The no-budget smash “Paranormal Activity” wants to trick audiences into believing the footage in the film is real, not fiction.

Even the most gullible among us don’t buy it, but the presentation is realistic enough to set up the film’s meaty scares.

Frankly, “Paranormal” feels convincing, from the gentle bickering between the leads to the less than glossy shocks that multiply as the movie heads toward its creepy conclusion.

One critical way the film conveys that sense of realism is the casting of Katie Featherston.

Or at least her curves.

Featherston is a beautiful young woman, but she doesn’t look quite like recent damsels in distress. She’s got a fuller figure than most of them, to be blunt.

That isn’t a critique on her weight. Frankly, I wish more actresses looked like her rather than the hyper-Pilates stick figurines we see on the big screen these days.

But Featherston’s conventional figure gives her movie an added sense that what we’re watching isn’t some artificial construct – even though it is just that.

It’s likely the next time you see her on screen she’ll be thinner, leaner and more like her Hollywood peers. But for “Paranormal Activity” her figure proves a very normal part of the film’s gimmick.

(Photo: Katie (Katie Featherston, left) and Micha (Micha Sloat, right) play a young couple whose house may be haunted in “Paranormal Activity.” Photo credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

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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)

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The people have spoken … and Paramount Pictures is responding.

“Paranormal Activity,” the new micro-budget horror movie released in select theaters last weekend, will hit 20 additional cities this weekend after fans deluged the film’s official web site.

If you call 230,000 requests a “deluge.”

Color me skeptical, since you’d expect a word-of-mouth sensation to draw more requests in our interconnected age.

Still, the film’s marketing gimmick is strong and now more people can see the film and decide if it’s worth the hype. Just remember – the film only shows at midnight.

The new cities prepping to show the film this weekend include: Los Angeles, CA (Arclight Hollywood); New York, NY (AMC Empire); Chicago, IL (AMC River East); Dallas, TX (AMC Northpark); Houston, TX (AMC Studio); San Diego, CA (AMC Mission Valley); Phoenix, AZ (Harkins Tempe Marketplace); San Francisco, CA (AMC Metreon); Philadelphia, PA (National Amusement Bridge); Atlanta, GA (Atlantic Station); Miami, FL (AMC Adventure); San Antonio, TX (AMC Huebner Oaks); Las Vegas, NV (Rave Town Square); Minneapolis, MN (AMC Rosedale); Denver, CO (Regal Continental); Detroit, MI (AMC Forum); DC/Baltimore (AMC Georgetown); Sacramento, CA (Cinemark Complex 14); San Jose, CA (AMC Mercado); and Tampa, FL (AMC Veterans).

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