A Pair's Normal Activity

Rating: 1/10 (29 January 2010)

How Paranormal Activity can be listed as a "horror" film worthy of distribution or even attention is mystifying. It can be more accurately compared to being a security video of a home. As most people know, watching anyone but your own personal home videos usually drags on to the point of being frightening when forced to watch, but to pay for that kind of torture is haunting. This "Pair's Normal Activity" drags on even more, as you desperately wait for something, anything to happen, which sadly never arrives.
Paranormal Activity tries to build on the same recipe of hype, genre and style as the Blair Witch. They both play on the premise that if you believe hard enough while watching, you may get just what you wished for. But with Paranormal Activity you have to force yourself to try to be intrigued to get some kind of drama. Which really means you are abnormally doing all the activity. Unlike Blair Witch, this film has no originality, drama, tension or suspense, and is of far worse quality.
They carry a camcorder around, trading off filming each other, followed by using a tripod during their sleep. After an hour of seeing nothing, you start to go to sleep yourself.
Human nature often invites us to slow down at traffic accidents to possibly view something unexpected. When horrible stuff actually happens we wish we had not looked at all. This movie has nothing unexpected or even entertaining to see, but you still wish you had never watched it.
I would normally only recommend to NOT SEE a horror film to avoid the costs of your possible psychological counseling. For those great films, that is a compliment. Even the worst horror films are so bad they are at least fun to watch. However for this home movie, "Paranormal Activity", should be retitled, "A Pair's Normal Activities". In any case, I would still recommend a NOT SEE, but only because it is horrible.
SUMMARY
1) The trailer is scarier, and has all, yes all of the suspenseful shots from the movie anyway.
2) There are so many other real entertainment choices on IMDb to pick from, hopefully you will go elsewhere.
3) Remember "The Emperors New Clothes", well with this film, despite the hype, the king is naked!