Paranormal Activity Review

Ok so tonight I went to go see "Paranormal Activity" and I have to say that it lived up to its expectations.  It was very frightning,  and did a lot of things that really resonate with me and with what I think true horror should be about.  First, the acting was rock solid, the actors were also a couple of unknowns, Im sure their IMDB probably has a pretty hefty resume with various television appearances etc, but at a first glance I had no idea who these people were.  The fact that you have no idea who these people are helps to sell the second factor that makes this film really work.  The movie is shot on what is meant for us to  believe is a single camcorder, the picture is grainy and there are no multiple angle shots. However this does not create much of a problem, the employment of a tripod captures much of the action in third person, and the first person view helps to obscure the action enough to make it horrifying, however it does not jump around so much to make the film frustrating on a "Cloverfield" type of level.  This combined with the unknown and yet skilled actors is what really makes this film feel real and complete. 

We have established that the film feels real, but the thematic elements employed in the film and the writing are what really drive it and take that real feeling and amplify it and make it terrifying.  A friend of mine said that the movie was boring and I can see why some people would get that idea, the majority of the movie is just suspense and rising action leading you on with more and more tension.  Be advised that while this movie is definitely really scary, it does take a great deal of patience to reach the payoff. 

This thing is bad news...

By far the thing that will either make or break this flick for you is the "less is more"  approach to horror that has been so absent the past few years in horror cinema.  This film really uses the viewers own imagination against them, the majority of the weird scary stuff happens off screen, and the monster itself is invisible.  For people with vivid imaginations such as myself, this creates a creature in their mind that is completely horrifying.  Then again the filmmakers do show a shadow of the creature, and they also show the footprints of it which give you a little bit to work with in your mind.



In all I think that this is a genious work of low budget character driven horror.  If you are more frightened by what a hollywood special effects shop can cook up as opposed to your own dark imaginings you may be disappointed, and if you need nonstop action you will also be disapointed.  However if a sense of impeding dread and doom punctuated by creepy happenings and the slow degeneration of two characters sounds like something you wouldnt mind watching you will probably get scared good and hard.  The ending of this movie is where all the payout is at and where you will really be left looking in your backseat nervously when you get in the car on the way out of the theatre.


Oh yeah and according to IMDB.com this guy right here:

         Left his screening early because he got too scared...