I actually got the Blu-ray release of “Poltergeist” around the time the Circuit City store near where I worked was closing down forever. I had seen bits and pieces of it before, but until recently I had never watched it all the way through. What finally spurred me to watch it was having seen “Poltergeist III” on cable which was a true abomination, and I figured what came before it had to be so much better. Getting past all the trivia surrounding “Poltergeist” and its so-called “curse,” it remains remarkably frightening for a PG-rated movie.

Actually, it’s quite fitting that I watched “Poltergeist” today during this period of the wildly successful “Paranormal Activity” movies since they all focus on the strange and bizarre happenings around suburban households. These days it seems like the “found footage” genre is the only way to make a horror story set in the suburbs seem at all frightening. But “Poltergeist” showed that if you got the details just right, then you can find yourself relating to characters and where they live very deeply.

“Poltergeist” was directed by Tobe Hooper, but Steven Spielberg’s name is all over it as he came up with the story, co-wrote the screenplay and served as one of the movie’s producers. It’s hard to escape the influence which he had over this production as, like “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” which came out around the same time, it takes place in the suburbs of America where many of us grew up.

We drop in at the home of the Freeling family located in the nice clean California town known as Cuesta Verde, and it’s that kind of neighborhood where the majority of houses don’t look all that different from one another. The cars are parked out front because they aren’t parked in the garage for some odd reason, and the kids are riding their bikes all over the neighborhood.

Steven (Craig T. Nelson) is a successful realtor, and his wife Diane (JoBeth Williams) is a stay at home mom caring for their children Dana, Robbie, and Carol Anne. One night, little Carol Anne goes downstairs and sits in front of the TV which is showing nothing but static. It’s an especially frightening image on the Blu-ray release as the flickering creates an eerie strobe light effect as if the inhabitants of this house are in the process of being brainwashed. Carol Anne begins talking to the TV as if she’s having a conversation with someone who is invisible to everybody else. We can’t even hear what that someone is saying, but we believe Carol Anne is talking to someone, and our imagination runs amuck at who that might be.

Soon though, strange things happen around the Freeling household like chairs moving by themselves, and the kitchen being rearranged by some invisible force. One night while sitting in front of the TV in her parent’s room, a hand reaches out and pushes her away followed by a force of energy which penetrates the walls. Her parents wake up to see their daughter telling them:

“They’re here…”

What makes “Poltergeist” so effective is how the filmmakers play on those childhood fears we all had. Whether it’s that creepy looking tree outside the bedroom window or that clown puppet which you fear will come alive and attack you during the night, we can all relate to what goes on here (except for being sucked into another dimension). I remember always asking my mom to put my AT-AT toy (that Imperial walker from “The Empire Strikes Back”) on its side so that it wouldn’t crawl over to me while I was sleeping. I also kept having these dreams where this green school desk I once had would end up rushing towards my bed and attack me. Now imagine if these things happened in real life, and you will get a sense of what “Poltergeist” is all about.

Having it set in an ordinary neighborhood in America was another masterstroke as many of us have grown up in a place like Cuesta Verde. There’s nothing too unique about the characters who live there, and that makes them all the more relatable to us. Seeing the kids’ room with all those “Star Wars” posters and bed covers (my brother had those) bring back memories. So when these supernatural occurrences start happening and get increasingly worse, we can easily see it happening in our own homes. Of course, that might make our own households far more exciting than they have any right to be!

“Poltergeist” is also perfectly cast, and even though these actors are more well-known and bigger stars now, they still seem incredibly down to earth when you watch this movie today. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams still seem like the typical American parents we all know. The kid actors (Heather O’Rourke, Dominique Dunne, and Oliver Robins) are perfectly natural and seem very comfortable with themselves in front of a camera. You also have Beatrice Straight as Dr. Lesh, and she gives dramatic weight to what would seem like a comical or ridiculous role in today’s movies, a parapsychologist. What does that even mean?

There is also something to be said for Zelda Rubinstein’s performance as spiritual medium Tangina Barrons. While her high-pitched voiced might seem a little annoying, she makes what could have been preposterous dialogue sound very believable as she becomes the family’s last hope to save Carol Anne. It’s no wonder her presence in “Poltergeist” is so unforgettable, and not just for her line:

“This house is clean!”

Movies like “Poltergeist” usually have filmmakers getting too caught up in perfecting the special effects at the expense of everything else. But Tobe Hopper manages to balance everything out to create one of the ultimate haunted house movies. As much as Spielberg’s name is all over this movie, I have to believe that Hooper is the one who made it this scary. While it may not be as unnerving as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (very few movies are), he really packs in as many scares as he can for a PG rated movie.

You could also say that “Poltergeist” is a serious dig at the cutthroat world of real estate as Steven makes the horrifying discovery of certain sacred things which were not moved. People will do anything for the perfect property when there’s a ton of money at stake, and if they can cut corners to make house building go faster, they will. It almost sounds like a supernatural version of “Glengarry Glen Ross!”

