Gunning for the Reality TV audience

Rating: 2/10 (5 October 2009)

If you're really excited to find out who was kicked off the bus, out of the house, or off the island on whatever Reality TV show you're into, then you'll love Paranormal Activity. You'll also love it if The Blair Witch Project was too complicated to wrap your head around.
I can see spending, maybe, five minutes on an idea this one-dimensional if someone e-mailed me a link to it from YouTube. Unfortunately, I sat through the whole thing hoping that it would show some depth at some point, or at least that my friends were enjoying it more than I was.
It's a fallacy that a no-budget film can't be based on a decent screenplay. Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez both directed no-budget films that make Paranormal Activity look like a 90-minute flipbook. The people who spent years working on and pushing this movie could have made it a horror film to be reckoned with if they'd simply asked for help on the screenplay.
If you know someone who puts a lot of thought into the existence of ghosts and demons, then point them toward Paranormal Activity. No, strike that. If you want a funny, scary film with depth of character and plot, track down Lars von Trier's The Kingdom. It's a miniseries that's almost five hours long, but it's an adventurous five hours that even your friend who's into ghosts will enjoy!