I love watching a scary movie, even if it has me looking over my shoulder and/or conjuring shadows in a room that aren’t really there. As I’ve gotten older it’s become more difficult for movies to scare me like they used to and though my imagination hasn’t diminished, what it has become is more realistic, skeptical and analytical. That being said, “Paranormal Activity” did not have me curling into a ball and peeking between my fingers with apprehension, but it did evoke a palpable sense of disquiet with its simplistic setting and a plausible approach to the supernatural that shrewdly preys on the uncertainties and persuasions of God-fearing individuals.
The film is presented as a documentary (it has no beginning or end credits) and takes the same approach that “The Blair Witch Project” did, director Oren Peli touting it as a true story. He sets the stage succinctly with a young and typical cohabiting couple who have been experiencing minor but consistent paranormal activity in their home over an unspecified period of time. They mutually decide to start documenting the goings-on via video and audio and what they capture both captivates and frightens them. From the beginning it is made clear that this haunting is not an isolated incident - Katie (Featherston) has been followed by this entity ever since she was eight years old and her boyfriend Micah (Sloat) finds this out for the first time when a psychic makes a visit and informs both of them that the presence in their home is demonic in nature.
While Katie is naturally passive and errs on the side of caution, Micah is impetuous and begins addressing the entity directly, taunting it and even bringing a Ouija board into the home to initiate open communication (much to Katie’s consternation and against the advice of the psychic). The activity then grows from mere thumps and scrapes in the wee hours to unnerving breezes, moving objects and physical attacks. In no time at all, Micah and Katie are frightened and cranky from sleep-deprivation, their mutual fear and anxiety causing constant dissension and feeding the entity’s appetite for negative energy.
By the time this mockumentary reaches its end, you’ll probably be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for a grand finale that will leave you breathless and satisfied. What you’ll more than likely get is something akin to a drunken orgasm – you know a climax occurred at some point from that shiver you just felt but for some reason you’re still holding your breath waiting for the big one.
Don’t get me wrong – “Paranormal Activity” contains a good amount of well-executed scares and though I was literally leaning forward at times, squinting at the shadows in Micah and Katie’s bedroom, my heart pounding with equal amounts of anticipation and dread, I wasn’t ever brought to the point where I jumped out of my skin with fright. And don’t expect to see what’s responsible for the terror – much like the aforementioned “Blair Witch”, this film forces the audience to use their imaginations in order to conjure something menacing rather than create a computerized imp that would likely incite scathing criticism and/or disappointment. Despite its failure to scare the bejesus out of me, it still greatly played on personal fears and superstitions of mine (I wouldn’t ever mess with a Ouija board – bad joojoo, people), particularly the prospect of demonic possession. To me, nothing is scarier than losing myself to something I can’t understand or control, much less see.
A first time filmmaker, Peli really broke the bank with this one. Filmed for $15K (which overextended his intended budget of $10K) in his own home in a little over a week, “Paranormal Activity” raked in almost $142 million when all was said and done. Peli’s personal website, which invited users to “demand” the film at other venues via eventful.com (it started out in only 12 theaters in September of ’09), proved to be an innovative marketing tool and when the counter hit over 1 million requests, Paramount granted the film a wide domestic release. The result? A word-of-mouth success story.
Bottom line: I’m not inviting you to go with the hype on this one but I’m not telling you to ignore it entirely either. “Paranormal Activity” generated the buzz that it did for good reason. If you don’t mind a film that will keep you up late wondering about every creak and bump you hear in your house, then by all means, go for it. If you can’t tolerate scary movies that take a realistic approach about paranormal phenomenon, you’d better take a pass on this one, lest you end up hiding like a child beneath the covers in your darkened bedroom, holding your breath and counting with trepidation the hours and minutes until dawn.
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