Parnormal causes big hype but does not live up to expectations

Rating: 5/10 (4 December 2009)

Trailers for Paranormal Activity claim it is the scariest movie ever made, but does it really live up to the hype?
Paranormal Activity features a lot of first timers. This is Oren Peli's first film as a director and features first time actors Micah Sloat and Katie Featherstone.
The film cost only 15,000 dollars to make and has currently domestically grossed 107,219,682 dollars according to boxofficemojo.com.
Paranormal was filmed entirely using a hand-held camera. Peli most likely did this to give the movie a more realistic tone and he succeeded in that aspect. Other movies such as Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project were shot like this. The camera work was done well, it really added to the character of the movie.
Featherstone and Sloat's performances were not exceptional but could be expected from an actor or actress's first film.
The movie features very little special effects with added a good touch to the movie. It lets viewers imagine instead of creating its own images. This is probably more because of the film's low budget than artistic direction though.
The plot of the movie itself was only mildly interesting. It was difficult to like the characters. Most of the movie Sloat's character was trying to agitate the ghost most of the movie which didn't make his character very likable and Featherstone's character was annoyed or scared the entire movie which didn't give much for character development.
The scares were good and well done but was it the "scariest movie ever made"? I don't think so. The film wasn't quite on par with horror classics such as The Shining or Alien.
All in all Paranormal did well with the budget and camera work but couldn't keep it going with the characters or plot.