In Theaters Oct 18 2009 @ 12:35 pm
REVIEW: Paranormal Activity
Directed By: Oren Peli
Written By: Oren Peli
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Running Time: 86 minutes
Rated R for language
Word-of-mouth and the Hollywood hype-machine will launch Paranormal Activity into the stratosphere (made for $11,000 and it’s already grossed $33 million) before turning around and stabbing it in the back. Overheard I’m-not-making-this-up quotes include “the second coming of horror!” and “the scariest movie of the decade!” Such hyperbole might be merited in a vacuum, but now that the cat is out of the bag (i.e., the Internet), proclaiming it The Savior of Horror will only tarnish the experience for future audiences.
With the business of managing unrealistic expectations out of the way, Paranormal Activity is unequivocally better than 95% of the splatter industry’s yearly output. Its effectiveness lies not in innovation (found-footage films that are – we swear! – based on a true story lost their novelty post-Blair Witch), nor in gratuitous jump scares, but in simplicity. Paranormal Activity is about a young couple who purchase a video camera in order to document the spooky happenings in their house… and that’s it. There is – almost literally – nothing else to the plot. Director Oren Peli, happily restrained by a shoestring budget, focuses on wringing every ounce of creepiness from the nighttime footage. All he does is flip on a few light switches, insert some thump-thump sound effects, and ruffle the sleeping couple’s sheets, but the chill factor is off the charts. You’ll be sitting on a pin – and the theater will likely be as quiet as a dropping one – waiting for the bedroom door to simply creak open a few inches. Less certainly is more.
Doesnt look very scary, does it?
Such minimalist cinema, especially when it has the hokey task of convincing you that ghosts are real, relies entirely on the strength of its performances. Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat (playing, ha-ha, Katie and Micah) are superb in that regard. Their relationship is authentic, their chemistry effortless, and when the freak starts hitting the fan, their mounting fear is unbelievably believable. Small bit parts – the proverbial psychic, the concerned best friend – are likewise bona fide. A false performance would have instantly sunk the film; kudos to Peli and crew for recognizing the necessity of pitch-perfect casting.
Don’t believe the hype. Paranormal Activity isn’t the scariest thing since Jack Nicholson went postal on Shelly Duvall, and the ending (apparently fiddled with by Paramount) feels a bit plastic and out of step with the rest of the film, but considering the upcoming slate of splatter-schlock – The House of the Devil, The Fourth Kind (yet ANOTHER its-so-true-we-promise! flick) and, joy of annual joys, Saw VI – it would be criminal for you to skip out on this ghostly gem.
on Oct 18 2009 @ 5:40 pm 1. alan said …
This is how you do a horror movie. Not this ‘in your face’ cutting of an arm with a chainsaw crap. As you nicely said….its a movie where less is more.
When will Hollywood learn if you want to make a scary movie, it’s not about the amount of blood on the screen or how much money you put into the budget? Producers, directors, movie writers et al can learn alot from this movie. I give it 5 stars.
on Oct 19 2009 @ 8:11 am 2. Luke Harrington said …
Well, there’s a pretty good reason that great, subtle horror movies like this don’t get made all that often. If you make a splatter-fest, you’re pretty much guaranteed an audience — even if the movie sucks — whereas the success of film like this is entirely tied to how good it is. (And yeah, making good movies is hard.)
It’s the same reason that they rarely try to make an action movie half as awesome as Die Hard — why bother, when you can just give Michael Bay $100 million to blow stuff up and then watch the crowds roll in?
on Oct 19 2009 @ 8:31 am 3. Evan Derrick said …
I also think, in line with what Luke was saying, that box office receipts have more to do with marketing than anything else these days. Word-of-mouth and festival buzz has been very, very strong for this film – they are the reason why it’s succeeding as well as it has – but have you seen the trailer? It’s horrible. Although the film is terrifying, it has no great trailer moments. It’s a bear to market, because you can’t always count on word-of-mouth – American audiences are fickle when it comes to what they will or will not embrace.
“Paranormal Activity” is very, very good, but it also got very, very lucky. Luke’s right – much easier for the studios to pump their cash into big splatter moments and watch the dough roll right through the door. Just watch and see how much money Saw IV makes.
With all that said, I agree with you Alan: studios should watch this, take note, and make more films like it. Movie theaters would be a better place.
on Oct 20 2009 @ 12:04 pm 4. Sam Juliano said …
Nice to see you back on the review-writing-front, Evan. I must say I pretty much agree with everything you say here. I also gave this four of five, and though the final twenty minutes was among the scariest I’ve ever seen in a cinema.
on Oct 20 2009 @ 5:37 pm 5. Film-Book dot Com said …
EVAN!!!!!
He’s back…I mean you’re back.
I, like everyone else, have heard about Paranormal Activity but I have not seen it yet. SInce i haven’t I do not want to ruin it be reading your review in its entirety. I did read however that you believe this film is NOT The Savior of Horror.
The savior of horror will not be a American horror film. America studios are too complacent now. They would rather remake something instead of taking the risk of make something original that might fail. Look what happened to Trick r’ Treat.
on Oct 20 2009 @ 7:44 pm 6. Evan Derrick said …
Thanks Sam and Reginald. It was nice to write another review again… heaven knows that Luke has been pushing me to write more the last few weeks, and I’ve been sadly complacent.
