Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw Reviews Paranormal Activity
[Check out our Paranormal Activity 2 review]
Paranormal Activity is a little film that was reportedly made for $11,000 over the course of a seven-day shoot by writer/director/producer/editor Oren Peli, and stars newbies Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and the couple’s camcorder.
The ghost story is pretty straightforward: Katie and Micah (the actors use their real names in the film) are a young couple who have been together for about a year or two and have recently taken the plunge of moving in together. Soon after, they begin to experience weird paranormal activity taking place in their home – lights and sinks turning on and off, doors slamming, etc. Katie soon reveals that this isn’t the first time she’s been “haunted by ghosts” – when she was 8, she had re-occurring visits from a shadowy apparition and her family’s home was eventually burned to the ground without explanation. Since then, the apparition has followed Katie wherever she goes, “visiting” her from time to time, up to the present. Micah wishes that Katie had told him all this BEFORE they moved in together.
Katie is freaking out about the reappearance of her ghostly stalker, but Micah (of course) is too MANLY to believe in such nonsense, so he invests in a top-grade camera, some top-grade mini microphones and sound recording software, in order to wire the house for a ghost-hunting experiment. Our POV is that of the camcorder and boom mic, as they record the paranormal happenings taking place in Katie and Micha’s home over the course of about three weeks.
That’s the setup, and it would be hard to go much deeper without dropping some major SPOILERS.
I can tell you that Katie and Micah bring in a psychic (Michael Bayouth) who determines that what they’re facing isn’t a ghost trying to establish communication, but rather a malevolent demon, hell bent (pun intended) on claiming Katie’s soul. The psychic tells Katie and Micah that they need to bring in a “demonologist” to help exorcise the evil spirit – only the guy is currently vacation, so they’ll have to wait it out. In the meantime, the psychic breaks down a few demon rules for the couple (and us) to understand:
- There is no running from it – leave the house and the spirit will only follow.
- The spirit feeds off negative energy (anger, fear, etc).
- Don’t do ANYTHING to enrage or attract the demon – especially buying a Ouija Board.
Of course, if you’ve ever seen a horror movie before you know that the rules are only there to be broken by doomed fools. Katie is all nervousness and pragmatism (“Honey, let’s just stop and ask for directions…”), but Micah, the skeptic, would rather “man-up” and handle things his own way (read: pacing the house, challenging the evil spirit to show itself). Smart idea.
The best horror movies are the ones that exploit our deep-seated anxieties about real-life events or situations. The Exorcist was every parent’s worst nightmare: their innocent child suffering a terrible affliction; Rosemary’s Baby played upon the high-anxiety of pregnancy and child-rearing; Hitchcock’s Psycho gleefully exploited the near-universal fear of random, unprovoked violence. Paranormal Activity will stand out for a long time in my mind (and I’m sure others) because it hits just the right panic buttons inside the brain: the familiar fear of the creaky, empty house at night – but more importantly, the high-anxiety of being in a relationship.
The latter theme is only subtly touched on, due to the nature of the POV (it would’ve stupid to have the couple record their dramatic fight moments), but that current is always on and running, coursing through the cinematic subtext. Anybody you partner with in life is bound to come with baggage – Katie’s baggage just so happens to be a freaky demon. Micah is portrayed as something of an alpha-male stereotype – brash and insensitive a lot of the time, you know the picture – but also as a guy who is genuinely trying to help his chick sort out all of the crazy in her past, so they can be happy together in the present. And, like real-life relationships, sometimes the best intentions…
Continue reading our Paranormal Activity Review
Our Rating:
4 out of 5
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well, to meh this movie is very suck and make me just want to throw up and also make meh dizzy like hell. i dont think people who are not famous just want to make a movie enable for he/she to be famous only…..lol……….i just want to laugh my ass out cause this movie is very sucks and i it make me dizzy like hell………….
This is definitely the dumbest movie I have ever seen in my life… It is a complete waste of money and life. I love scary movies… and can even be cool with people liking dumb movies like The Blaire Witch Project. This time however I am ashamed of people demanding this in their area… Not because of the repetitive use of home video in movies… or the poor acting… but because the movies contains ZERO suspenseful moments… The entire movie is a $7.50 Ghost hunting type feel where you wait and wait to see something and nothing happens… just evidence… I understand this impact this would give someone had it been true.. but as a movie it provides no real “jumpy” type of scare or even spine tingling. The movie should be given a 1 out of 10 and the people who demanded it should be slapped for wasting mine and other peoples money.
