Hype and marketing. Nothing else.

Rating: 1/10 (30 October 2009)

First of all, let me say that every great thing that is being said about this movie is completely understandable. I love the camcorder horror format--REC and Cloverfield are good examples of the genre, as is The Blair Witch Project. In all three films the writing is believable, the characters are likable and the suspense is drawn out.
Paranormal Activity has none of that.
"Filmmaker" Oren Peli uses the strengths of the genre (realistic hand held shooting and the feeling that the characters could easily be you) as a crutch for bad, bad writing and a lack of any camera work whatsoever. This couple is supposed to be so ordinary that we're drawn into a sense of realism, but the dialogue Katie and Micah have is so banal I was annoyed immediately, and throughout the film.
The fact that Peli had to shoot this film in his own home due to the constraints of an $11,000 budget opens up plot holes that are patched over, actually with single lines of dialogue: Why can't they move to a new, unhaunted house? Because the ghostdemon has been visiting Katie for her whole life and follows her everywhere. So they must coexist, but why can't they? Because the psychic whom they meet with tells them they might be killed. Why can't he expel the ghostdemon? Because he just can't--after the haunting escalates and when they need him most he actually tells them he feels overwhelmed and can't be in the room with it, and also that he's very sorry. He says he will try to help them later, but he just can't be there right then. That must mean it's time to get scared, everyone.
I could have forgiven the extremely annoying characters and plot holes if the spooks were delivered with any sort of timing or suspense, but as has been explained in many other negative reviews, the ghostdemon comes in the middle of the night, immediately after the camera footage is fastforwarded directly to the events which we're supposed to have been startled by, completely ruining it. But this is what must happen if the film is to take place in the couple's home and the supposed terror must come while they are sleeping. We can't just wait all night for stuff to happen, right? Oh, and after each event the couple simply goes back to bed, and the the next day comes where they bicker about the haunting exactly the same way they do every other day. This is the whole movie, and then it's over, thankfully.