Reviews
Paranormal Activity
Reviewed by: Jose Prendes
Rating: 7 out of 10
Movie Details: View here
Cast:
Katie Featherston as Katie
Micah Sloat as Micah
Michael Bayouth as The Demonologist
Directed by Oren Peli
Review:
I am sure you are all familiar with the glowing praise this film has gotten all over the web. This handy-cam epic has been hailed as the scariest film of the year...possibly the decade. Reports of scared stiff audiences visibly shaking have trickled out of fest screenings and whet the appetites of scare-hungry movie fans like myself. Needless to say, the hype proceeding this film was massive, and unfortunately when a film has so much to live up to it can't possibly deliver.
The plot is simple, and I promise not to give any spoilers. Katie and Micah live in a townhouse that Katie swears is haunted. Micah buys a super expensive camera to try to either prove her wrong or prove that there is actual paranormal activity going on in the house. At first nothing happens except some noises and bangs, but soon it becomes obvious (at least to the audience) that some crazy ghost crap is indeed taking place. Katie and Micah are little more calm about all this and decide to just continue living with it and hope that it all goes away. It does not...in fact, it gets worse.
The couple's life starts to unravel in front of the unforgiving lens of the camera as the activity starts to target Katie. It appears to have a thing for her, and Micah starts feeling bullied around. She wants to call for help, but he won't let her because he wants to deal with all this craziness on his own...after all, it is his house. This turns out to be the wrong thing to do and pretty soon our protagonists are left at the mercy of a particularly vengeful entity because, after all, it's his house.
My first impression of the couple was not favorable. Katie (played by Katie Featherston) and Micah (played by Micah Sloat) come off as actors and not as regular people. Maybe its the dialog, maybe its the self-conscious way they talk, or maybe it was just my preconceived expectations of greatness, but the first five minutes are rough. The characterization improves and the chemistry kicks in soon enough and we start to believe these people are real people, and this is crucial for the film to work. The relationship seems electric in a very authentic way and this is great, but the film spends a bit too much time developing this connection and not enough time delivering the shocks that the audience is expecting.
This is a flawed film. Even the best films are flawed in small ways, and what makes this film flawed is the staggering number of missed opportunities. This is the slowest of slow burns, and you immediately pick up on the fact that the film is designed to creep you out and not make you crap your pants right away. Director Oren Peli's first film offers three good scares (by my reckoning) and a general sense of unease that runs throughout. This is a real world haunted house movie, so fans of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures will be happy. This isn't Poltergeist (my favorite haunted house film) this is The Haunting by way of Open Water. The masterful touch in this film is how unique and simple the effects for the paranormal activity are handled.
If your idea of scary is seeing a door open and close by itself or loud banging, then you'll be in heaven. If you prefer a bit more meat on your scares, then you may have a tough time sitting through this film which focuses on the eerie ennui of Katie and Micah's sparse bedroom and hallway. In fact, that bedroom and hallway is the only thing we are looking at for about half of the film's running time. Luckily, the film is stretched over a period of 21 days and the mysterious editor of the film fast forwards to the good parts during the night.
Presented without opening credits or a musical score to preserve the authenticity of the "found footage," the film's main goal is subtlety at first. Then it starts to ramp up as a series of creepy events take place, setting the stage for the unnerving crescendo that is not only reminiscent of the Blair Witch ending, but also comes out of nowhere. I and most of the people who were at the screening I attended were left thinking "Is that it? That's how it ends?", and I bet a lot of you will too. Also, Peli throws a bit of business our way in the last two seconds that is not only nonsensical, but to me destroyed the realism that the film was striving for.
In the end, this is great movie to bring a date to and enjoy some groping. There are some solid, creepy moments and a few good scares, but unfortunately those are relegated towards the end. It's not the Holy Grail of haunted house films because a lot more could have been done (stuff moving in the background, shadows crossing hallways, creepy figures, etc.) but it is a worthy successor to the Blair Witch crown.
By the way, if you're already tired to death of the shaky-cam mockumentary-style horror movie, then don't worry. This movie's camera is on a tripod half the time!
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Comments
Posted by: brandon_fear on September 25, 2009 at 21:06:29
I had a feeling in my gut that this film was getting over hyped. I have been generally very excited about this movie since it's announcement.
I'm a HUGE horror fan and I want to be scared and freaked out by a movie. The only thing that has come close to that would be The Exorcist or The Blair Witch Project.
Looks like I might have to lower my expectations now and not expect PA to be the scariest movie ever.
