Paranormal Activity (2009)

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Michael Bayouth
Director: Oren Peli
Country: USA
Genre: Horror

The comparisons to The Blair Witch Project are obvious and very quickly going to become moot. The cinéma vérité style is a subgenre now. Outside of the use of handi-cams and the massive internet and word of mouth marketing campaign, there is no correlation between the two films. That being said, Paranormal Activity is quite the effective ghost story which plays on the simplest of fears: during the daylight hours there is a sense of relief after enduring the many clips that take place at night. What the film preys on is our fear of being at our most vulnerable… when we sleep. Even beyond that it uses the knowledge of what people generally experience when they are scared or paranoid and embellishes on them to swell that fear. As one can tell from the movie poster or the trailer, this one brilliantly set up shot, which they return to for the majority of the scares, is perfectly framed to see through the doorway into the darkness. And who hasn’t heard the tale when they were a kid of a monster slowly clamoring up the stairs one by one until it stops at your doorway? In a way, the film allows us to enter our child-like selves and by using a lot of humor lowers our defenses to stir up terrifying scares. There is no doubt this film will have people sleeping with the lights on and checking the end of their beds. I highly recommend the sold out midnight experience if you get the opportunity. So much fun.

This review is also listed at:

You may also be interested in reading:

Are You Too Scared To See Paranormal Activity?

Paranormal Experience: An In-Depth Appreciation

4 Comments

• By vchocolate, November 8, 2009 @ 2:36 pm

  that was the best scary movie that i have ever seen that movie rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• By this guy over here, November 8, 2009 @ 3:18 pm

  I enjoy your enthusiasm! It certainly was one of the most fun movie going experiences I’ve had in a long time.

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