Paranormal Activity: More Hyped Up Than Should Be

Paranormal Activity was more hyped up on television than it should have been. I am a huge enthusiast for anything paranormal. I am an avid watcher of several paranormal hit television shows like Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, and Ghost Lab. So seeing all the commercials on television and reading the reviews on the new movie Paranormal Activity I was excited to see the movie for myself. Therefore, I went to watch it this weekend on opening night. Unfortunately, I was not as impressed as I thought I would have been.

As I walked into the movie theater, purchased my popcorn and soda, and made my way to my seat in the theater I was eager to watch what was hyped up in commercials to be incredibly horrific and terrifying to the point my dreams would be interrupted with paranormal activity.

I think honestly the previews were better than the movie. Ok, let me be honest, there were definitely points in Paranormal Activity that made me edgy, but it was only the scenes I saw in the commercial. I could have watched the commercials over and over and had the same effect without paying. Without giving too much of the movie away, if you are interested in watching, I will give a short review of my opinions of portions of the movie. I will not give the ending away in any way.

The movie begins with the boyfriend, Micah, with a new digital video camera meeting his girlfriend, Katie, at the front door videotaping her as she enters the house. Micah throughout the movie is infatuated with his new toy and his intention of getting paranormal activity on camera. Well I can honestly say that he does indeed get paranormal activity on camera during the evening and a couple times during the day, much of which looked very real and convincing, but everything leading up to the evening filming took an incredible amount of time. I sat there wondering in the beginning how long it was going to take to get to the haunting paranormal activity I saw in the commercials. The movie was probably 75% home video 25% paranormal activity.

In addition to all the home video filming in the movie and Micah and Katie talking constantly about the ghosts that have been following her since she was eight the camera moved like a tornado around the room through a majority of the movie. My wife left with a headache and her stomach in knots, while I felt sick to my stomach and had to look away several times to avoid becoming sick to my stomach. Honestly Paranormal Activity reminded me of a cheaper version of the Blair Witch Project.

Outside of the incredibly long wait to get to the climax of the movie and the motion sickness, the paranormal activity scenes were truly a work of art. The paranormal activity was definitely realistic looking on screen and made me jump a few times. When you are hearing footsteps clearly on screen, doors opening and closing with no one around, and sheets lifting off the bed you feel as though you are beyond a doubt witnessing paranormal activity and this at times was frightening. Unfortunately, there were only about seven or eight scenes that showed paranormal activity. The rest of it was home video taping.

It has been stated that Paranormal Activity was produced with only $11,000 in a 20 day span. I can honestly say, it showed. I did enjoy the parts of the movie that showed paranormal activity, but it was not worth spending the money to watch it in theaters. I'd rather rent it from NetFlix or Blockbuster.