Paranormal Activity Review
Sep 25, 2009 by Kofi Outlaw‘Scariest Movie Ever’ is a tall order to fill, but Paranormal Activity is definitely a serious fright flick that will continue to creep you out long after the movie ends.
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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Shanna….this is off subject, but I have already commented on my opinion of PA – I hated it. But I feel compelled to respond to your comment about music – if you want to see something really unique, google Russian Singer Vitas. I think you will be amazed. And he is sort of on the subject of movies at least – he is one of the stars of the upcoming Chinese film “Mulan”. I don’t know if it will be in our theaters in America (though I heard yes), but it certainly should be more worthwhile to see than Paranormal Activity. And really people, I wanted this movie to be good! I went with high anticipation…maybe that was the problem-it just did not live up.
Hey all you folks that were looking for this to freak you out and were disappointed: You might want to check out The Fourth Kind when it opens in a couple of weeks. That might give you the creeps you were looking for with this film.
Vic
This movie was a major disappointment. There was so much hype about it that I should have known that it would have sucked so bad. I’m not saying that it wasn’t as good as what a lot of people were saying, I’m saying that it was really bad and not at all scary. Annoying camera work, very annoying couple of actors and a fictional “ghost” that should have finished off the couple in the first few minutes of the movie. If you know anything about horror movies, you will want to stay clear of this low-budget mess. You have a much better chance of being scared reading the newspaper than you would have watching this so-called movie.
@Vic
I think a poll would still be OK in this case, since PA was a limited release.
I saw the movie this passed weekend and while I don’t agree totally with Kofi’s review, I wouldn’t say it was a complete waste of my time and money. It was well known that the movie was in the Blair Witch-style, so the shaky camer work shouldn’t have been an issue. I agree that it was slow until the last 5 monutes but I disagree that …
****** SPOILER AHEAD ******
the demon would have taken over the girl sooner. It was established that the demon chose the girl at random and visited her every 5 years. My assumption was that it waited until she was an adult. I thought the end was a bit scary, almost like The Ring.
***** END SPOILER *****
I would give this movie about a 2.5/3 out of 5.
One other thing, and this is from a Christian; I kept wanting the woman to take off her shirt. If my wife asks, I never said that.
*Ahem* I have to say that, “Scary” does not equal “gore”. =_= This movie tackles your psychological nerves. THAT is what scares people. When you can get inside someones head you can make them feel any emotion. Basically the only people NOT scared by this movie…. don’t have good heads on there shoulders, since they are unable to receive the psychological message displayed by it. Realism, and atmosphere, these things play together and mess with your head. But if you go in expecting something “gory” and/or “jumpy”, like most “horror” movies these days are about, and don’t give the movie a chance to soak into the inner recesses of your (Puny) minds… then perhaps you won’t find it scary. Since your intelligence is too low to comprehend the concepts and techniques it uses. In other words, the psychology didn’t work on your brain, because you don’t have one.
(I blame the rap music XD) This is the only “horror” movie that ever came out. The others were just, “OMG! His head came off!” and “OMG! HE CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!” That’s not horror…. =_=
I am Karasu Inoue, 15 years old. : P And I am an Otaku. XD
This movie sucked big time. Such and OBVIOUS ripoff of the Blair Witch only without the good acting and special effect…you get the picture. The character’s reaction to what was going on was totally unrealistic. I didn’t expect a lot of effects in this movie because of the low budget, but it really was a pathetic attempt to duplicate the Blair Witch phenomena,,,well maybe not so pathetic considering what’s it has grossed so far…..excellent marketing…but that was about it.
Yeah I have to agree the movie pretty much blew. The acting (I know they aren’t really actors) was horrible. The movie is incredibly slow to build. The “scary” scenes include mostly banging noises or a door closing, maybe a light going off and on. One scene could be considered scary I guess. I won’t spoil it. All throughout they really aren’t all that troubled by the fact that something screws with them every night. In fact it actually causes bodily injury and it’s not even a big deal. Katie doesn’t want to talk about the massive (although poorly made up) bite on her back or side and Micah wants to film it. I’d be at the hospital with that kind of injury caused by seemingly nothing. Especially any kind of bite.
The movie is completely given away by the psychic investigator. You have a demon that feeds off negative energy, don’t try to contact it, don’t buy a ouija board. Of course what happens? They fight because Micah wants to record everything and Katie doesn’t want to interact with it at all. Then the Ouija board comes out. I actually laughed at the Ouija scene. When you can buy a Ouija board at the local walmart next to Trivial Pursuit and Life I have I problem with it being considered an instrument of evil in your movie. All in all it was kind of a throw back to the 80s horror demonic/satanic kind of movie. I was half expecting Micah to start playing some cheesy 80s hair,metal band backwards.
