Total, unflinching terror

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2010)

In Paranormal Activity, a young suburban couple is constantly terrorized by mysterious happenings during the night – loud crashes, footsteps, and more – and decides to record the events with a videocamera. Filmed on a shoestring budget, the movie is at turns terrifying, mysterious, and electrifying, and it’s probably not a movie you want to watch alone and in the dark.
Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherston) have been experiencing some sort of phenomena in their new home. Apparently, though, this has been happening to Katie for years, since she was about eight years old. As the phenomena prevent the couple from having a good night’s sleep, Micah purchases a hand-held videocamera so they can try to solve their problem.
They wind up getting more than they bargained for. The events worsen, and tension mounts. Neither Micah nor Katie can get much sleep, if any, and the pressure quickly begins to take its toll. They even consult a psychic, who advises them to call a demonologist (really); however, by the time they actually call the demonologist, he’s out of town – and the psychic can no longer help them.
Your mileage may vary, certainly, but I found this movie to be extremely unsettling. It is not a pleasant movie to watch, even by horror-thriller standards. Some of you may know that I’ve seen a lot of movies, and some of you may also know that includes many horror-thriller movies. Often, these movies aren’t particularly well done – they don’t have a strong plot or decent actors and rely instead on effects for shock value. Paranormal Activity brings the shock and terror by following a very simple formula, one that works very often in horror films: keep most of the terror offscreen, and your audience will be frightened. It’s what you can’t see that’ll do you the most damage.
In a neat, effective trick, director Oren Peli shows everything through the lens of the newly acquired videocamera, which lends quite the sense of truth and sincerity to the proceedings. So when the camera is on the nightstand, with the handy timestamp in the lower corner of the screen, we can see for ourselves what horrors await the somewhat-slumbering couple. We see what they see, which just adds to the unfettered panic. You start to believe you’re right there in the room, and that whatever is attacking Micah and Katie will come after you next.
Paranormal Activity works because of its low budget and streamlined approach. If you’re not able to buy in to the whole idea of being scared – if you’re the kind of person who thinks of horror films as things to be laughed at – you won’t likely enjoy this one to its fullest. The movie has a slow 30 minutes or so at the beginning, but once things get moving, look out!