Paramount Pictures | USA | 86 mins
Paranormal Activity is an entertaining and unsettling horror film that easily gets under your skin. It’s similar to The Blair Witch Project, except its effective and actually very well made. While that is for sure a cliche comparison by now, both films’ narrative and storytelling techniques are undoubtedly familiar.
The story follows a couple named Micah and Katie who have recently been dealing with some very angry demons in their home. Katie throughout her whole life has sensed something haunting her and following her. Now things have gotten worse; almost every night they hear noises. To further understand these events Micah purchases a video camera and a tripod to record the, say it with me, paranormal activity. After experiencing and seeing these ghosts through the night vision recordings, they both realize something unnatural is happening. They even try to acquire the help of a ghost expert, who is no help at all. He tells them to seek out someone more experience with demons, but instead they ignore his advice mostly due to Micah’s stupidity. Soon enough, the ghostly visits they’re experiencing starts to reach an all-time high of annoying.
There are a few contrived plot elements, such as the incompetent male lead and the demon hunter being conveniently out of town, but the story still remains involving. The whole thing is a build up, not a particularly slow burn film, but it does takes its time. Whenever the film takes a break from the always exciting night scenes, there’s a sense of anticipation for what’s coming next.
The night scenes where Micah and Katie experience these activities is where the film truly shines. They’re all different and creepy in their own way and find a way of getting under one’s skin. There’s still a few questionable character actions. Its hard, for one, not to question why the couple just don’t go to a very populated area or to any other safer place. The film’s climax is also rather predictable and expected. (Spoiler Alert) The With the story of “woman vs demon”, its not difficult to figure out who will win and who will lose in the end. (Spoilers Over)
For a film that only has a budget of eleven thousand dollars, Paranormal Activity is uniquely made and extremely impressive to experience. The scares and fright mostly rely on loud noises and shadows, and it works splendidly. First time director Oren Peli has crafted a well made and genuinely frightening horror movie. He doesn’t rely on blood and guts to provoke scares but instead goes for real moments of fright. The loud crass noises and shadows could have easily been divulged into gimmicks, but he never allows that. Peli keeps all the scares fresh and original by never allowing them to feel repetitive.
Paranormal Activity is an affective and very entertaining horror film. While it does feature a few annoying conveniences such as having characters who make questionable decisions, it works. With two believable performances, successful moments of pure tension and some clever direction, this is a nice notable addition to the horror genre.