I also can’t help but wonder if home insurance ever covers supernatural occurrences like this. Would the Freeling’s insurance carrier find an excuse to deny them any financial compensation? Could you imagine the looks on their faces if an insurance agent denied their claim for negligence? As if it’s their fault for not reporting this Poltergeist to the authorities sooner? If I were on the receiving end of that, I’d be pissed!

It says a lot about a 80s movie like “Poltergeist” still holds up well after so many years. Its portrayal of suburban America doesn’t look all that different from what we see today. I guess the only real difference these days (aside from cell phones and iPads) are the number of bank foreclosures going on, and you certainly don’t see any of that happening here. While it may have been ruined a bit by sequels (and this movie really didn’t need any), it still is worth re-discovering and would perhaps make an interesting double feature with “Paranormal Activity.”

I’m glad I finally took the time to watch “Poltergeist” as I needed something to wipe away the utter ridiculousness of “Poltergeist III.”

Oh and one other thing; is it just me or does that white spidery creature who blocks JoBeth Williams from her children’s bedroom have the voice of MGM’s roaring lion?

* * * * out of * * * *

In a lot of ways “Paranormal Activity 3” really shouldn’t work. It’s the third in the astonishingly popular series, and it looks to be officially replacing “Saw” as the official franchise in the month of October. The third in a trilogy is also when the series starts running out of creative juices and becomes bound by an increasingly aging formula. Maybe it’s time to move on to the next big thing in horror movies, right?

Not quite. Despite the inescapable feeling of déjà vu, “Paranormal Activity 3” still has the power to scare and unnerve viewers, and I knew exactly what I was doing when I saw it at night. This one comes from the makers of “Catfish,” a documentary I meant to see by now, but anyway. They follow the familiar setup, and it still has a number of jump out of your seat moments that shows that there is life left in this franchise.

Whereas “Paranormal Activity 2” was a prequel and a sequel, this one is a flat out prequel which takes place 18 years before the events of the original. Sisters Katie and Kristi, played by Katie Featherston and Sprague Grayden in the previous films, are seen here as children who live with their mother Julie (Lauren Bittner) and stepdad Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith). Things get weird however when Kristi gets an invisible friend named “Toby,” and strange occurrences develop in their home with increasing volatility.

Since this prequel takes place back in 1988, the filmmakers work with seemingly prehistoric technology such as video cameras and VHS tapes. Part of it serves as a needless reminder of how Betamax got its ass kicked years ago. While the technology is limited compared to what the characters had to use in the future forces everyone here to get creative with what they have.

Once again the man of the house (it’s always the man) sets up a barrage of video cameras in various rooms to figure out what’s going on in order to put an end to it. The only disadvantage is that the VHS tapes only allow for 6 hours of recording at the most. Somehow the spirits do make their appearance before the tape rolls out which you have to say is rather convenient for everyone involved.

The one new thing in “Paranormal Activity 3” is that Dennis comes up with the idea of attaching one video camera to the base of a fan. As the camera veers from side to side, we have another reason to be tense about what we’re watching. Will there be something on the other side that will jump out at us? This quickly becomes a clever device which distinguishes this sequel from the previous ones.

I do have to say though that “Paranormal Activity 3” got off to a shaky start. There were a bunch of cheap scares which (whether they worked or not) had me worrying that this entry would be full of them. While they may have provided the audience with a good jolt, it made me wonder if the series was going to descend into self parody. Once that happens, the series might as well end. Fortunately things straighten out as the happenings inside the house become increasingly unrelenting in their viciousness.

There are many moments that had my hair standing on end; Furniture moving around almost by itself, a character running into something that isn’t visible, and someone’s hair getting grabbed; “Paranormal Activity 3” may seem like business as usual, but this business is still producing terrifying moments just as things start looking old. Like the previous entries, I’m not entirely sure how the filmmakers pulled off certain special effects (the one at the very end is a painful shocker), and I don’t want to know for fear of breaking the illusion.

I recently watched “The Thing” which was a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 film. It reminded the problem of prequels in general in that you know who is gonna live and die, and the suspense gets diluted as a result. The advantage “Paranormal Activity 3” has is that while we know the little girls will survive to future installments, we aren’t sure of the adults’ fate. Katie and Kristi only reveal so much about what happened to them as children in the second film, so we are left to guess if any adults hanging around these kids will live to see the next day. Had the girls revealed the exact chronology of events, this prequel would have been screwed from the get go.

Many critics have had their fill now of the “Paranormal Activity” films it seems, but the formula they have created still works to a strong effect. That invisible spirit still can scare the crap out of us, and it actually makes me open to seeing “Paranormal Activity 4” get made. Granted, Paramount Pictures and Oren Peli can only keep going on for so long, but they have made it this far without losing any of the power which made the original so damn scary in the first place. Here’s hoping the filmmakers don’t trip over themselves in the future. We all know what happened to “Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows.”

You’ll still need a Bloody Mary (the drink I mean) after this thing is over.

* * * out of * * * *

We had every reason to expect the sequel to last year’s surprise hit “Paranormal Activity” to be horrid. Movies like that come out of nowhere and make more money than anyone could have expected, so a sequel has to follow, right? God forbid the money train stops there! Even in the new millennium, greed is still king. Most people were expecting this to be as terrible as “The Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows” which itself was a giant insult to its predecessor, hence giving more fuel to the haters who felt they were tricked out of their money. Besides, how can you expect a story like this to remain fresh let alone terrifying? We weren’t expecting what got hurled at us last time, but now we feel more prepared to scan every scene of the movie so that we can predict when the scares come.