Start with a concept of something like The Omen or The Exorcist. Shoot everything in a Blair Witch style POV found footage type camera work. Then tape some strings on the doors so you can close them off camera while you bang on the wall and stomp your feet. That’s basically Paranormal Activity. Not really all that original. Shouldn’t have even cost $11,000 unless the camera costs about that much.
I thought the movie was horrible. I heard it had a slow start which was the only reason I stayed through the entire thing. It was by no means scary at all and a huge waste of money.
I am watching this movie as we speak and only decided to chime in with my opinion because after sitting through half of this…alone by myself mind you…I AM TOTALLY BORED. I wish someone would stab one of these people already or get on with the demonic possession already. I’ve wasted an hour on this xVid and I keep saying..and….and…..and…..the fact that they keep using the same bass tones, door knocks, whispers, hot dog breath, etc gets old and worthless after the first 10 times it happens. I’ll tell you I was more scared of the 3 day old microwaved burrito I ate yesterday that made its demomic appearance in my toilet tonight. It was like 6 golf balls with a water back between each drop. Now thats some scary…shiii… and I LIVE IN SAN DIEGO !
Seriously…that was it??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME. REALLY. WASTE OF CELLULOID FOLKS. DON”T WASTE YOUR TIME. LAME..and..LAME. The one “scream” at the end is the girl realizing they should have written a better script and the doorbell is all the folks who saw this…WANTING THEIR MONEY BACK !
This movie was a very disappointing for me.
Firstly, if the director wants u to go inside and watch it without expectations, their trailer shld not include stuff like “Paranormal Activity” is one of the scariest movies of all time, entire auditorium was freaked out of their minds etc… it all misleads ppl into thinking HOW scary the movie is, which ends up like shit. The way they “packaged” their trailer is being exaggerated way too much and the way they dragged the show is real boring … Even though the whole movie only spent 11,000, SO WHAT ? LOWER OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THEM !? sadly NO.
Rating 1/10 (1 for the scene where the girl was pulled out, thats all)
NOT WORTH WATCHING AT ALL. Some may not agree with me, but i dun give a damn, whats done is done, money gone
If you all are into the hollywood anti-realism, they need new ideas aspect. Watch “Drag me to Hell” that film had everything including a large budget, well know director, great actors, and obvious scriptwriters. I’ll live in indieville where the movies are shot with less exspensive cameras and the realism is much obivous ten-fold
i just saw this movie last night and it scared the crap out of me. sure, i was skeptical for the whole first half of it, but i was still creeped out in a big way. i did not sleep a WINK last night. i just couldn’t get the images of the film out of my head.
it is easy to tear down this type of movie, but, in my opinion, its job was to frighten – and it did not let me down.
Big waste of money… This movie should have been pared down to the last 30-40 minutes. The first hour is just a nauseating hand held camera ride throughout their home. I liked the last 1/4 of the movie and give them props for their effort on a small budget. I would suggest simply watching the trailers and clips on YouTube and save your money.
Watch Quarantine!!! That movie was okay for supossedly being shot from a handheld camera. I don’t need to see blood or torture to be scared but I hardly doubt this movie is as scary as some people are saying.
Don’t believe the hype people! Three words for this movie: boring, bad, and lame!!! I realize it didn’t have a huge budget but neither did the Blair Witch Project and that movie managed to rock. This was just boring beyond belief and completely laughable. The final five minutes or so were decent but then it ended. They should’ve saved the money they used to make her face look demonic and added more paranormal content throughout (something other than doors closing or Big Bird footprints on the floor). It was a complete and total waste of money. If you’re at all curious, wait until it comes out on T.V. so you don’t have to waste your cash at a theater or even on renting it. Better yet, just check out Ghost Hunters or Paranormal State. Either one of those shows is way scarier than this film was.
Basically, Paranormal Activity managed to make me tired and want to go to sleep, which I’m pretty sure is the exact opposite of what was intended.
