movie is real dark, not hollywood dark where you can see everything. And in this case, that is a beautiful thing. As for the acting, it is as one might expect: natural and believable.

In sum, I very much enjoyed this movie. It wholly captured my attention early on and did not let up. Not only that, it is a truly creepy sort of movie. In more ways than one I might add. I would advise though, do not enter this movie with absurd expectations. Do not expect to piss yourself with fright, as many people seem to think that the only appropriate response in regards to a horror film. Also, I have found about one in five people have entered with the classic nay sayer “I’m never scared” mentality, and simply have scoffed throughout to the detriment of enjoyment for themselves and everyone around them, all in an effort to exemplify the bad-assery of their nature (as some jackass did loudly behind me rather perpetually – He also bitched as I sat down, to which i respond (in my mind): Dear asshole, I cannot help being tall. Go to hell, if you would be so kind). Of course, such reactions to popular cinema are natural, as people hear rumors and what not, inevitably begetting an audience backlash from all those non-conformists haters out there (We all know the type – If lots of people like something, they will be sure not to). So for that reason, I’d see this movie sooner rather than later, especially if you like to be entertained. And by entertained I mean, you like being on edge for 90 minutes or so.

3.5 out of 4 stars.

Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-01-02 22:47:28 by user01

Paranormal Activity (2009)

Don’t go to sleep! The movie centers on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted  by a supernatural presence in their home. The movie is presented  through the camera set up by the couple to capture the paranormal  activity.
Now with any mockumentary horror film, right from the get go you know  there’s going to be contrasts to The Blair Witch Project, and I can  ultimately see why. The atmosphere is creepy, no script with very  unknown actors, films the same way, and no soundtrack what so ever.  However, I found this even freakier than Blair Witch, which really is  one of my favorite horror films of all-time.
The film starts out really all nice and happy, and although there’s  little thumps here and there it’s really nothing serious. But then when  things start to pick up, it starts getting shit crazyyy!!!
First of all, the real reason why Paranormal works is because the  special effects look so real. I have no clue how they did some of these  scenes but almost every scene feels and just looks so legit, that it  actually feels like your watching a documentary happen, right in front  of your eyes.
Secondly, the acting in this film is top-notched probably cause all  the film is just ad-libbing but the two stars Micah and Katie are  actually a very believable couple, and when they are freaked they look  and sound freaked out it’s not this usual scream fest to get a cheap  scare. Also believe it or not in this hugely suspenseful scary movie,  there is some comedy from Micah and his little one-liners that are more  clever than most think.
Lastly, the real reason to see this film would definably have to be  is seeing it in the theaters. This is what real cinema is all about. I  was packed with my sister in a sold-out crowd in an IMAX theater, and as  soon as the lights went out you know it was going down. I was really  freaked out but the whole crowd was even more freaked out with me so I  didn’t really feel alone. But if you do go and see this film, hurry up  and look for it to the closest theater near you cause I can assure you  it’s the full crowd experience which is just amazing.
Though I really did like this film it did have it’s problems. I  really liked Micah in this film but I though the decisions in this film  were so dumb that it really just made me yell “THE HOUSE IS CRAZYYYY  GETT OUTTT!!!”. He starts insulting and leading on the demon throughout  the whole film and while your sitting there watching your wondering if  this guy want’s to die. Also, there are many points in this film where I  would just be out of that house right away no matter what.
I think the other thing that Blair Witch really had going for itself  that we all kind of thought that the whole film was actually real. When I  went into this film I know it wasn’t real so that kind of brought down  the realistic factor for me, but ultimately that’s probably not even  much of a bad thing.
The whole film basically just leads up all the way to the end of the  film, and when the ending happens your flipping out the whole time. I  flipped, my sister flipped, every one in that theater must have flipped,  cause when the ending is all said and done with you will be so effected  by this movie.
Consensus: With a low-budget look and realistic  effects, Paranormal Activity is one of those mockumentaries that will  make you feel like everything you are seeing is real, and all the scares  you get are absolutely worth it.
9/10=Full Priceee!!

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life has its own ways of working out<br />
visit my movie review site at www.dtmmr.wordpress.com Feel Free to comment or request any movies at any time! :)

Paranormal Activity

Perhaps I could write an interesting and informative piece about the film that I just saw. And maybe part of this review will do so. After all, there is something to talk about in this dribbly piece of hogwash, however, I think it's more interesting to talk about the circumstances under which I viewed the film.

So let's set the scene. Tuesday night. Cheap Tuesday of course. The movie has been out for almost a month, so it's not at the hugely populated Avatar level. However, being a suburban multiplex in the holidays on the cheapest night for cinema tickets, there were enough people populating the cinema to give it the appropriate atmospheric tension.

The atmosphere that I speak of consisted of what I almost lovingly refer to as bogans, a wannabe hippy couple and very scared tweens (and one very scared 20 year old who groped me throughout the progression of the film. Luckily I she drove me, so the gropage was acceptable.) Throughout the film, there were the proverbial squeals, awkward and nervous laughs that follow the squeals and the judgmental "I'm not buying this" comments. While these actions from the surrounding patrons were quite the distraction from the actual film itself, they also proved to be an interesting factor when looking at what can help make or break a movie: the audience.

So while the actual film, which was trying its damned hardest to be a carbon copy replica of the 1999 small budget hit The Blair Witch Project, was not the best piece of cinema I'd ever see, it nonetheless managed to be on par with what I expected from this kind of film, and maybe a little more. I recently ran into one disturbing DVD at my local JB (of which I work at. Boo yeah!) It was a recent film release called Crush starring Chris Egan (from those old Home and Away days back in the early naughties. And yes, it's sad that I remember) which was the usual kind of teen thriller that ultimately amounts to nothing. However, the DVD back cover featured a review that noted the film as being "a notch above the films in the genre". And this lovely review is how I see Paranormal Activity.

It's not a great film in not such a great genre. However, it is a piece of popcorn fun that can make you feel like you're 16 again, where you may not have cared about special effects, narrative structure, or even a good ending. Mind you, when I was 16, I did expect, crave and need these things. So perhaps the film allows you to step into another world. That of the uncaring and unbiased tween expectations. And if, in this new tween age group, my choice is between this Twilight or Paranormal Activity, then the latter will always reign supreme.