For my first viewing of ‘Paranormal Activity’, I approached it with much caution due to being very weary of the hype machine that fuelled its release. I did not want the promise of much to sucker me in while there was the huge possibility of an overrated disappointment. I wanted to try to keep an open mind and not go into it with high expectations or neither being adamant that it was not going to scare me. I did not want to do the filmmakers a disservice. In order to have a non-biases view I tried my very best to ignore all the movie’s massive publicity and pretend that what I was watching was a little known obscure feature that I had just discovered.
Young Couple Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah
Sloat) have just moved into their Californian suburban starter home in San
Diego. Experiencing a supernatural disturbance since childhood Katie is
convinced that it has followed her here. Micah mounts a video camera onto a
tripod in their bedroom planning to capture any paranormal activity that may or
may not occur while they sleep. Katie is adamant that she will not do anything
to provoke it. She hires Dr Fredichs a psychic who upon visiting their house
after an assessment of the situation concludes that a ghost is not haunting her
but a demon instead which feeds off their negative energy and will follow her
and taunt her everywhere she goes. He warns them not to taunt it back or try to
communicate with it at all and to contact a demonologist Dr Johan Averies. Not
taking Fredrichs seriously and ignoring his advice Micah decides to sort out
the supposed problem himself and treats Katie’s claims and matters as a joke.
Despite Katie’s wishes and Fredrichs’ warnings, he also rather foolishly goads
the demon on to get it to do something and the lovers suffer the consequences.
After
seeing the movie a few times I am now free to compare it to the praise heaped
upon it since the its release. It has achieved a “certified fresh” rating from
critics of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes and gone on to gross an estimated $141,917,283
at the worldwide box office on a budget of just $15,000 not including the
marketing costs. It had its first screening at the Screamfest Film Festival
back in 2007 and between then and its general release last year the film had
gone through many changes. At the time of writing this review, the theatrical
version is the only one I have seen. So is ‘Paranormal Activity’ according to
Brad Miska of Bloody-Disgusting.com “…one of the scariest movies of all time”? No,
it is not. So is it then a mediocre let down? No, it is not.
‘Paranormal
Activity’ is minimalist horror at it’s, well most minimalist. Made as a faux
documentary of found footage just like its most famous forerunners ‘Cannibal
Holocaust’ (1980) and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999) and set entirely in the
location of their house debut director Oren Peli emphasizes on the
believability of the couple’s situation. He employs the Blair Witch’s use of an
actual hand-held home video camera with no camera crew, no soundtrack and its
technique of retroscripting - the actors not using a script and improvising to
a set of guidelines of the story and scenes. The movie here does not show us
anything different from any of the imitations that have followed the success of
that last mentioned title. However, to the director and cast’s credit, they do
pull off the naturalism of the situation and Katie and Micah provide real
chemistry as a believable couple.
Unfortunately during these day scenes while Katie is a
likable character drawing sympathy from us and actress Featherston does a solid
job Micah is, well… a twat! While sloat is very believable in his portrayal of
the obnoxious and insensitive alpha male, I did not feel one bit for him.
Although his actions are feasible due to his inexperience of all things
paranormal his stupidity made it very difficult for me to care for a man who
did not put his girlfriend’s needs first instead of doing everything his own
way. Not taking seriously the psychic’s advice of not taunting the demon and
not listening to any of Katie’s concerns he brings all the danger upon her and himself.
He is hugely annoying and is better off as a victim in a slasher film where we
can all applaud and cheer at his demise.
The
film’s main strengths lie in the actual depiction of paranormal activity that
are all set at night while the two are sleeping or awake when woken by the
increasing demonic danger. Peli’s minimalist approach really works well here.
Without visual effects, he instead uses some smart and well-timed trickery in
front of the camera and utilizes EVP for the sound of the unseen entity - all
creating its realistic presence. Time-lapse photography supplements this with a
time code stamp that tells us how much time has lapsed. There are some very
good scenes here with increasingly mounting tension as the demon grows stronger
which gets more unbearable each night over the three-week period. When we are asleep,
we are at our most vulnerable and ‘Paranormal Activity’ preys on our primal
fears of this helplessness. The movie is at its most effective here and is really,
what it is worth watching for - creepily unnerving twitchy scenes that are
unsettling but do not reach the heights of outright terror.
Overall,
I liked this film but I did not love it. It is a decent little flick that is
definitely worth checking out but is not worthy of the overwhelming praise that
has been bestowed upon it. The night scenes here are what make the movie and
view it for that uncomfortable experience of vulnerability that this minimalist
horror induces. Other than that, it is nothing spectacularly special but is
ultimately a good watch.
*** out of ****
Dave J. Wilson
©2012 Cinematic Shocks, Dave J. Wilson - All work is the property of the credited author and may not be reprinted or reproduced elsewhere without permission.
How would you compare this to the sequals?
ReplyDeleteThis one is the only good entry in a franchise that never should have been. This is very much a self-contained film and its concept never had the potential to be franchised.
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