Paranormal Activity

While I do have a great love for games, I have just as much love for movies, which are interestingly quickly becoming the non-interactive counterpart to video games...but that's another post. So here are some thoughts on the most recent movie I saw: Paranormal Activity.

When hype begins to surround a movie, especially such a low-budget horror flick that managed to captivate audiences enough to get it a full nationwide release, that movie almost never lives up to it. Such is unfortunately the case with Paranormal Activity.

Admittedly I have never sat through all of the Blair Witch Project, mostly piecing it together from random times I tuned in when it shows up on cable. Even so, it's quite obvious Paranormal Activity is in much the same vein, being an extremely low-budget suspense/horror flick with what sounds like a mostly improvised script that claims all of what we saw actually happened. Oh, and we can't forget the shaky cam, though thank goodness it's not much of a problem in this movie as many of the scares happen while the camera is on a tripod.

I suppose I should start with the good and then completely crush your dreams of it being great. First off, congrats to the people who filmed it for being able to do so much with so little money. $11,000 is nothing when you look at most films put out these days, and this movie proved that a big budget doesn't mean squat. They were able to create some very tense and scary moments using little more than bumps in the night. I have long been a fan of the concept that what you don't see is scarier than what you do, and this film uses that well...at the beginning. But we're still on the good here. So...umm....actually that's about it. Also, if you're quick to scare then this is your movie. If not...

Let's start with the plot. A couple has moved into this new house. The girlfriend has been haunted for many years, despite moving several times, and so the boyfriend buys a camera to see if anything is really happening or if it's her imagination. Sure enough, weird things start happening and they spend the rest of the movie being scared and trying to figure out how to get rid of whatever is plaguing them. So, it's not the most original of plots, especially when they hire a psychic and things start turning into a mixture of Poltergeist and The Exorcist. But, it's a suspense flick, who really cares about the plot as long as the suspense is good, right?

This is why I say those quick to scare will love this, because anyone who doesn't will see what's coming just about right away. When the camera is set up at night we get a little title card telling us which night it is ("Night 5" for example) and a clock telling us the time. What's frankly stupid is that all the scares take place during these static camera shots between 12am and 3am. Every. Night. Thus, the only suspense left us is trying to figure out what will happen. Admittedly there were one or two times that I was surprised at what happened, but those only came near the end (and not the end itself).

In fact, possibly the most disappointing part of this movie was the end. Yes, there are multiple endings. Yes, I saw them both. Yes, they're both disappointing. The problem is that the theatrical release, while scary and effective, is frankly overdone. The original ending, however, took all the suspense that the movie had built for itself and then just kind of let it slowly deflate. Sure it was slightly more original, but not as effective in my opinion.

Since the suspense scenes themselves aren't that suspenseful, it unfortunately falls then to the actors to carry all the fright and suspense on themselves. They too fall flat. Both the characters are completely one dimensional and are always in one of two modes: with the guy always trying to provoke the spirit and the girl getting mad, or the girl screaming and being frightened while the guy tries to protect her. Oh, or sleeping. But honestly I don't fault them. Both show promise, but are limited by a poor script that sounds either mostly improvised or reeeeally simple.

So in the end, despite its many faults there's still much suspense and scares to be had, especially for those of you who fright easily. And it's certainly to be commended for doing what it did with $11,000, but that budget limit also contributed to many of its failings. Worth a rent, but not much more.

Paranormal Activity gets a 6/10.