A review of "Paranormal Activity"

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2010)

Oren Peli's "Paranormal Activity" is actually one of the better-made horror films to come out in recent years. The movie continues the trend we saw popularized 11 years ago in "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), which contrary to a popular belief at the time, uses largely unknown actors being filmed in a documentary-style manner that elicits the notion that we're watching real footage, and that what we are seeing happening in said footage is indeed real.
Alas, "Paranormal Activity," like "The Blair Witch Project" and its successors "Cloverfield" and "Quarantine" (both of which were released in 2008), are all fake. From a critical standpoint, this is both brilliant and frustrating. It's brilliant because despite what we already know that these movies are obviously fake, the style and presentation are convincing enough that what we're seeing is truly happening and is "real" within the context of the film.
It's frustrating because many times, the best and most frequently used manner of eliciting realism for such documentary-style film-making is that the camera is often hand-held, which can sometimes induce vertigo and motion sickness in those who suffer from such afflictions. Critics will also point out that the camera-work is so frenetic and unfocused sometimes that it makes it hard to make out what's going on the screen. Fans will note the exact opposite: that many times the person holding the camera is an amateur, and thus we many times only see what they see, which ironically can sometimes be very little and the disorientation they experience in said events becomes our disorientation to experience.
What a mouthful.
Getting back to "Paranormal Activity," what makes this film stand out from those others ("Cloverfield" so far is my personal favorite - I'm a fan of Japanese monster movies and it won me over - so sue me), is that everything we see is taking place inside a normal-looking suburban household. Katie (Katie Featherston) and her live-in boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat) are a young suburban couple who are conducting an experiment in which they are trying to document the Paranormal Activity that takes place in their home as they sleep. They set up a camera - which is conveniently placed on a tripod facing their bed as they sleep (thus eliminating the chances of the viewer suffering vertigo and/or motion sickness) - to try to document any supernatural occurrences that happen during the night when they're not awake.
Thus, eventually a supernatural presence does make itself known to them, and the camera is able to effectively capture every occurrence that takes place in their bedroom, and it is indeed scary. (If you see the raw footage, it is so convincing that the special effects employed to make said supernatural occurrences seem real are virtually flawless, and are incorporated into the raw film footage effortlessly.) Eventually, for those of us that remember "Poltergeist" (1982) all those years ago, these Paranormal Activities start out as being benign in nature, but grow in malevolence and ferocity and violence as time goes on, and Katie, who suffers from past traumatic experiences with these evil forces, begins to break down both mentally and emotionally as a result of the pressure.
The primary performances by Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are good in luring us into their household as they go about their everyday lives and how their everyday lives are eventually torn asunder by malevolent supernatural forces of unknown origin. The heaviest burden is placed upon the delicate shoulders of Katie Featherston, who seems to be the primary target of the malevolent forces haunting her and Micah's home. She's obviously a bright young woman, but to see her suffer at the hands of an unknown supernatural presence is quite harrowing, and the camera is quite good in documenting her gradual descent into a virtual hell. Unlike the screamers in "The Blair Witch Project," you do feel some sort of connection with Katie, and feel for the pain and torture she endures.
Like the many sorts of movies using this formula, "Paranormal Activity" is incredibly well-made and the documentary-style of film-making is good in eliciting some genuinely frightening moments that increase in intensity as the film progresses. While it's not "The Exorcist" (1973), it is a worthy entry into the horror firmament, something a lot of horror films using standard film-making techniques are consistently failing to do nowadays.
I'm not sure I could really recommend watching this film at night and/or in the dark. (I cheated and watched it during the day with a friend because she confessed she couldn't do it either.)
8/10