Paranormal Activity is one of those films that people either love or they hate. In my case, it became a movie that I came to like the more that I watched it. I still remember going to see it the day that it came out in theaters – it was a sold out showing and I was lucky enough to get tickets because of my friends.
The commercials/previews for it showed an audience freaking out and phrases like “the scariest movie of the year” appeared on the screen. I’m a scary movie fanatic, so of course I just had to see it! I left the theater thinking that it was good, a little Blair Witch-y take on being haunted, but it wasn’t THE SCARIEST MOVIE. I’ve totally seen better films.
I enjoyed the whole home video quality of the film. I think it added a realness to everything that happened. Don’t get me wrong, at some points the filming seemed ridiculous. Take the spider incident. Katie yells for him – something is obviously wrong – yet he runs for the camera FIRST before running for her. Really? I would like to think that my own boyfriend would run to me first to see what was wrong before grabbing his camera. On the other hand, it does show his eagerness, and relentlessness, to catch something on film.
I found the actual “hauntings” to be done fairly well. I liked how they started out on a quiet note – lights turning on and off, doors moving, sheets moving, etc. – and got a little scarier by the end of the film. My favorite parts involved in all of the paranormal incidents had to be the footprints in the powder and also when we heard the footsteps and then their bedroom door slams shut. I love how the movie plays on the fear of the unknown – not only do we not know what exactly is haunting them (other than some demonic force with odd footprints), but we never actually SEE anything. And the fact that it is something we don’t see makes it seem all that much scarier.
Then we have the final scene. This time she MAJORLY screams, and he doesn’t care to grab his camera. I guess it’s nice to know in a time of a possible crisis, he did care more about his girlfriend. The footsteps back upstairs create crazy suspense – they last forever. Then they stop and there’s silence. I think that is genius creating an intense moment of what the heck is gonna happen?! I didn’t jump when he hit the camera, but when I made my sister watch this movie (who’s a big wimp), I could not wait for this! She literally jumped out of her seat. Now the actual ending…well, I thought it was sort of dumb. Ooooo, Katie’s haunted – the reason behind everything. Whatever. I guess it made some sense for this ONE movie, but as Paranormal Activity became this huge movie phenomena with a sequel and prequel…well, it got a little out of hand.
Let me explain. As I said, I like the first Paranormal Activity. The more that I watched it, I liked it. I even bought the DVD when it came out. I even found the second film enjoyable to watch and the storyline still made some sense. BUT…has anyone seen the third film?! I have and it just got a bit out of hand and for me, made the other two films/storyline seem to not make much sense.
Anyway, I liked the movie! Even though I know it is a staged film made to look real (cough…Blair Witch…cough), I liked it. Paranormal Activity took the whole ghosts and hauntings aspect of the paranormal world and made it seem a bit believable. For the most part, I think that the first film seemed as though it could be real. You know, if ghosts existed…oooo.
The commercials/previews for it showed an audience freaking out and phrases like “the scariest movie of the year” appeared on the screen. I’m a scary movie fanatic, so of course I just had to see it! I left the theater thinking that it was good, a little Blair Witch-y take on being haunted, but it wasn’t THE SCARIEST MOVIE. I’ve totally seen better films.
I enjoyed the whole home video quality of the film. I think it added a realness to everything that happened. Don’t get me wrong, at some points the filming seemed ridiculous. Take the spider incident. Katie yells for him – something is obviously wrong – yet he runs for the camera FIRST before running for her. Really? I would like to think that my own boyfriend would run to me first to see what was wrong before grabbing his camera. On the other hand, it does show his eagerness, and relentlessness, to catch something on film.
I found the actual “hauntings” to be done fairly well. I liked how they started out on a quiet note – lights turning on and off, doors moving, sheets moving, etc. – and got a little scarier by the end of the film. My favorite parts involved in all of the paranormal incidents had to be the footprints in the powder and also when we heard the footsteps and then their bedroom door slams shut. I love how the movie plays on the fear of the unknown – not only do we not know what exactly is haunting them (other than some demonic force with odd footprints), but we never actually SEE anything. And the fact that it is something we don’t see makes it seem all that much scarier.
Then we have the final scene. This time she MAJORLY screams, and he doesn’t care to grab his camera. I guess it’s nice to know in a time of a possible crisis, he did care more about his girlfriend. The footsteps back upstairs create crazy suspense – they last forever. Then they stop and there’s silence. I think that is genius creating an intense moment of what the heck is gonna happen?! I didn’t jump when he hit the camera, but when I made my sister watch this movie (who’s a big wimp), I could not wait for this! She literally jumped out of her seat. Now the actual ending…well, I thought it was sort of dumb. Ooooo, Katie’s haunted – the reason behind everything. Whatever. I guess it made some sense for this ONE movie, but as Paranormal Activity became this huge movie phenomena with a sequel and prequel…well, it got a little out of hand.
Let me explain. As I said, I like the first Paranormal Activity. The more that I watched it, I liked it. I even bought the DVD when it came out. I even found the second film enjoyable to watch and the storyline still made some sense. BUT…has anyone seen the third film?! I have and it just got a bit out of hand and for me, made the other two films/storyline seem to not make much sense.
Anyway, I liked the movie! Even though I know it is a staged film made to look real (cough…Blair Witch…cough), I liked it. Paranormal Activity took the whole ghosts and hauntings aspect of the paranormal world and made it seem a bit believable. For the most part, I think that the first film seemed as though it could be real. You know, if ghosts existed…oooo.
6 comments:
The theatrical ending is extremely dumb. I guess the test audience needed their tacked-on jump scare and a silly demon face. Other than that, I liked it better this time than I did the first time I saw it.
I like your point about what we can't see being scarier. One of my favorite movies is "Jaws," which probably ended up being much scarier than it would have been if the mechanical shark had worked like it was supposed to. Instead, the audience had to use their imagination, which was probably much scarier. That's also why I kind of prefer the ending of Blair Witch, where you still don't see what was killing them, as opposed to possessed Katie lunging at the camera.
You know, Laurie, I like you point about the ending of Blair Witch. I think it is a good ending because we don't know, whereas with Paranormal Activity we have Katie jumping toward us with that stupid face.
Dumb ending, but good movie. Nice build.
I like your observation when Katie starts screaming (serious business!!) and Micah runs off camera to help her. I guess in a way he's redeemed himself by going straight to Katie...but I agree with you. That scene was well done. The amount of time off-screen, where we only hear noises and silence...top notch.
Nice post!
I would dump that guy if he were my boyfriend. I especially like how later in the film she says something about how he knew what he was getting into with her and he responds with something like, "yeah, well you didn't mention that a demon haunted you." Um...ok?! I didn't mind the paranormal build up...the incidents got more extreme which was good. I just didn't get in to it and sadly, I knew that it wasn't going to do much for me.
Wasn't horrible, but wasn't great.
Nice review!
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