And Reggie, I have to admit I haven’t heard of “Trick R Treat” until you mentioned it. I’m popping it into my netflix queue right now, however.
[SPOILERS]
Yes, the ending is scary Sam. I’m interested to know what you thought of the very ending. Specifically, how the director gives us those expressions on Katie’s face where she is *obviously* possessed by the demon. That last look from her, as she stared into the camera… for me, it felt tacked on and very out of step with the rest of the film. Did you feel the same way?
[END SPOILERS]
on Oct 21 2009 @ 2:04 pm 7. Film-Book dot Com said …
Oh Sh** Evan, you want horror films for your NetFlix queue? Here you go:
1. Trick R’ Treat
2. Martyrs
3. Inside
4. Audition
5. The Midnight Meat Train
6. Orphan
7. Let the Right One In (get the one w/ the theatrical subtitles)
8. From Hell
9. The Stepfather (the 1987 version)
10. Frontier(s)
on Oct 22 2009 @ 9:23 am 8. Evan Derrick said …
I’ve seen “Audition,” “Let the Right One In” (which is more coming-of-age than horror, I thought) and “From Hell.”
I know enough about “Inside” to make me question whether or not I should actually see it. The only one I haven’t heard of is “Martyrs.”
You seem to like a healthy dose of ultra-gore with your horror, which I’m not sure is my cup of tea. My top horror films would be “The Orphanage,” “The Descent,” “The Mist,” “Drag Me To Hell,” etc. The “torture-porn” (for lack of a better term) segment of horror typically doesn’t scare me, it just grosses me out. Kind of like watching “Jackass” but without the humor.
But, I’ve got “Trick R’ Treat” in my queue and will report back once I’ve seen it.
on Oct 24 2009 @ 10:33 am 9. Film-Book dot Com said …
I have The Orphanage but still have not watched it yet. The Descent was decent. I want to see it with the original ending though. There are two of them.
Here are the movie trailer for Martyrs:
http://film-book.com/martyrs-trailers/
on Oct 28 2009 @ 4:00 pm 10. Sam Juliano said …
Evan, yes I definitely agree that the look into the camera was tacked on and not effective, though as I mentioned the sequence before was terrifying. Interesting that the screener circulating around(which I also saw) has a different ending than the theatrical version.
on Oct 30 2009 @ 9:10 pm 11. Thadd Harrington said …
Ah, Evan, how I missed the soft, sweet sound of your reviews. It’s good to see your absence hasn’t reduced your taste, because as usual this is spot-on. There are few movies for which I would endure such a miserable movie-going experience as I had tonight, but Paranormal Activity was certainly one of them. I would probably rate this as the second-most scared I’ve been, with first place going to Drag Me to Hell.
on Oct 30 2009 @ 9:45 pm 12. Thadd Harrington said …
Also, I meant to say this in my previous post and forgot, but, I realize character in horror movies are supposed to be stupid, but do they have to be so frustratingly idiotic? The guy in this was such an arrogant jerk that halfway through I started rooting for his death, and after that the movie was decisively less compelling.
on Nov 02 2009 @ 1:40 pm 13. Evan Derrick said …
Yeah, I think I was also more scared after watching Drag Me To Hell, although they are slightly different experiences. Paranormal Activity is more of a slow burn, while Drag Me To Hell is like getting napalm thrown in your face.
on Nov 03 2009 @ 9:27 am 14. Evan Derrick said …
If anyone is interested in the original ending, you can find it here.
http://www.filmsnmovies.com/video/11466/paranormal_activity_alternate_ending/
However, I’m not sure how long the link will last. Paramount is pulling them down pretty quickly.
And, guess what? The new ending, contrary to my complaints, is much better than the original. I’m glad they changed it.
on Nov 08 2009 @ 4:52 pm 15. Film-Book dot Com said …
Finally caught this film. Not bad. Better than I thought it would be. Might have to review it. And thanks for posting the original ending.
By the way, the look into the camera at the end of movie was detrimental to the film and the its ending. I agree. Too bad. They had me all the way up to that point.
Don’t knock The Fourth Kind. I thought it was better (in some ways) than this film.
http://film-book.com/film-review-fourth-kind/
Next up, The House of the Devil. I might actually pay Amazon to watch this On Demand…or maybe I should just wait for the DVD. We’ll see. I really thought this film would have come to the art house near me by now.
on Nov 18 2009 @ 6:47 am 16. paranormal activity said …
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on Nov 19 2009 @ 1:51 am 17. supranormal said …
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on Feb 02 2010 @ 7:12 am 18. Information Review said …
This movie is very scary. Although it is only absolutely terrifying for only about 1 min total, but the rest of the movie is funny and suspenseful.
on May 30 2010 @ 8:19 pm 19. Roma Bolenbaugh said …
A not so good ending doesn’t take too much from the beautiful cast, plentiful blood.
on Sep 03 2010 @ 11:38 am 20. Edison Towels said …
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on Oct 23 2010 @ 10:12 am 21. Kayce Lepo said …
I thought the original Paranormal Activity movie was excellent. The second one wasn’t that great. It was more startling than anything.
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