Genuinely scary

Rating: 7/10 (2 December 2009)

What did I learn from Paranormal Activity? I learned:
1. If your girlfriend tells you she's been having demonic experiences since she was 8, dump her quick, no matter how good her boobs are.
2. If you buy a high end video camera to videotape her demonic experiences, she's not going to let you tape questionable home movies on it.
3. The lower your budget, the more invisible your demonic entities are likely to be.
4. If your budget is really low, film the whole thing on video in your own house with a couple of unknowns and don't have any special effects.
5. Oh, and make sure you have a really effective viral marketing campaign.
I'm being unfair. I can testify to the effectiveness of the campaign: the cinema was full (mainly teenage couples, there was a lot of raucous laughter). But I can also testify that the audience reaction shots in the trailer aren't faked - that's exactly how the audience behaved.
Strong echoes of Blair Witch and Cloverfield with this one, in terms of "found footage" (and, like Cloverfield, this one takes about 20 minutes to set up, which is 10-15 minutes too long). But this is a much, much better film than Blair Witch. There is clear plot progression and, despite the absence of special effects (with the exception of one very brief but terrifying effect), a great deal of genuine scariness is created with sound and a few physical effects.
I've seen a lot of horror films over the years and most of them are much of a muchness. This one, to me, merits the hype: it is a scary film and well worth a visit if being scared is your thing.