Had the Makings of a Horror Classic, But Then That Ending....

Rating: 6/10 (1 April 2010)

Oh, why, why, why did the makers of this movie ruin what had been a hugely creepy little fright flick with a terribly stupid ending?
In the tradition of "The Blair Witch Project," "Paranormal Activity" is one of those gimmick movies, in which a young couple films themselves sleeping at night in an attempt to capture on screen the ghostly goings on that have been plaguing them. There's not much more to the movie than the pleasurable tension it gradually builds as the freaky happenings escalate in intensity from night to night. There are some hints at a traumatizing past for the woman and a sometimes strained relationship with her boyfriend (who she clearly wants to be her fiancé), but the screenplay doesn't go anywhere with these narrative threads. It's just as well, because the appeal of the movie lies in the fact that these are supposedly two ordinary joes filming themselves without pretense, and too much narrative would ruin the effect.
For almost its entire length, "Paranormal Activity" is pretty scary, and proves how much horror you can eek out of doors that move by themselves and things that go bump in the night. How disappointing, therefore, that the film thinks it needs to cap itself with a hard-sell finale like something right out of a big-budget horror film. It really mars the effect of everything that's preceded it.
The DVD version of the film offers an alternate ending that's much better and is much more consistent with the rest of the movie's tone. But the makers clearly thought they needed something grander to please the teeny-bopper crowd.
Grade: B