Paranormal Activity

Up until I saw this last night at 11:30 I hadn't even heard of it. I'm not really into horror movies, to many stupid cliches and red corn syrup. You can see the scares from the parking lot, and they just are mostly....stupid. This movie though....was a nicer change of pace.

But even though it was a nicer change of pace it also was barely scary. I felt gooses bumps once, and yawned through out most of the rest of it. The story is really simple, two people (Katie and Micah) think that their house is haunted so they buy a camera and start trying to record as much of their lives as they can looking for any sort of proof that it isn't just their imagination. It stays pretty slow for a while as they play with the camera and we get to know a little about their relationship. So that's when the weird shit starts going on, creaks as they sleep, the door moves a little, you get the drift. Well of course it starts escalating to the point that Kate is pulled out of the bed and down the hall by an unseen force.

The theatre was surprisingly quiet during the scary scenes, I was very impressed with the crowd. The screaming and hollering were kept to a minimum, but I couldn't help feeling like a sore thumb. Everyone in the theatre was freaking out a little, and I looked around as I heard people gasp and scream. I didn't get why they were so afraid. Now I know when seeing a movie such as this you have to suspend your disbelief, and I do that regardless of the movie, but this just wasn't all that scary. I was much more upset by "The Exorcist" or "The Broken" than I was by this.

Ill give it to the film makers though, they made this for pennies and still impressed me. They knew how to use negative space and make a slight shadow on the wall seem extremely ominous and threatening. They used darkness well, and if I hadn't known it wasn't real might have bought it...for a while. It wasn't necessarily a "smart" horror movie which I would prefer, but it also wasn't stupid. It was a nice middle ground, there were things I thought they could do to make it more scary. There were things the two actors were doing that made it better. Katie at one point smiles and does something with her eyes that chilled me a little.

If your into scary movies you'll most likely enjoy this. If your like me and expect a little more out of a movie you might leave somewhat disappointed. Knowing that ghosts and all that isn't real made it hard for me to freak out, when I know its a string, or a fan they are using to do some of this why would I get scared. 7/10 stars.

Director: Oren Peli

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat