Film Review: Paranormal Activity

I had to be dragged to this movie. I generally shy away from horror movies (I'm chicken), found-footage movies (hand-held makes me sick), and anything involving Ouija Boards (that's just stupid). That said, I liked Paranormal Activity. The main characters are a young couple, Katie and Micah, who have moved into a new house. Katie believes she's had a paranormal entity following her since her youth. Therefore, it's not the house that's haunted, but Katie. Micah doesn't believe her, so he buys a video camera AND A TRIPOD (thank you!) and rigs up the house to disprove Katie. Of course, they catch some very strange things in the middle of the night, and spookiness ensues.

The movie was creepy because of noises in the night, and everything we don't actually see. It's an effective horror movie about someone getting possessed without any blood, distorted fingers or disjointed heads. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But even stepping outside of the genre for a moment, I liked that the film provoked an emotional response from the audience without any violence, sex, special effects, major actors, or money. Again, not that there's anything wrong with any of those things, it was just interesting to see the power of filmmaking and timing.

Another reason this movie worked for me was the characters. I bought their relationship. Their banter and bickering seemed natural, and Micah had an unafraid-but-really-afraid attitude that felt realistic for a young guy in a new house. Katie's role was a little bit harder to play, as a character who thinks she's followed by ghosts is less believable. However, I again bought that, and I liked both characters.

Finally, Paranormal Activity was a lot of fun to see. Because (at first) it only showed at limited theaters and only at midnight, the theater was inevitably packed. So, every time the audience gasped all at once, everyone laughed right after. In that way, Paranormal Activity felt more like a ride, or the Haunted House at Universal Studios than a movie. I also got the inappropriately vocal guy behind me who'd mutter, "Ohhhhhh, shit!" every time the main characters turned the lights out at night. Paranormal Activity probably would have been scarier on DVD at home. This is probably one few movies that has less impact in the theater. But then again, I don't know if that's good or bad...boo!