A Review of Paranormal Activity

A strange thing always happens when someone, usually a young filmmaker, discovers that you don't need a big budget, big stars, loud music and a lot of hoopla to make a scary movie. The first thing that tends to happen is that people react by being very scared. This starts a buzz about a certain movie. Slowly, or sometimes not that slowly, the buzz starts to build and build and then everyone is talking about that particular film. What usually happens next is that particular film opens nationwide on more screens, makes a fortune and becomes a success. However, as the success grows, a strange thing starts to happen. The people who loved and appreciated the film at first, get drowned out by a bunch of people who feel they are too cool for the room and the backlash starts.

I still contend that "The Blaire Witch Project" is one of the scariest movies you are ever going to see. It is very simple, but it also places all of my fears right there on screen. I loathe camping. I think that civilized man is not meant to live, even for a short time, in the middle of the wilderness, in tents and sleeping on the ground. There is a reason we have evolved to the point of having homes and stoves and hotels with room service. To me, being out in the wilderness, in the dark, is inherently terrifying by itself. You add creepy noises in the dark and I am wetting my pants and curling up in a little ball.

I was working at a little dot com firm when that movie came out. The receptionist of that company saw an advanced screening and came in and told us about this terrifying movie she had seen. I being the type to read a lot about movies, had already heard some of the buzz about it and when I went and saw it that opening weekend, the backlash had not yet started. I saw it fresh and it scared me. However, on the way out, I heard guys (it's always guys) saying things like "Is that it?" and "That was stupid, what was so scary about that?" I consider these people with little to no imagination.

I think this backlash is always started by guys. Guys are always trying to be cool and to prove that nothing scares them. Maybe those same guys went home and when they were sure they were alone, they curled up under a blanket and cried themselves to sleep, convinced the Blaire Witch was creeping into their windows. However, while they were out there, with other guys, and their dates, they have to act cool. Nothing homemade and with a shaky camera is going to scare THEM, by God! This is how false rumors that rather silly movies like anything by Dario Argento is somehow scarier than a simple movie leaving much of the work up to your imagination.

And so it is with the movie "Paranormal Activity." The story of the movie and how it got made is as famous as the movie itself. It was filmed with no budget with no-name actors using their real first names in the movie. The movie was almost entirely improvised. It was all filmed on hand-held cameras. It was shown at festivals and started creating a buzz. Somehow Stephen Spielberg got a copy of it and loved it so much he decided that, instead of remaking the movie as a big-budget film, the movie as it was should be shown. He had one suggestion to change the ending, which was done, and the movie went on to start more of a buzz thanks to a great online marketing campaign.

Just like with Blaire Witch, the movie got great initial reaction. The first wave of people who saw it screamed and loved it. The problem was that far too many started declaring it the "Scariest Movie Ever Made" which is just going to piss off those people who have drunk the Dario Argento Kool-Aid, right? Of course you are eventually going to get those same guys, who are too cool for the room, showing up to prove that this movie is not only not scar, but that it sucks.

Thankfully, I did not go see the movie during the hype. No, I saw it now that it is available on DVD and OnDemand between the two tsunamis. The first was the tsunami of hype that it was the greatest thing ever and then came the second (and more sustained one) the backlash tsunami of critics and tough-guys who are all saying that the movie is crap.

The story is very simple. A couple have moved into their two-level suburban home. Katie is the woman and she has been plagued, since childhood, with some kind of entity tormenting her. The entity comes and goes. She hasn't told her boyfriend, Micah, this, but as the movie starts activity has already started. She is a student. He is a day trader. They seem very much in love. Micah spends a lot of money on a fancy camera and he proposes setting that camera up at night to record them and maybe catch some of the weird noises and activity they have been experiencing. However, as things go on, the activity gets more intense, brutal, scary and dangerous.

Folks, ignore whatever you have heard about this movie. Try, with all of your might, to clear away the cobwebs of hype and the things others have said just to try and tear the movie down. Stop looking at the movie to be deep and penetrating and to have a message. Stop looking at the movie as anything more than it is meant to be. It is meant to be a creepy, scary little story told in an interesting way to make it seem more real. In that way and taken in that way, Paranormal Activity is a resounding and glorious success.

The effect of the camera works. It really feels like we are watching the lives of these people. Only one scene, involving a Ouija board, seems to take us out of that mode and remind us this is a movie. Beyond that, however, this movie hits the right tone. It throws us into the story right in the middle of things, lets us catch up, and then preys upon that secret fear we all have that things are going on in our house when we are asleep. Have you never had that feeling that there is someone beside your bed watching you sleep? I have. This movie suggest that there just might be.

Is it the greatest horror movie ever? Probably not. However, for what it is, and what it was meant to be, it is a damn fine movie. It scares. It makes you jump. It creeps you out. In short, it works, very well, as a horror movie. It leaves it to your imagination. It lets your mind fill in the details. The actors, and acting, seem genuine. In short, "Paranormal Activity" works and it might just be a fun, scary movie for you to watch with someone you love, bundled up under a blanket, with the lights off, and jumping at the noises and shadows in your own house.