good for the genre

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2011)

It's hard for me to really compare Paranormal Activity with other movies, because these kinds of supernatural horror movies rarely meet my personal criteria for a Good Movie. That being said, this was still an enjoyable movie, which is something else entirely, and it was better than many in the genre.
There's nothing really new about Paranormal Activity. It sort of mixes up bits and pieces of movies like The Blair Witch Project, Poltergeist and The Exorcist. But it still does it pretty well. I think the best part of this movie was that I was actually more unnerved by scenes where the camera had fallen or been set down or was otherwise being pointed away from the action, than scenes where some supernatural activity was being shown.
The biggest downside of this movie to me was just the acting. The actors aren't terrible or unwatchable, but they're just not good enough to make you forget that you're watching people _pretending_ to be filming home movies. They do a passably good job going through the motions, but since their interactions with each other are basically the only focus of the movie, it just gets a bit stale, whereas I think two really fantastic actors could have made this movie feel truly realistic.
The other thing that bugged me about the movie was the set. I'm betting it was probably the house of somebody involved in making the movie, but the whole time I just could not stop thinking, why is their house so big? A young professional and his live-in girlfriend who is still going to college don't need a house with 3 bedrooms, a home office, and a sprawling living room. Maybe it sounds silly, but the shots of two unused but perfectly furnished bedrooms just felt awkward to me...