This was a great movie. Unlike Blair Witch, this movie had realism to it. This could have been billed as a real event and the actors were nearly perfect. The only thing I found fake about it was the fact that most people wouldn’t enter rooms that might have a demon inside without turning on the lights. Over and over this occurred and it smacked of not being the normal reaction of someone. That and sleeping with the doors open. I understand some of it was for effect, we couldnt see (only imagine what was happening), but it was done too much to be realistic. But, all-in-all I loved it. It scared the bejeebers out of me a time or two. Two Thumbs Up!
aminglow: I disagree with your assumptions on the people who did not think this movie was scary. I do not fit any of those categories. 1)I never watch a gory movies. I went to this one precisely because I was told it was scary, but not gory. NOT scary either. 2) I have had scarier personal experiences than that-until they got to the dragging out of bed-nothing that extreme. And I have been to John Zaffis lectures that scared me more than this movie. (He studies this stuff – Haunting in CT is based on one of his cases). 3)I’m not lying. It just was NOT scary. It is, however, boring.
lol whatever whoever says this movie sux were the ones that were truly scared. liars!
I went to see this movie over the weekend. I give the creator of the movie a 10 because in a sense he is a genius. He spent 11,000.00 and made how much money now? The movie itself was NOT scary. Now granted I have thought about it since so it does leave an impression on you, but when you watch a scary movie that has been dubbed the scariest movie ever it should live up to that a least a tiny bit, but I have to say that we laughed in the theater and laughed and made fun of the movie when we left. Overall, not scary, no jumps from being startled or goose bumps. I was disapointed!
Worst movie ever. I made myself stay through it hoping for at least one chillful moment. That moment came at the very end when she was creeping slowly up the stairs. I admit, that was scary. NOthing else was. And believe me, no way could I stay in a home that had something like that going on. Follow me or not, I’d be on the move. Horrible acting (I could have done better). I laughed more at how bad the movie was more than i was scared. I appreciate what they were trying to protray and get the msg out. But I wish they would have done their homework a little more. Thumbs down. Major waste of time and money.
I’m 15 and just saw this film last night late at night. I expected it to be all out scary, I brought a book incase I couldn’t handle it and had to sit outside, suckers to keep me from screaming, the whole thing. It wasn’t that scary at all. Two parts at most were scary, but all together it was just weird and not in the good way. Either everyone’s making a big deal of nothing or I just didn’t get the scariness of it.
This movie was a major let down. It started off very slowly and didn’t pick up much steam. I found it very distracting to watch the entire movie through Micah’s video camera. The best part of the movie was in the last five minutes. They could have explored so many other angles. I wasn’t looking for blood and guts, if I had been I would have gone to see Saw VI, but I thought is would be more intense than it was. Sorry I paid $20.00 for two tickets to be disappointed.
This movie is horrible. I kept falling asleep through that boring crap. Waste of money.
@vic
i’ve noticed you got quite the traffic going on this thread… You should have a poll on this one for the rating of the movie.
Just saw this last night. I wanted my money back-this is a joke not scarey at all! Chandelier moves, door closes, footprints in flour, no explanations of why demon chooses this chick.
Blair Witch is so much cooler.
The ‘translate’ button on this site doesn’t work.
Just saw this movie tonight….the only thing scary I got was how foolish I was to spend my money on the likes of this. I have to agree with some of the earlier posts in that this movie takes for ever to “start” and when you are at the part when you think it has….the movie is over and you’re left asking, “was that it?”
At least when you hear something coming up the stairs….give me a glimpse, then shut off the light. They keep hearing a “noise” and I’m thinking, “yeah, great, the heater turned on.”
If you are looking for a scary movie, I wouldn’t pick this one. If you “must” see it to hear what others are saying, wait ’til you can pick it up at Walmart for $5.00 bucks…it won’t be long until it is there…unless of course they realize no one is going to pay even that much to see it and don’t put it on DVD.
