Does the thrifty new ghost story Paranormal Activity really live up the hype? Is it one of the scariest movies ever made? In my humble opinion, the answer to both questions is no but this is still an extremely entertaining film and well worth seeing, especially if you have the opportunity to experience it with a big crowd.
Paranormal Activity sort of plays like Poltergeist by way of Blair Witch. The set up is simple. A woman named Katie is convinced that she’s being haunted by a supernatural presence. In an effort to get to the root of the problem, Katie’s significant other (a likable Micah Sloat) buys a video camera and sets it up at night hoping to catch the apparent supernatural force in action. What Katie and Micah discover is…well, you’ll see.
Director Oren Peli reportedly shot Paranormal Activity in less than a week, and for under $15,000. Taking these facts into consideration, this film is quite inspirational, particularly for those who are interested in making a movies. Stylistically, this picture takes the “this is real” approach. The entire film is shot from the perspective of Micah’s video camera, but Paranormal Activity avoids the motion sickness inducing camera work of similarly shot projects. For a picture like this to be truly effective, the actors have to sell the material and for the most part, newcomers Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are up to the task. There are a couple of moments when Featherston slightly overplays the proceedings, and Mark Fredrichs’ stilted, almost laughable performance as a paranormal expert drains the film of realism whenever he’s on screen (thankfully, he only appears in two scenes). I also could have done without the out of place ending. An ending that isn’t at all consistent with the rest of the picture. An ending that one of my all time cinematic heroes – Steven Spielberg – reportedly came up with. Overall however, Paranormal Activity is a fun ride. It has a nice slow build, and Peli is able to terrify the audience through simple techniques. One moment, during the final act of the picture, there’s a late night happening that actually made the hair on my neck stand on end. This isn’t the classic some might lead you to believe, but the film offers up several effective scares, and Peli’s ability to get a lot of mileage out a very small budget is admirable.
Grade: B
Adam Mast, Zboneman.com
