It does a lot with very little!

Rating: 9/10 (28 October 2009)

Paranormal Activity is a horror movie that is basically found footage of a couple, Micah and Katie, who decide to tape the paranormal events that are happening in their home. It's very low budget and is very similar to The Blair Witch Project except it all takes place indoors and it's much better.
As you might know, Paranormal Activity has a very large amount of hype behind it. What most intrigued me about the film were the rave reviews from critics. One review even went as far as saying that it was the scariest film of all time. This quote is probably what most of the hype was generated from. Now that I've seen it, I don't think that it is the scariest film ever, although you might be able to say that it was the scariest of the decade. It doesn't even get intense until the last 20-25 minutes, but it's very creepy and suspenseful all the way through. It's really impressive how people are saying that it's so scary when there are barely any scares. There's a scene in the movie where Micah and Katie are sleeping with the camera running and the door moves slightly. When that happened, everyone in the theatre was shaking because they were expecting something really shocking to happen. When you can get people getting scared by the smallest things in your movie, it has to have some excellent suspense.
The performances were also solid. Everyone acted like a normal person may act in a home video. All of the dialogue was actually improvised, but I could even tell because the actors had great chemistry. They were completely believable as an actual couple.
I really enjoyed how well the film was edited and it was especially impressive for such a low budget. I really liked how the movie only showed the night scenes in a time lapse, only stopping for important moments. This kept the movie more interesting and run along much faster, because the beginning was somewhat slow but it wasn't a major issue. In the movie, you are calm during the daytime and the movie suddenly becomes tenser at night. I liked how they used comic relief during the day to keep the least interesting bits of the movie more entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised by how funny it was. This time was also used efficiently for character development, which helped me care for the characters, even though Micah wasn't really that likable.
Paranormal Activity is a film that must be seen in theatres. I believe that it's an experience in the theatre, that can't be compared to watching it at home on DVD. Watching it with a huge crowd is amazing because you feel what they are feeling. If someone makes a sound, you will be able to hear it because the movie is so quiet. For me, hearing a crowd react to a shocking moment in a horror movie makes the scares more satisfying. However, this could backfire because obnoxious people may be screaming and cracking jokes at inappropriate times. They usually shut up when the film catches their interest again which can't be too long because the movie is so exciting. Seeing a door move slightly isn't going to be scary when watching the film online, because it lacks the theatre experience.
To conclude this review, I thought that Paranormal Activity was one of the scariest movies I've seen in a very long time, but that's only if it's seen in theatres.