"Paranormal Activity" Review - Written by Anthony T

Paranormal Activity
Year: 2009
Director: Oren Peli
Studio: Paramount / Dreamworks
Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 79 Mins
Official Website: http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/




Found footage films are usually your typical love it or hate films. When watching one of the films, I go into that type of film with a set of questions:

First, I’m I feeling scared, when watching the film in a dark theater?
Second, are the characters believable enough for this type of film to work?
Third, are there any subplots that make the characters interesting enough to keep the action moving, when nothing is happening?
Fourth, I am checking my watch, while watching the film, because I’m bored?
Finally, did the ending provide an emotional response that made me think about it afterwards?

Here’s a little backstory to the release of this film. “Paranormal Activity” is a film that was purchased by Dreamworks at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival. The film, then sat on a shelf for over a year and a half, as the company didn’t know what to do with it. When they came to a decision, Dreamworks along with Paramount originally planned remaking the film as a star vehicle, until they conducted a test screening of the film and the people there liked so much that they did the unthinkable and changed their minds and keep it mostly intact with the original ending changed.

The film is about a happy couple that moves into a quite suburban house, where it has a history. The two decide to document everything that goes on, so they can find out, if there is any truth to the rumors of the house that they occupy. They discovers that something mysterious is haunting them in the middle of the night, which leads to deadly consequences.

“Paranormal Activity” was worth the wait, as this left me more in shock than “The Blair Witch Project” did ten years ago. It’s one of those films that will leave you speechless. The reason for that was first time filmmaker Oren Peli’s direction. The direction was very good, as it was very scary. It answered the five questions that I posed in the beginning of the review in a positive manner. First, there were some very good scares here especially towards the end. Peli leads up to the scares, very well. He starts by doing some of the basic kinds but as the film progresses, the intensity of the scares start building up. That continues toward the end of the film, as it went on, the scares became more creepy and scary. Also. I liked Peli did the closing credit sequence, as it’s shows one card then fades to black for a minute, before the MPAA title card comes on. Don’t know that if that was intentional, but that gave me an extra scare on top of what I just saw. Second, the characters were believable. I go on and on all day and talk about how Peli directed these two main actors, but the credit has to go to them. Both Katie Featherston, and Micah Sloat really make their characters believable, as they weren’t annoying like some of the characters in “Cloverfield”. What both actors did was to make the performances feel more down to earth. That helped made their character’s interesting and worth watching. Third, Peli did a great job adding another dynamic to the film’s story, by focusing on the relationship that both Katie and Micah have for each other. Peli does that because you can’t have nothing going on and make the story that you’re trying to tell, be effective. By going into their relationship it brings depth to their characters and makes everything interesting, when nothing is happen. It also makes you invested in these characters, even though you know something bad is going to happen to them. Fourth, thankfully I didn’t have to check my watch because I was invested in everything that was going on. Finally, what makes this film very memorable was the ending. I like films that give you an ending that generates a response. The end of the film was just great, as it was very impactful without going into any detail. I was literally jumping out of my seat and almost made me duck underneath the seat. I know some people might not feel that way, but that’s the way I felt.

It’s films likes this that make me proud to be a fan of horror and independent cinema. “Paranormal Activity” is one of those films that you truly need to see on the big screen, as this is the best horror film of 2009.

The film is currently in limited release and its surely going to expand onto more screen with it 20 million dollars intake at the box office, this weekend.