What better way to honor the 10th anniversary of “The Blair Witch Project” than by creating another no-budget, single-cam horror movie guaranteed to scare audiences silly.
“Paranormal Activity,” riding a wave of buzz sparked by some pretty savvy marketing, manages to build tension and horror out of a measly $15,000 budget.
That’s barely enough coin to cover Freddy Krueger’s manicure bills.
The new horror sleeper, opening wide this weekend, suffers the same flaws as the other films in its micro-genre.
But it’s also creepy, startling and utterly original in its execution.
“Activity” begins with a message saying the footage we’re about to see is courtesy of the San Diego Police Dept., and cynical movie goers’ gag reflexes may twitch a time or two.
You’ll also have to forgive the film for calling the main actors by their real names.
Oooh, this really happened? Please. That’s one part of the “Blair Witch” mythology that only works once.
Young couple Micah and Katie (Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston) set up a video camera in their bedroom to figure out why they keep hearing things that go bump in the night.
Katie is genuinely scared while Micah is simply trying to soothe his girlfriend’s nerves.
They soon realize there’s something afoot in their bedroom – and the rest of the house, too. Each night they review the video taken during the evening and start seeing things that shouldn’t be happening.
It’s the usual haunted house accouterments, but as revealed here each creaking door and blown fuse feels … real.
It helps that the actors are far more natural than your standard horror film. Featherston is beautiful but hardly stick thin, and Sloat’s wisecracks don’t feel like they’re coming out a model-turned-actor’s mouth.
“Paranormal Activity” stumbles over the same flaws as “Blair Witch,” “Cloverfield” and “Diary of the Dead” ran into before it. Why, oh why, do the characters keep filming when things start going horribly awry?
And much of the dialogue in the film’s second half devolves into variations of, “oh my god” … “let’s figure out a plan” … or “I’m so scared.”
How ’bout, “let’s get the hell out of this house, pronto?”
The film’s narrative keeps them inside, and you’ll have to forgive the clumsy plot devices which root them to this haunted parcel of Suburbia, USA.
But the mounting tension is impossible to deny, and the film creates a sense of theatrical community that only the best horror films can muster. There’s a good chance this will be the quietest film audience you’ll share a movie with all year.
“Paranormal Activity” doesn’t need cheap scares, gore or manipulative music to frighten us. It just takes our imagination on a ride it rarely experiences these days.
(Photo: A couple sets up a video camera in the bedroom to find out why they keep getting woken up at night in “Paranormal Activity.” Paramount Pictures)
Related posts:
on 
on 
{ 1 trackback }
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Was it Richard Pryor who did the routine, “Why do white folks stay in the haunted house?” Friends of mine, and they are neither all white, at that, reported a few years ago that they were going through something like the Amityville Horror. Did they immediately leave? No, they waited till they could get their money back, put it on the market and waited for a buyer. Some folks are just made of sterner stuff. And going through more desperate economic circumstances.
Did they ever consider getting the plumbing and wiring fixed, replacing the boiler, and putting squirrel traps in the attic?
That was an Eddie Murphy routine.
Great review, I saw the movie last night and it was by far the scariest movie that I’ve seen in a long time!
I just watched this based on your review, Christian, and I wanted to thank you. It was genuinely creepy.
The mechanism for keeping them in the house is a valid one. I’ve read a few books on the paranormal, and the distinction they make between hauntings and infestations—it’s the latter that’s happening here—are clear. Hauntings are always tied to a place, infestations can be tied to a person.
Without getting too spoilery, I thought the alternate ending on the DVD was more realistic, and given that this is supposed to be “found footage,” made for a better ending. And maybe both endings are unnecessary. If the penultimate scene (where Katie changes her mind) had been punched up, the movie could have ended right there, on a suitably “quietly-creepy” note.