Paranormal Activity: Movie Review

"Paranormal Activity" is not a movie I had heard much about before I saw it. I knew at the premiere a supposed thirty-five people walked out because it was "too scary". I called bullshit on that nonsense immediately. Then a friend said it was one of the scariest films he'd ever seen, naturally I grew more skeptical. I don't put much stock into such claims.

The eighty-six-minute film is billed as a true story, which can be tossed into the bin with the likes of "The Blair Witch Project" (in structure not quality). The two main characters are virtually unknown actors. Katie Featherson has a few credits while "Paranormal Activity" is Micah Sloat's only credit. The whole film is shot with Micah's hand held camera. Surprisingly, this didn't take away from the film. I expected the style to aggravate me much like "Diary of the Dead", but the film is done well enough that the camerawork only makes the story more real. I felt I was watching real home movies -- not some blow-hards wandering in the woods for days on end.

The film follows a young couple: Katie, and her boyfriend Micah. Katie claims to be terrorized at night by an unknown entity. Doing the truly realistic boyfriend thing, Micah decides he'll attempt to capture the terror on film, and solve the "problem" himself. Katie's performance is one of near constant fear while Micah treats the situation as a joke until things really get out of hand. At this point Micah turns increasingly aggressive which only pisses off the entity more.

The story is set up beautifully -- it's like a crossbow loaded to fire. Each time the night vision kicks-in on the camera to catch the ghoulish shenanigans, the bowstring is drawn back a little bit more. The hauntings start small, and quiet, but crescendo into a deafening, and bloody end. The hauntings aren't scary but rather, completely addicting. I felt myself becoming giddy every time the lights went out. I wanted to see what the next step up would be.

The coolest haunting for me, as simple as it was, was the mere two times a shadow passes in front of the bedroom door. Another whopper is seeing Katie dragged out of bed, and hearing her skull crack against the wooden floor. The sound alone made me shiver.

(SPOILERS) The attention to detail is impressive, and is something I can appreciate truly. 90% of the hauntings occur between 3-4 AM. I like this touch very much, because I've heard it said more than once that this is the time we are closest to God, and thus the spiritual realm. Even at the end, after Katie has knifed Micah to death, the police, and their reaction are realistic. Their response time isn't the best, or most realistic, but their entry, and their lingo is nearly spot-on. I am easily annoyed by bad cop lingo but this one did it right. (END OF SPOILERS)

Another thing I really appreciate from the filmmaker, in fact the thing that makes this story work to begin with, is the fact that the house is not haunted; Katie is. This isn't a rehash of what went down in "Amityville Horror". If it had been, there would be no story. Katie and Micah would have smelled something rotten in Denmark, and hit the road, endo story. Having Katie be the subject of the haunting was a simple stroke of plain old good thinking. In this way, there is no escape, not for Katie. In fact, she says this has been happening her whole life. Most would have gone to psychiatrist, and gotten some hardcore drugs, but with eighty-six minutes to tell a story, one can only do so much.

Featherston and Sloat were brilliant. Their onscreen chemistry is nothing short of astonishing for two unproven actors. They're so natural around each other it's incredible. The movie itself is so natural it doesn't even feel scripted.