Well, it is to my astonishment that I report that “Paranormal Activity 2” is no “Blair Witch 2.” Heck, it’s not even an “Open Water 2” or a “Jaws 2” or an “Exorcist 2” for that matter. This sequel turns out to be just as scary and unnerving as the original, and it respects the Oren Peli’s film for what it was and does nothing to detract from it. In fact, this sequel adds additional layers to the original which enhances the experience all the more.

“Paranormal Activity 2” opens up in Carlsbad, California where we meet Dan and his second wife Kristin as they arrive home with their newborn son, Hunter. Once they are there, we also get to meet Alli, Dan’s daughter from another marriage, the family housekeeper and nanny Martine, and the loyal German Shepherd Abby. A couple of days later after going out of town, they come back to the house to find that it has been ransacked and burglarized, but surprisingly nothing has been stolen. As a result, Dan ends up getting security cameras installed in different areas of the house to make his family feel safe, and maybe catch whoever did this. After that, things start getting scary as loud as an ominous hum pervades the family dwellings as a sign that something nasty is about to happen. Just like the original, the men never take the women or their fears seriously, and that just makes the rest of us guys look like bad boyfriends and husbands.

Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat return from the first movie as Katie and Micah, but Katie is the one who is more prominently featured. It turns out that Katie is Kristin’s sister, and that they two shared a scary past when they thought they were being terrorized by a spirit. Both are loathe to explain what they went through as children because the terror of it somehow coming back is too great.

Now the really clever thing about “Paranormal Activity 2” is that it turns out to be as much a prequel as it is a sequel. The story actually takes place several weeks before the events portrayed in the original, and the ending more or less coincides to what Katie and Micah went through. This I thought was an inspired decision because it gives more weight to the story of not just this film, but the original as well. This is not just some dumb follow up with the same old story filled with characters making the same stupid mistakes. The fate of this family is very much interlocked with the fate of Katie and Micah, and their inevitable doom makes this sequel all the more haunting.

Now whereas “Paranormal Activity” had just the one camera which Micah had situated in his and Katie’s bedroom for the most part, this second film has us looking through a number of security cameras which record the house from different angles, each revealing small little things that haunt the house mercilessly. Then there are other scenes where one of more characters are holding the camera and making us see everything that they see as they search through the house late at night. The security cameras by themselves present freaky enough images to gives us goose pimples, but when we have the first person perspective, things get even more intense than they already are.

You know what really gets to me about these movies? The silence around the house and the lack of a film score. For me, being alone in a room or a house without any noise gets my anxiety running and has me on edge as I suspect something bad is about to occur, and I won’t be able to prevent it from happening. Both “Paranormal Activity” movies understand this anxiety perfectly and play on it to the max without a reliance on blood and gore. Plus, your home is where you and your family are supposed to feel the safest. Now what happens when the safety of your home is completely violated? Where can you feel safe after that?

The choice of director for “Paranormal Activity 2” is actual a surprise and not who you might expect. Tod Williams is best known for directing “The Door In The Floor,” a criminally under seen drama with powerfully stinging performances by Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger. How the producers thought of Tod for this film is beyond me, but he gives this sequel a strong suspenseful tone that keeps the tension at a high pitch throughout. Tod also gives us a couple of excellent jump out of your seat moments that will make your hair stand on end, especially one in the kitchen (trust me, you’ll know it when you see it).

As for the acting, it’s all good, nothing spectacular which is perfect for a film like this. I also have to give special props to Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat who still act ever so naturally in front of the camera. After the first film, you’d think they would have a tougher time with that and be even more self-conscious than they were before. But they both act normal as if the first movie never happened which I found very impressive.

I’m not sure I can go on in description about “Paranormal Activity 2” for fear of giving away too much. I was pleasantly (in a manner of speaking) surprised at how effective this sequel was because This could have been nothing more than a scam to produce a bigger profit than what came before. The surprise of the original is gone, and there’s not much new brought to the material here. This one also has end credits which the original did not, although there is an elongated pause for those who want to escape the theater before they come up. But the premise is still very scary at least for those who were terrified by the first film. I left the theater with my nerves jangling, feeling very much like I did when I saw the original. This could have been a big joke, but a good deal of care was put into making this work because you know all eyes of the world were prepared to tear it apart on sight.

If you liked the first “Paranormal Activity,” I think you’ll like the sequel. For those of you who didn’t like it and can’t understand what the fuss was all about, don’t even bother.

I am proud to say that I didn’t make the same mistake of watching it before I went to bed like I did with the original (man that was dumb!). I saw it in the early afternoon when the sun was still out. It still freaked me out though. Going to sleep tonight will probably not be as easy as I think.

While we’re at it, STOP WITH THE DEMAND TO SEE IT CRAP!!! Paramount Pictures already booked the theaters in advance! Enough with trying to give us power we know we don’t have!

***½ out of ****

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.