FML, this movies was so not awesome, it was THE STUPIDEST movie I ever seen in my life.
Nothing about it was scary, the best part was my friend scream (not cuz it was scary but messing around, but the person in front of us jumped out of his seat soon as my friend screamed). This movies was waste of my time and my hard earned money. I hope the actor choke and die for this stupid movie. I think little mermaid was scarier then this crap so called movie. If you got scared off this crap, grow some balls.
I’m easily scared of movies, thought I was going to be having nightmares for weeks after watching this, I laughed a couple times, got bored and annoyed that nothing was happening, and totally wanted my money and time back after watching this, I don’t know what all the hype is about.
Well the assumptions of people that haven’t liked this movie that they are desensitised or what not is wrong. went to opening night in my town. almost full theater and you know what. all but 3 people were snoozing or trying to stay awake. i rate this as one of the lowest fright movies that i had see. this movie is over hyped as a the most frightening, good and origional movie in my opinion. bad movie and wate of time
Bad Film, felt like watching the Blair witch project. Not scary
at all!! Don’t waste your time
@Jago
Great idea but it’s a little late for that. Actually now that you mention it, perhaps I should include a a poll at the end of every movie review?
@Vincent
The translate button works for me just fine.
Vic
shoot guys this movie was f+ckend scary, you guys are crazy by saying that it aint scary………..
@vic
yeah i was thinking it was too late too but since we were still near halloween and people are still coming in to give their two cents figured more people would come to rate it as well. The polls on the other ones would be cool too unless it complicates any of the other polls you have( for example the ones you usually have of who should play x character for such and such movie). Good thing on the rating for the other movies would be that you get more traffic to those movies that don’t get many comments… Like the vampires assistant ( which i liked… Mainly cause of John).
So that’s the formula of making a film profit in the US of A these days. The rest of the world won’t see this. I’m sorry for that. What is also surprising: tomato fresh meter. Who would have thought that the critics are average joes, too.
Thank god I only spend five dollars on this movie. I was dreading it from the beginning because I really can’t handle scary movies, but this was just ridiculous. People were actually laughing at the supposedly “scary” parts, and well, yeah, it was pretty funny. So I recommend this to just about anybody whose looking to waste their time and money for some very light humour.
this movie was alright. not what it was all played out to be. like the movie was good, but not all that scary. if you don’t watch horror movies a lot, then it is a good thing for you. but if you do, you will be dissapointed. The ending sucks.
Sorry guys( and by that I mean girls as well) I doubt many would live up to sayin this but Im an honest kind of guy. The movie was scary, or at least scary enough to make me tighten up. I’ve been terrified before and yea it wasnt that bad in this case, but think about it. Its supposed to be a demon. (You cant see them!!!!) Supposed to appear to be real (Hence the poor acting, THEY WERENT SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE FRED AND DAPHNE, OR EVEN LIKE DR.FRANK’N'FURTER…hello!!! REAL!) And yes, it was low budget, it wasnt originally intended to be a major block buster. And one last thing, If you werent scared, even a very slight amount, watch it again, and this time, un-cover your eyes. WONDERFUL JOB, lets try and make the sequal even better.
First of all this movie is a big waste of time, please save yourself the time and money and don’t watch it. It has been marketed as a scary movie, but it’s so predictable and boring and no real scary moments. All of these people who say the movie is good or whatever are probably trying to justify spending $10 on a piece of crap. I guarantee they spent more money on marketing this movie than making it because that is the only way they can get people to watch this crap.
good lord… what a terrible excuse for a movie. The only paranormal activity going on was when $14 mysteriously disappeared from my wallet.
this movie IS scary and creepy. and if someone can sit in the theater and laugh at it I kind of feel sorry for them that they could not get into it. They must look at movies like my mom, who can’t wrap her head around any kind of fantasy. Or maybe they need/prefer obvious can’t miss it commercial Hollywood gore like Saw?
This is a perfect example of corprate america fleecing americans out of a dollar. Proving americans our gullable. proving hollywood is out of ideas. no one can make any thing new, and original. everything is rehashed garbage,take music for example. America needs its younger generation to lead us in every aspect of our soceity.