It Comes at Night

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2017)

Convinced that paranormal things occur in her bedroom at night, a young woman asks her boyfriend to video record her while she sleeps, which leads to some surprising revelations in this found footage style horror movie. While very few of the jump scares and off-screen sound effects are unsettling, 'Paranormal Activity' certainly has some creepy moments as the young woman wakes up in the middle of the night and stands in a trance besides her bed for minutes on end. The film also successfully plays up the unpredictability of the scenario with a slowing down time lapse counter eerily indicating that something weird is about to occur. Promising as all this might sound, 'Paranormal Activity' is a total miss in its non-nighttime scenes. Neither main character is particularly interesting with the film varying between slow-moving and simply dull as the couple discuss what to do for minutes on end and as the boyfriend often seems to be having more fun experimenting with his cameras and getting out a Ouija board than anything else. A surprise hit when first released though, 'Paranormal Activity' may, however, benefit from being watched with limited preconceptions.