Paranormal Activity (2009)

Tagline: Don’t see it alone. Agreed; Paranormal Activity works so well in a packed theater.

Curiosity: It’s pretty rare for a scary movie to achieve almost unanimous praise. If nothing else, Paranormal Activity is on its way to becoming a cultural item.

Plot: Katie (Katie Featherston) has experienced strange phenomena in her sleep since the age of eight. She sporadically feels as if she is being watched by a malevolent force. When another round of “hauntings” begins, her boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat) buys a high quality camera to record what happens while they sleep. Also, he wants to make a sex tape. Micah doesn’t take Katie’s condition very seriously, mocking a psychic she hires, as well as the demonic force she claims is following her. It’s with a mixture of amusement and pride that he attempts to figure out Katie’s problem on his own terms, which only serves to exacerbate the situation.

Thoughts: It’s both unfair and totally accurate to call Paranormal Activity this decade’s Blair Witch Project. Like Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity is told through footage taken by the main characters. Dialogue was mostly improvised. It was made on the cheap. Yet Paranormal Activity is the superior film in every way, and I’m afraid that, given the negative connotations that came with the Blair Witch backlash, some folks might ignore this movie simply because the buzz is so adoring. So believe me when I say that Paranormal Activity is a solid flick from start to finish. Blair Witch’s horrors were all implied; Paranormal Activity actually makes with the goods.

The acting is superb – Featherston and Sloat have a natural chemistry, and their reactions to the increasingly bizarre occurrences in their house are believable and gradual. The psychic they hire (played by either Mark Fredrichs or Michael Baymouth. It’s hard to verify since there are apparently multiple cuts of the film out there, with the current limited release version being the tightest edit with the fewest total characters) also seems to be straight out of Ghost Hunters. Writer/director Oren Peli claims to have done a year’s worth of research in preparing for this movie, and it shows. Paranormal Activity sells its demonic story as realistically as possible.

Another impressive feat is how much Peli accomplishes on such a tiny budget. The film isn’t a gore fest, but its special effects are so slight and subtle – a moving door here, fluttering sheets there – building and building until you legitimately can’t figure out how he accomplished some tricks without a major studio. It’s a slow, sparse film, but each trick works. My friends and I left the theater wondering how they accomplished some scenes, which is something I haven’t done in a while.

Not that the film is perfect. Katie’s friend (Amber Armstrong) could have been excised from the film altogether, as her dialogue mostly exists to spell out things a smart audience could probably figure out anyway. Without her, perhaps some of Micah’s actions wouldn’t come off as forced as they do. Still, the film is awfully tight and measured as is, a nice, slow-burning scary flick that messes with one’s head. See it in theaters and enjoy the crowd’s reactions. I'm not even going to post a trailer; the less you know going in, the better the experience will be.

Reflection: Do not have a dick-measuring contest with a demon.