I had very high expectations (something I usually try to avoid because you end up disappointed 90% of the time) for this movie and I wasn’t disappointed at all! It’s awesome! I’ve seen over 1000 horror movies and Paranormal Activity is definitely one of the best I’ve seen (top 50)! It’s not one of the best I’ve seen only because it’s one of the scariest, it’s also one of the most realistic and it’s the movie I’ve always dreamed of! I’ve always wanted someone to make a realistic movie like The Blair Witch Project about a family or a couple filming in their house to catch ghosts and this movie has everything that I wanted! It’s very suspenseful and it has some truly effective scenes! A lot of people say that it’s boring and I really don’t get it! It’s WAY too suspenseful to be boring! I’ve been trying to understand why the people that thought that it was boring went to see it since it was released! Why does someone who get bored easily go see a movie about a couple filming in their house? While we’re at it, why does someone expect to be scared in a theater full of people? The fact that there are idiotic teens that can’t stop talking and laughing 90% of the time doesn’t help. Personally, I can’t imagine finding a movie scary with 30 persons around me. I thought the movie was scary (compared to most movies), but I watched it alone in the dark with an headset. The fact that I believe (or want to) in ghosts/demons helped as well. Actually, I can’t imagine someone who doesn’t believe in ghosts/demons finding a movie about them scary. What makes ghost/demons movies scary is the fact that maybe they exist. Anyway, the first few minutes of the movie is the only time I didn’t feel uneasy! The atmosphere was simply creepy! Hell, even a few parts with nothing but the couple talking were creepy! I guess it was the expectation that something really bad was going to happen. Anyway, when the movie was about to end I felt bad because I really didn’t want it to end and any movie that makes me feel this way deserves 5 stars. I Can’t wait for the DVD.
Im sooo glad my friend dowloaded this crap off the internet for free. I am however disappointed I watched it..WORTHLESS. I would’ve been much happier watching miss sweet-t’s bang it out with dude for 20 minutes and then puke some pea soup in his face…something…ANYTHING..but what I saw.. WORTHLESS.
Control+Alt+Delete ..next.
@Marc
Because you put so much time into writing your comment I didn’t delete it. But your “P.S.” was unnecessary and it tempted me. Instead I just removed that part of your comment.
NO personal attacks or insults.
Vic
Very disappointed in this movie. It made Blair Witch look well done. Has anyone seen the internet video of the supposed car commercial then the scary guys pops into frame at the end? Well this was like watching the ‘commercial’ for and hour and a half then the scary guy popped up at the end. I’ve been telling everyone to wait for the video then borrow it from someone. Sad really, and I’m upset with myself for spending money on it but my teenage daughter wanted to see it so I guess I got some quality time out of it.
I’m very much interested in the paranormal, so I wanted to see this movie- What a mistake, it made Blair Witch look like an Oscar award winning movie. This wasn’t scary at all, it was very poorly done and the only good part was the final two minutes of it. Don’t waste your money.
Paranormally rich now. Thanks.
Wow …. I was really looking forward to seeing this movie so my sister and I watched it together. It was one of the WORST movies (if you can call it that)I’ve ever seen and not scary at all. If people are walking out of the movie theatre, it’s out of complete boredom, not from being frightened. The only interesting part is in the last 10 minutes, but definitely not worth over an hour of viewing. Boring, boring, boring, bland, and so not the scariest movie ever.
yeah i was waiting on “the scary.” it never came
i’ll go 2 sleep with the lights off as usual.
I see a lot of insults in here. Honestly, I believe this was a gret movie. They way it eased it’s way to the end was wow. I will admitt, I even screamed at the end. So many people believe that this was dumb well honestly, It wasn’t. Drop your standards people.
Mirae: Drop our standards? So it is okay for a movie to be bad; we all just need expect less and then it becomes good? Hmm…I do not think it works that way for most of us. But again, one of the biggest issues with this movie was the hype. They did a great job marketing it. I am one of the million who voted to bring it to my theaters. And I was excited to go see it – my son loved it….so I understand some people liked it. But I will not drop my standards and say I enjoyed a movie that bored me half to death.
It was made for $11,000? I could have made this for the price of the camera and a coupel of friends or student actors who’d work for free. A friend brought it up on the internet and I’m glad I didn’t pay any money at the theater. I got up after the first 30 minutes and stopped watching. If people’s idea of scary is waiting until the end of the movie for something interesting at the very least, that goes to show how easily they’re impressed by something lame. Thank goodness for the internet so some of us can dodge crap like this.
This so called movie was actually distributed? It should go not straight to DVD, but straight to YouTube. I think, no wait… I know I’ve seen better stuff on you tube. Think about the time you’ll never get back after watching this. That’s the scariest part of this movie.