Posted by: myst 2986 on September 28, 2009 at 01:30:28
i wonder if it will scare me i also have something in my home so far i have had my skirt pulled my sliding door slammed shut objects moved in my room and also i have heard walking in my room and my dad has seen something in the kitchen it's actually scary
Posted by: Objective on September 28, 2009 at 16:25:15
"It's not the Holy Grail of haunted house films because a lot more could have been done (stuff moving in the background, shadows crossing hallways, creepy figures, etc.)"
I'm not going to go as far as to say "It's the holy grail of horror." But a comment like that shows this review as being superficial. Horror is all about information being presented in fragmented pieces because in the end it is the unknown that scares us.
The thing that makes this movie scary was they left a lot to the imagination, which is the most powerful tool in horror. Not everything needs to be spelled out for you like what does the ghost look like, and how gross does that stab wound look. I don't know if you've ever watched any of these so called horror movies of the last few years, but guess what, CGI ghosts, and over the top gore aren't scary. And from the sounds of it, that's exactly the type of garbage you're into.
This movie was scary based on its believability factor. The amateur film making style, not going over the top on special effects, etc. Even the subtlety of a door moving on its own was unnerving because it was more believable than a CGI spook walking around. You just don't get it...it's not the thought of the door moving that's scary...it's what's moving it.
I think you need to figure out what horror truly is before you go around saying what it needs. This movie built tension the entire time and had people on edge because they didn't know what was going to happen next. Suspense doesn't come from something jumping out of the shadows without warning, it's the fear of what could be there.
"There's no horror in a bang, only the anticipation of it." -Hitchcock
Posted by: VinEasy on September 30, 2009 at 12:55:59
I just heard about this movie for the first time and honestly, I'm not going to see it. Mainly because its not playing anywhere close to me, but also because it just doesn't seem like something that would interest me.
After reading this review, it made me feel better about not spending the time and money to see this, but I have to admit, after reading, "Objective"'s comments, I am more interest than ever in this. He makes alot of good points. I'm not saying that this is going to be a great movie or anything, but Objective's comments have made me look at the idea of this in a new light.
Thanks Objective!!
Posted by: Subjective on October 4, 2009 at 22:50:27
Objective,
Thanks for stating the obvious. Thanks for talking down to the reviewer, and essentially anyone who reads this and thinks something minutely differently from your beliefs. Thanks for sounding like a complete tool.
It sounded like he liked the movie. He likes movies of this variety. One of his favorite horror movies is Poltergeist (that must be "the type of garbage [he's] into).
I don't know why you assume he hates this type of movie...you talk about how it's scary because it's believable, and one of his biggest qualms was when it broke from believability. You say it's brilliant because its "unnerving," he talks about how the film captures and masters that uneasy, unnerving feeling. You were defending a point as if he was against it. Which he wasn't.
Posted by: John on October 10, 2009 at 02:10:26
Just saw this movie and thought it was great. great build up to the climax, and thought that was done very well too. Definitely one of, if not the best horror films I have ever seen. If you want to get freaked out, go watch this movie.
Posted by: Director on October 11, 2009 at 14:31:53
**** who ever gave this movie 7/10
Posted by: Ryan on October 11, 2009 at 22:38:39
Saw this over the weekend. It's a fun ride, but the CG at the end totally blew it for me. It's studio tampering, plain and simple. The whole movie up to that point used very simple, effective in-camera effects.
The shaky cam gives me a headache. I had to turn away for most of the daytime sequences.
I want to see the original endings on DVD.
One last thing, the trailers give too many of the scares away. It's most effective if you go in cold and experience it without seeing any footage.
Posted by: Checkerface1 on October 12, 2009 at 00:17:46
Wow, apparently few people have sweeter tasting **** then the guy who typed this review! 'Oh, it just didn't live up to my impossible expectations, because after all, I'm just such a good judge of quality and style, and I'm a fluent typest to boot and that makes me better tan this movie, so there'!!
Posted by: ldg on October 12, 2009 at 02:36:33
Don't waste your time on this movie. It consists of waiting for three or four minute segments watching people sleep in order to see about 5 seconds of content. I just saw an episode of Paranormal State on TV that was much better than this over hyped dud. What's wose, the "climax", if you could call it that, is given away about ten minutes beforehand. Very amateurish.
Posted by: Objective on October 17, 2009 at 02:37:33
Subjective,
Clever name. Too bad it just shows that the point of your post was to undermine me rather than even refer to the film.
"...what makes this film flawed is the staggering number of missed opportunities."
"If you prefer a bit more meat on your scares, then you may have a tough time sitting through this."
