Gimmicky Handy-Cam Horror

Rating: 3/10 (1 November 2009)

Last week it seemed Paranormal Activity swept the nation, a relatively unknown horror movie from 2007 had earned itself a wide release into theaters (a rare occurrence). The hype began to appear everywhere, people hailing the film as one of the scariest horrors in a long time.
Let me begin by first praising the film for managing to be genuinely creepy and menacing at times, though it rarely, if at all crosses into scary. The psychological fear of what is in the dark is its greatest advantage over today's typical show-you-everything horror.
Now, we'll get into what the structural weaknesses of the film that, for me, were so glaring that no amount of dread could cover over them.
The entire premise is based on a young couple moving into a new home only to immediately begin experiencing strange things. Their on screen relationship makes them seem likable at first UNTIL they begin fighting at every opportunity over the dumbest things. Yes there are real relationships like this, where the couple bicker at every little incident, but the constant illogical nagging of the girlfriend and constant smarmy smug attitude of the boyfriend quickly make the characters hard to feel for. The dialogue is lame and the reactions of the characters highly suspect. For instance: If the "activity" is being caused by a "demon" than why don't they contact a priest? No instead they go the secular root attempting to contact a demonologist. Are we to believe that at no point in the film did they think to attempt the religious way of defeating this entity? Don't get me wrong, I've no affinity for the Church, but it seems logical that when you've got a ghost you've at least got to reach out to people for help.
Also, their decision to stay in the house long after things get WAY WAY out of hand simply on the belief that this thing will follow them. So why not go somewhere where there are a lot of people and sleep near a few dozen family members and friends so at the very least what you are experiencing can be verified or perhaps subdued by safety in numbers...
The story goes nowhere, no one develops or is dynamic (and none of the characters are likable).
The weakness of the characters and dialogue, along with a gimmicky hokey (nearly fourth wall breaking) and truly SILLY ending make this a weak horror film and likely only scary for the impressionable, superstitious, or easily frightened. Its not all bad but its certainly not good.