A paraprofessional scare job!

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2010)

Another rare cheap project that made crazy money inhabited our cinematic space this past year in Writer-Director Oren Peli's "Paranormal Activity". Many compare it to the low-budget, high-grossing late 90's horror flick "The Blair Witch Project". I thought that "Paranormal Activity" had its suspenseful & scary moments but overall my consensus is that "The Blair Witch Project" had a better premise & narrative, and even marketing plan; even though both movies were ingenious in the marketing end. Just in case you are in the abnormal activity end of the movie world and do not know what the premise of "Paranormal Activity" is, I will divulge you that info. The movie is about Micah and Katie, a young San Diego couple who suspect there is paranormal activity going on in the master bedroom of their two-story house during the midnight hours. Therefore, they set up a camera in their bedroom and let the video roll as they are sleeping in order to later see for themselves if they are in the spirit. As Blair Witch, the haunting scenes of the film divulge themselves from minor sounds that make a major chilling impact. Peli scored some points on the directorial end of the suspenseful scenes of the movie, but focused way too much on the couple's ridiculous arguments on the writing end. But what do I do know! It only cost him $15,000 to produce the film and its made over $100 million in the box office. So Pelisimo, you are laughing all the way to the bank! I guess lots of not-so-normal, high-volume ATM activity use for Oren now. Micah Slot & Katie Featherston star as Micah & Katie. So this is all real and in reality they were not really acting! Even in the sex scenes of the film! Kidding! There was not much of any Parahormone Activity in the movie. And there was not much of any thespian activity in the movie either, but Micah & Katie's job was not really to act, just to ghostbuster their way through. "Paranormal Activity" is sure one step beyond some of the horror movie duds that have been released in the last few years, but zoom in more on the creative direction of the movie than on its mediocre script & acting. So hope you enjoyed my usual Punnormal Activity that I inject in most of my film reviews, or maybe this will continue to haunt me. **** Good