Never tries to be more than it is.

Rating: 9/10 (29 October 2009)

By now, I am sure many of you have seen or at least heard of the ultra low-budget horror film that is Paranormal Activity. I must say that I found it to be not necessarily shocking but more disturbing and unsettling, which is I bet exactly what the director intended to do.
Unlike most horror or scary films made today, it does not rely on obviously fake special effects or on making the characters stupid in order to get cheap scares accomplished. Many people have said they think the first hour or so is unnecessary because not much happens and there are no scares there. This is true, except it is important because it sets up the final 15 minutes that will blow you away. Taking a page out of Hitchcock, this film follows the belief that taking time to set up a sequence helps make the payoff more effective. We start out by seeing a young couple living in suburban San Diego. We learn very little about them or their relationship, which also makes it more effective, and we can only see what the camera will let us. Of course, part of the reason this film has become famous is due to the fact that it uses mostly a standstill camera method in order to explain what is happening. Never once do we see something without one of the characters actually taking hold of the camera and showing us.
Part of the genius of this movie is in the fact that it uses very realistic and even funny moments to make the scary ones more unsettling. We see the couple argue, tease and love each other. We can relate to them and we fear for their safety. This is in no small part thanks to the two actors, Katie Featherston and Micach Sloat, who seem to not even be portraying characters but simply doing what comes naturally to them.
As the story progresses, more strange things happen and thanks to Micah's obsession with trying to figure this out we get to see nearly all of it. The ending comes at a great shock and though some will complain that it is too over-the-top or Hollywood-ish, it does deliver the biggest scare and helps end the film on a most ominous tone. So, if you haven't seen this gem yet, do so. Just like its father, 1999's The Blair Witch Project, this is downright, bare bones effective film-making. If only others would pay more heed to this.