"Poltergeist" is same idea different execution. A house with malevolent entities. The reviewer clearly says he wanted more visual eye candy thinking it would enhance the experience. However, watch any mediocre supernatural horror that's come out in the last few years and you'll get the exact movie he's asking for. "The Messengers", "The Grudge 2", "Darkness", "Mirrors"...all these films have "more meat on their bones." This doesn't make them scary.
The reviewer is saying it's flawed because it doesn't give the pay off of a climactic revelation of our antagonistic demon. And I'm saying that shadowy figures, and cheap scare tactics aren't what frightens us. It's the tension that builds from the unknown.
My point is that horror movies are more than welcome to have special effects, gore, and jumpy moments. But they should only be to supplement them film not relied on for the scares. "Poltergeist" and "The Thing" has a great mix of suspense and SFX. Why so many recent supernatural horrors fail is there's too much CGI and gore and no suspense.
Posted by: MaRs on October 18, 2009 at 08:17:46
Wow. I just saw the movie last night. I, a mature, hardened, 24 year old National Guardsman as well as a father, cried. Actual tears streamed from my eyes. That scared me more than the movie (if that's possible). The gripping effect that the movie commands from its audience. Of course you have your usual screamers of the female persuasion. But actually causing grown men to jump from their seats grasping at their equally horrorified dates, is a work of genius. If not for the relieving disclaimer at the end i would have never gotten out of my seat.
I'd say about half of the viewers attending a new horror film go there expecting to not be scared. Just paying admission to laugh at the big fake monster or the terrible acting. This is not the movie for them. Never before had a movie made me cry since I saw Lion King as a child.
To sum up the movie in two words "build-up". The bedroom scenes at night when you know something about to happen draws you in. Anticipation, is the driving force behind this amazing film.It leaves you hanging on the edge and gives you no safety net.
Posted by: iH8Shia on October 25, 2009 at 17:01:58
Oh man this film is slowww. This could easily have been made for youtube. Oh look shadows moving with no one there! Queue eerie noises! Can't wait for the hollywood sequel, which will persumably be like Blair Witch2 mocking the first film...
Posted by: Let Down on October 27, 2009 at 13:08:19
I strongly believe in actual Paranormal activity and i DO NOT believe this movie is real footage!! I believe these things can happen but this is all actors. Their is no documantation, no research shown. If it was real they could hae at least shown some "actual" footage, at least the night camera. waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy to fake. im glad i didnt waste money to see it in theatre.
Posted by: Gavman on November 28, 2009 at 09:01:48
MaRs
With all due respect,what made you cry?Did you spill your popcorn?I don't believe that the film made you cry as you know you are watching actors and can't be emotionally involved with them.Its a good film but it sold itself at the end with the cgi which went COMPLETELY against the authentic feeling the film was striving for.It is creepy but had been massively overhyped and the camcorder idea has been done to death.In saying that the director, with a little bit of tweaking{including one of the original endings) could have made this a genuine classic and is obviouly very talanted.Just left with a feeling of disapointment and numbness at the end:)
Posted by: BiggieSmalls on November 28, 2009 at 17:45:14
Sooooooo scary, i babbed my pants.
Posted by: BiggieSmalls on November 28, 2009 at 17:55:45
Pass me a cola cube you cretin
Posted by: Will Lewis on November 28, 2009 at 17:55:58
Babbed..........word of the week !!!
Posted by: HorrorFilmLover119 on November 28, 2009 at 17:58:07
I love this film, its simply sensational, the acting is top notch and anyone that disagrees has no taste in films.
Posted by: Will Lewis on November 28, 2009 at 18:01:58
Yeahhhhhh man, I loved the bit at the end...........when the freakin credits rolled you horror film lovin twat
Posted by: HorrorFilmLover119 on November 28, 2009 at 18:04:51
Get lost man, i'm just livin the american dream, you just got no taste, i reckons you never seen any good films, you probably dont even like britney spears, she is the awesome and talented aswell, i suggest you watch the film again.
However the credits were good, very nice font :)
Please give the film another chance, its so amazing and based on a true story you know.
Posted by: Will Lewis on November 28, 2009 at 18:11:48
Britney Spears is more freakin scary than the film man!!!!
I'm just watchin somethin way scarier..........Americas got talent !!
Posted by: Harry88 on November 28, 2009 at 18:15:22
Will Lewis, chill your beans dude, i have to agree with HorrorFilmLover119, the films a classic, its gonna go down in the history books man, the films biblical, anyone that said different is totally blind, deaf and borderline retarded with no sense of emotion! And Britney is AWESOME.
Posted by: Moderator on November 28, 2009 at 18:29:42
Some fowl language here guys, tone it down.... OK
my opinion is that the movie is awesome 5 stars.
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