Paranormal Activity

Released: 2009

MPAA rating: R

Run time: 1:26

As I write this, "Paranormal Activity" is riding a wave of incredible buzz and is a smash hit at the box office. Interestingly, a lot of this buzz has been created by word of mouth "you-HAVE-to-see-this" type chatter. Any time you have a low key horror movie break out like this, I definitely get excited. So, I went in to this completely ready for some great low-budget scary stuff. What I got was basically equivalent to watching someone's home movies. We have all had those videos when we first get a camera and record every innocuous thing just because we can. That basically comprises the first third of the film. The set-up is that the whole reason they bought the camera was to try to capture what was making the "bumps in the night" they have been hearing. Through their conversation, we learn that Katie (Katie Featherston) has been occasionally visited by some sort of ghost at various times in her life and whatever it is is back. Micah (Micah Sloat) is determined to help her get to the bottom of it and the video camera is a key component in that plan. From time to time, they check in with the services of a psychic (Mark Fredrichs) and it is these scenes that are the most interesting. At least he brings some narrative flow to what they may or may not be dealing with. For a large part of the movie, the couple is more annoying than sympathetic as Katie is constantly telling Micah to stop filming everything and Micah keeps declaring that nothing will come into his house and bother his girlfriend. These scenes mostly bridge the night scenes, where the movie is supposed to be so terrifying. While the movie attempts to be a slow build of tension, I found it to be a slow build of boredom. The night scenes had too little going on to provide any kind of a payoff (the house makes noise?? Really, that's scary??). When they finally get to its frightening sequences, I found I was already too bored for the tension to work. In comparison, the opening sequence of "Inglourious Basterds" (which is not a horror movie) masterfully builds the tension in a room with just two characters talking, keeping you riveted. This movie falls well short of building any thing close. Of course, the obvious comparison is "The Blair Witch Project", which is very similar in lots of ways. I actually liked that one, but the pacing and small spoon-fed bits of horror in this movie did not work quite as well (not that "The Blair Witch Project" was any kind of masterpiece, either). It is nice to see a small film made by some friends generate this kind of buzz and attention (and box office), but it just did not get the job done for me.

Grade: C-

Trailer: