Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks SKG
Directed by Oren Peli
Starring Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat

This is the main spoiler-free review. Opinions that contain some spoilers are continued after the trailer.

It seems that a certain legend has been building around ‘Paranormal Activity’ for years. I finally read enough impressions of the film to start anticipating it a little less than a year ago. Since then it’s gone from release hell, to remake hell, and then suddenly wide release in (nearly) its original form.

The movie had an auspicious path to release. Initially there were whispers about the tiny budget indie movie that could; there was the hokey (and almost certainly hoax) claim by eventual producer Steven Spielberg that his screener copy of the movie was haunted; then there was the nearly unanimous clout given by reviewers of the festival scene claiming the film contained unimaginable fright; and finally there was a purportedly grass roots effort that ended in propelling the movie from its limited midnight only distribution to wide release.

One must be careful when approaching a movie that has generated the type of buzz that ‘Paranormal Activity’ has. It was certainly on my watch list for lower budget films, but lagged behind my interest in such movies as Moon and Trick r Treat. The latter two mentioned movies rocked my socks off.

Unfortunately ‘Paranormal Activity’ is not very good. Not very scary. And not very original.

‘Paranormal Activity’ takes on the style of a “hidden footage” film. Recent movies of note to use a similar style were Cloverfield (2008) and Rec (2007). The entire movie takes place in one house and most of the “activity” is in one room. It uses a combination of sound based and off-camera activity to help build tension and heighten the sense of the unknowable. There is very little by way of visual horror.

The film opens with the viewer being introduced to the main character, the camera, as well as the main human participants, Kate and Micah. The viewer is never to forget that the camera is present and that there is no doubt that the camera is an intrusive presence. It seems that every other dialog part in the movie is Kate, in some form or another, complaining, “Micah, turn the camera off.” The redundant exchange is grating. And oddly familiar. Then one recalls the same device being used ad nauseam in The Blair Witch Project. At that point the familiar becomes hackneyed.

One could argue that the entire execution of ‘Paranormal Activity’ has been done once before in the decade old ‘The Blair Witch Project.’ It may be the limitation of the “found footage” medium, but other than the considerably longer runtime of ‘Paranormal Activity,’ the pacing, style of tension built (sounds, character reactiveness, off camera action), and even the sequence of events including the finale are almost exact if one compares ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and Paranormal Activity. More about this after the jump.

When the camera goes live, we are slowly told the story of Kate and her life-long battle with disturbances around her. The manifestations started when she was eight, always seemed focused on her, but even her sister could see the disturbances. She describes her fifteen year ordeal in great detail to a psychic who agrees to visit the house and hopes to help (The psychic inclusion was a very good move to enable the telling of a pretty complex history for Kate. Well done.). The psychic, however, informs the couple that he deals with ghosts and reconnecting with the dead. Kate’s problem is something else entirely, according to the psychic, and he refers her to a colleague in a field that might be able help. (The psychic has one more scene later on and it is one of the best in the film.)

At this point Micah pulls some kind of daft hissy fit where he forces Kate to ignore the “fruit” of a psychic and let him, Micah, deal with the problem. Micah, see, is a Day Trader, and he has access to this thing called the “internet” which allows him to visit, over the “word wide web,” a web page called Wikipedia as well as some Angelfire and Geocities web pages that has precise information regarding this little problem of Kate’s. It would be no problem for him to figure this thing out. That, in its entirety, is inferred. Kate, as tortured and near breakdown as she is, agrees.

The movie will sputter, catch, rev, stall, and eventually die. There’s no question that one must be able to suspend his disbelief to catch fright in a movie like ‘Paranormal Activity.’ I’m usually able to do that well enough to enjoy any film, but not this one. After a few taunt moments about halfway in, the movie gets so caught up in its tired repetition that one ultimately gets bored with the thing.

Night scene, occurrence. Day scene, freak out, “Turn off that camera Micah,” examine footage,discussion. Night scene, occurrence. Day scene, freak out, “Turn off that camera Micah,” examine footage,discussion. Night scene, occurrence. Day scene, freak out, “Turn off that camera Micah,” examine footage,discussion.

