Hey folks. Thanks for checking out our Paranormal Activity review.
You’ve gotta love stories like this one. A little, ultra low budget indie film that YEARS after it’s made gets some traction, gets picked up by a “name” studio, and then gets a theatrical release with some MAJOR positive reviews. Such is the story of Paranormal Activity.
The hype surrounding this film has ben of the scale. Many well respected horror sites going so far as to call it “the scariest movie of all time”. Those are some big claims.
So does Paranormal Activity live up to the enormous praise and hype? No, not at all. However, that’s not to say it isn’t still a solid little horror film that is quite enjoyable.
THE GENERAL IDEA
The synopsis for Paranormal Activity reads something like this: “After a young, middle class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban ‘starter’ tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.”
THE GOOD
The very best thing about Paranormal Activity to me is the concept of escalation. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a horror film do a better job of slowly, gradually and effectively “taking it up to the next level” throughout the run time. As the film progresses it gets a little more creepy, then a little more… then a little more… then holy crap… then HOLY CRAP… then CRAP I JUST CRAPPED MYSELF! It never moves backwards and it does a fantastic job of not “blowing its load” too early. The result is that it you’re never given a chance to really catch your breath. With the fear level ALWAYS going up, it creates a pace to the film that leaves your fingers digging deeper and deeper into the theater chair arm rest. This is where the real strength of film resides.
The use of the handycam may be a little “blair witchish”, but in my opinion it’s the reason the film works at all. The FEEL of it being real is what gives the movie its underlying sense of eerieness that quite frankly I don’t thing would have been there if this would have been a multi-million dollar production. You could have done this exact same movie, same dialog, same action, same location, same everything… but if you did it on a huge budget with multi high quality film cameras and lighting crews and editing, it would have completely lost the effect of the film.
The performances by the 2 actors in the film is what sells it. They were both so natural that you sometimes forget you are watching a movie and not a real home video.
The movie is scary, and that’s the #1 most important thing about any horror film. No, it’s not the scariest film I’ve seen, no it’s not as scary as some of the hype suggests… but it IS scary and has the theater jumping out of its seats on more than a couple of occasions.
There are obviously not a lot of visual effects in Paranormal Activity, but when they are used, they are PERFECT.
THE BAD
Remember that old comedy bit by Eddie Murphy where he talks about how black people would never make good horror movies… because the moment they heard the house say “get out”, they would actually GET OUT. The problem is, if the family or couple actually “gets out”, then the movie is over. That’s the dilemma for the filmmakers in Paranormal Activity. Because listen folks… if ANY of the stuff that was happening to these people in this house were happening to ANYBODY, they would get the hell out of the house and run. EVERYONE… except these two people. That’s the only time the movie didn’t feel real to me. All this crazy stuff starts happening, and they just stay in the house… which is stupid and would never happen. They needed to come up with a better device to explain why they would stay there.
There is a friend character who shows up a couple of times in the film that I thought was just a complete waste and didn’t need to be there at all. Whenever the character showed up, the story seemed to stall. That’s not a criticisms on the ACTOR playing the character, but rather the character itself.
Dead empty time in a horror movie can be very effective to built tension, and for the most part Paranormal Activity uses it quite well… however, it also uses it too much in spots. It also repeats the same conversation between the couples too many times that makes some of the scenes just feel like time filler.
OVERALL
While Paranormal Activity may not be the “scariest movie of all time” or live us to the insane hype its been getting, it is nonetheless a VERY GOOD movie executed very well that will leave you both entertained and pretty creeped out. What more can you ask from a horror movie? Overall I give Paranormal Activity an 8 out of 10.
