FILM REVIEW: ‘Paranormal Activity’ Goes Bump in the Night

Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures

by Guest Contributor Brian Robinson

Halloween usually leads moviegoers to ask each other the same question every year: “What’s the last really scary movie you saw?” This is the time of year we go looking for that elusive good time shock at the movies, and you can be sure Hollywood is ready to charge us for the opportunity to find it. And, as any showman will tell you there is nothing like a good gimmick. This year’s gimmick is being employed for the movie ‘Paranormal Activity.’ If you haven’t heard of this movie yet, I can guarantee you will.

For the past few weeks there have been online trailers and commentaries about this little ‘shocker-that-could.’ It’s a small independent movie that has been purchased by Paramount Studios and they are marketing the hell out of it (well, not ALL the hell out of it as there is plenty of it in the movie…more on that in a bit). But, they are marketing it in a way that reminds me of how movies like ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘The Godfather’ were rolled out in the 70s. Back then it was most common to open movies in a rolling fashion, in that they would open a movie in Washington, DC and New York, and Los Angeles and then slowly rollout the movie across the country over the next few weeks. Only after the huge summer success of ‘Jaws’ did it become commonplace to send out a movie to hundreds or thousands of theaters all at once all over the country. I still remember how common it was to have a movie open up in LA, only to realize later that it wasn’t even available in the middle of the country until weeks later (there are still some movies that follow this strategy, even though there are more screens than ever with all the super-mega-multiplexes around the country, and world for that matter).

With ‘Paranormal Activity’ they have used this strategy along with the web in an interesting, and I think successful, way. The movie has been officially out for a couple of weeks, but it was presented as only being shown in cities that ‘really wanted’ it. Potential fans were encouraged to go to the official website and request the movie to be shown in your city or town. No matter how small, Paramount would be ‘willing’ to only show you this heart-stopping movie IF you asked for it. And, if you REALLY believe that I am sure I have some swamp land you would be interested in and I will send my Glengarry salesmen right over. You just know that Paramount Pictures isn’t in the business of limiting the amount of people who are able to pay to see their movie! I have a feeling a descendant of PT Barnum must be working in their Marketing department. But, while Barnum was famously, although inaccurately, quoted as saying “There’s a sucker born every minute!” I don’t think you are likely to feel that way after seeing this independently made horror movie.

(First, let me say that I will NOT be giving any spoilers to this movie. So, please feel safe in reading on if you have any interest in seeing this movie.)

The plot of ‘Paranormal Activity’ is as simple as a silent film horror movie; it’s a haunted house picture. A young couple is documenting via video some strange going-ons that have plagued them since they have been living together. More accurately, the woman, Katie (Katie Featherston), tells her boyfriend, Micah (Micah Sloat), that she has been haunted since she was a little girl and it happens off and on no matter where she’s lived. While there has been some oddness about the place, Micah decides he will set up a video camera while they are sleeping to capture anything they might be missing. Sometimes, its better to miss things as you sleep. This movie does for sleep what ‘Psycho’ did for showers or ‘Jaws’ did for swimming at the beach. Especially sleeping with your door open…

(article continues below photo)

Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures

According to what I have read elsewhere the movie was made for anywhere between $11,000 to $15,000 and was completed in 2007. It was shopped around to the festival circuit, but was having a hard time catching fire. I can’t imagine why! It’s a concise, economical and effective horror thriller that I would have guessed would have sold in minutes at any bidding event.  From what I have read, it was shot in the home of the director/writer Oren Peli in a matter of  seven days. Apparently, Steven Spielberg saw an early DVD screener and was scared witless…he returned the screener the next day in a garbage bag claiming weird things happened in his home after watching it and didn’t want to touch the damn DVD anymore! But, he wasn’t so scared that he didn’t encourage Paramount to acquire the movie as is (Paramount wanted to actually buy the rights to remake it…but was convinced to release the movie in its current low budget form).

Now, I should say that some of you will not be impressed by this movie. I am talking directly to those who found ‘The Blair Witch Project’ to be a disappointment. This film certainly owes a lot to that one in terms of style and execution as it is in the same ‘mockumentary’ mode. The dialogue is clearly improvised in parts and there is a fair amount of bickering between the principle actors, but the difference here, I think, is the level of acting, especially from Katie Featherston. If the handheld camerawork in ‘Blair Witch’ or ‘Cloverfield’ (another distant cousin to this film) got to you a violent case of motion sickness, I think you will find this one more tolerable as most of the action takes place through a camera on a tripod and not being run around in a constant disorienting panic (although there are moments of that here too.) Shots are convincingly poorly framed as heads are cut off during dialogue and action happens off screen at crucial times. For the most part the movie is very naturalistic in that there is no soundtrack to tell you how to feel (though there are really great sound effects) and no ‘opening up’ of the movie. The movie successfully achieves a measure of claustrophobia.  After all, if an individual is being haunted more than the house there really isn’t anyplace to run and hide, is there?

My answer to the question “Whats the last scary movie you saw?” would have to be ‘The Blair Witch Project’ for a couple of reasons. I saw the movie (with Ian) in a super small screening room in Seattle one late afternoon. The place was so small and dingy that it was like seeing the movie in some creepy basement (the place was so sincerely creepy that I happened to see ‘Muppets from Space’ in that same screening room and even THAT had an odd, misplaced eerie air to it)! We happened to see it before the hype machine went into overdrive and that always helps a movie’s chances. Once its been built up too much, you can’t help but be disappointed. Even after ‘Paranormal Activity’, I heard a guy two rows away apologizing to his friends for talking them into seeing this ‘overhyped piece of shit.’ My sense, though, was that there wasn’t enough gore and blood for this guy. He may have been expecting ‘Saw’ number whatever. Like ‘Blair Witch’ this movie relies a lot on what you don’t see, but only hear, sense and see in the shadows, both literally and the shadows of your mind. And, for my money, that’s where ‘scary’ really lives.