Whatever is behind Kate’s problem could be burning entire villages in Tanzania and dumping the charred bones on their bedroom floor and Micah would still Have this covered, babe, armed with a Ouija board. Micah’s character arc, or lack thereof, is a woeful disservice to the movie. It is not until the last moment that Micah thinks that whatever is happening is beyond his expertise as a day trader.

The scenes of occurrence themselves have very little cumulative effect. Each, individually, are barely nerve-wracking but are underscored with a single note of subtle deep resonating bass. The nearly subconscious suggestion of the note whispers, “wait for it… wait for it…” Awesome idea. I thought so when David Lynch did it in the BOB and dream sequences from Twin Peaks twenty years ago as well. On second thought, there was no other synthetic ambient sound, so was it Kate’s problem making this single note bass noise? Cool. Or it would be if it were BOB.

After the brief tension at the little before half point, the viewer must wait until the last act for a few more possible chills. In this act it is all in Kate’s hands. Micah has gone into Day Trader Retreat and keeps maniacally fiddling with the camera, so Kate does what she does best and carries what little quality there is in the film. Her fear is palatable (which makes one wonder even more why she let Captain Day Trader attempt to save the day) to the viewer and what gut wrenching one feels in the film can directly be attributed to Kate. The final few occurrences are as close to scary as the movie gets.

I had no problem with the Spielberg ending (literally. spoiler) when compared to the reported alternate endings. None of them would have been great, but the ending in the wide release at least supplies the one legitimate jump in the movie.

In summary, if one keeps the perspective that ‘Paranormal Activity’ was made for something like twelve grand, then it would have to be considered a strong effort.

But is ‘Paranormal Activity’ is an unqualified success and extraordinarily scary without caveat? No it isn’t.

More after the trailer.

SPOILERS

• I liked “The Blair Witch Project.” I was an aged 25 lad back then and followed the movie from the genesis of its online viral campaign. While no movie can actually scare me, some allow me to remember what it is like to be scared by a movie. ‘Blair Witch’ was one of those movies. Everything that ‘Paranormal Activity’ did was done better by ‘Blair Witch.’ The setting was better, the acting was better, the weird what-the-fuck was better, and most importantly, the pay-off was better by a staggering amount.
• I can dig that someone not liking ‘The Blair Witch Project.’ It’s not for everyone. But usually the reasons stated coincide more with the counter-popular backlash that crashed into the film and not anything to do with its merits as an experimental and, yes – in retrospect, ground breaking film. Ok, I can live with that. If someone has seen both ‘Blair Witch’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ and criticizes the devices of ‘Blair Witch’ while extolling ‘Paranormal Activity’, then that person is a pretentious anti-pop prick.
• I think that ‘Paranormal Activity’ may be scarier to someone that holds some religious belief. Normally the existence of my certain non-religious belief system does not influence my enjoyment of a movie with religious undertones. In this case Kate and Micah are battling a demon. Usually I automatically process “demon” as space alien or dimensional creature, but this time there was not enough of the visceral to spur my adsorbtion, so that may have been one hang-up.
• What’s with all the unused clues? I didn’t like the movie enough to care, but the Ouija clues that led to Diane, the clutched cross, the burning cross, the picture in the attic. These things were clues or warnings like those left by the Blair Witch. Whereas the Blair Witch’s were purposely dense in esoterica, the clues given to or by Kate seemed to hold some meaning. What? (Beyond the obvious) For me they were supercilious additives there to spite the audience.
• Micah’s body crashing into the camera was delightful symbolism when forced in context with Kate whining about the camera. Unfortunately I doubt if it was on purpose.
• I’m not normally a proponent for ambiguous or happy endings over any other type of ending. However, I think ‘Paranormal Activity’ would have benefited from a visit by the Demonologist and possibly even a battle of wile between the two. I know that seems awful ‘Exorcist,’ but this movie ended too predictably.