Over-Hyped So-So Paranormal

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2010)

I don't see movies in the theater anymore unless I think it's worth it. "Paranormal Activity" was one I knew I could wait for, and I was right. It's atmospheric, boring at times and tedious and portrays what's becoming society's obsession with voyeurism with the paranormal merely the topic. We have Katie, a good-looking shapely brunette with a shrill scream, and Micah, the average-looking dumb ass warned not to bring a Ouija board into the house but does it anyway. It seems they've been living in their home for three years and have just now noticed paranormal activity; Katie even adds she's been haunted since she was a kid. Everything is video-taped and there's some shaky "Blair Witch" point-of-view as Micah obsesses with taping everything in an effort to get rich off of activity he doesn't really believe in as Katie gets more and more frustrated. The paranormal sounds are little more than atmosphere and there's no plot. It's never revealed just how Katie's past connects to what's happening now. Her sleepwalking is scary, Micah's powder test is supposed to be scary, but it's handled fleetingly. The unseen ghost is the real star waiting for it to appear; it actually has more personality than the two of them put together. The whole underlying "demonic" pretense is unnecessary; it detracts from the story to imply whatever is occurring has to be evil. Why does it "have" to be evil? It's merely a tool to put a scare at the end. It's a surprise, but it's not scary... It's a punchline for a long and very tedious riddle that just went way too long to get to its point.