How horror SHOULD be

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2009)

I read on IMDb mixed reviews but decided to go see it tonight. AMAZING movie and then some. It was done on an (I think) $15,000 budget on a camcorder to beat all camcorders. It's the tale of a boyfriend and girlfriend who have a demon in their home. It's been following her since she was 8 from home to home. Anyway, they set up the cam in their bedroom while they sleep and he carries it around the house to document stuff.
I'm not ruining the plot, but I CAN say that THIS is how horror SHOULD be. Alfred Hitchcock did the same idea of "Will people be more scared seeing the man holding the chainsaw, or will they be more scared HEARING the man with the chainsaw and never seeing him?" I full out think that Paranormal Activity did this angle perfectly. The viewer is at the mercy of the camcorder; they hear things; sometimes soft, sometimes loud... they always hear movement, footsteps, breathing, pounding, etc (and sometimes see things that will shock you to the core) but never do you SEE it. And that is what makes this so frightening. You know the evil is there but you don't see it, just like normal real life hauntings are usually.
I jumped, I chuckled, I cringed, I mantra'd over and over, no no no no no oh god no..... and was VERY satisfied throughout the entire movie. I think those who give negative reviews are used to seeing the evil, seeing blood, violence, gore, cgi crafted ghosts and entities and so on. This movie gives none of that in the visual aspect - but it fully delivers in the 'hearing and the minds eye IS believing'.
Go see it, folks. Google it up and go see it. You may think a movie that takes place 70 percent in the bedroom on a tripod and the other 30 percent walking around a house won't be enough scenes and so on, but that is so far from the truth. The beginning is a little slow BUT it paves the way to what happened to that point and what's going on as far as they know. We know as much as they do, they hear and see as much as we do, and THAT is what makes a top horror movie in my opinion.
It's the whole 'what if' and 'what IS it' factor that does it. I'd rather have the mind set of not wanting to know what's doing the horrible stuff than see someone's idea of what it looks like and have it not ruined but not to MY own imagination, if that makes sense. I mean, movies like Freddy, Jason and The Haunting and so on are good in their way, but THIS.... this is TRUE horror in my opinion.
Nothing is more scarier than ones own imagination, after all, and Paranormal Activity makes you use just that and nothing more.