Plot less but clever, and absolutely terrifying

Rating: 8/10 (29 December 2009)

What does it take to make a scary movie. If you were to reply by saying that Suspense is the key, I would ask you to be more specific. It is not what you DO see in a movie that provokes fear but rather what you DO NOT see. With the possible exception of Jaws, I can think of no better example than Paranormal Activity to support the argument. Following in the footsteps of Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity is a story told not from any character's perspective, but rather from the viewers perspective. We are practically inside the camera, which is a great feeling to have, but an equally terrifying one. Though the film is not without fault it is definitely one of the scariest movies of the decade.
Ever since she was eight and her house burnt down, Katie is convinced that she is being followed by unnatural forces. Fifteen years later, she and her boyfriend move into a new house in San Diego. The boyfriend sees this as a good opportunity to document the supernatural activity in the hopes that he can chase it away. He sets up a camera in the bedroom and leaves it running at night. In eighty minutes, Paranormal Activity, covers twenty nights in the haunted house (although we don't see all twenty of them)
This is a film that grabs you by the throat and squeezes. It is not a fun scary movie, it is scary scary. Repetitious as the story it may be, the film is never dull. There is nothing cheap or superficial about the shocks in this movie, it felt very real and I was indeed scared