Paranormal Activity
Micah and Katie are a young couple from California. Engaged to be engaged, they live in a nice house, have a good life, and seem like a good couple. But Katie has a secret- over the years a supernatural force has made sleeping difficult. Now, it’s come back. Micah has gotten a camera, they’ve consulted with a psychic (Mark Fredrichs), and are prepared to help Katie be rid of it once and for all.
The actors are essentially playing themselves (well, at least Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston are listed as “himself” and “herself”), a lot like how the actors from “The Blair Witch Project” did ten years ago.
In a way beyond the story it tells, “Paranormal Activity” is a case of history repeating itself. A no-budget horror film (this time by the inspired Oren Peli, a filmmaker to watch on the genre front for years to come). the film has gotten a major push from Paramount, whose built the film’s buzz around strategic word-of-mouth midnight screenings in university towns across the U.S., letting the bloggers (and a viral ‘net campaign) take it from there as they add screens, and watch the money roll in.
It’d be crass in the worst way if the movie sucked. Thankfully, Peli- despite his writing of Micah as an unsympathetic tool through most of the film (my biggest complaint about the movie other than the cheat at the end- you’ll know what it is when you see it)- has learned from the best. Movies that came to mind while watching “Paranormal Activity”: “Alien,” “Cat People” (the 1942 original), “The Shining,” “The Exorcist,” “Drag Me to Hell,” and- of course- “The Blair Witch Project.”
Peli knows that the most effective way to build suspense is through anticipation and mystery, not big effects. His use of sound brought to mind “The Shining” and “Drag Me to Hell,” his use of shadows and light “Alien” (the Ridley Scott original mind you) and “Cat People,” while his use of practical effects to terrify the audience and scare the shit out of his actors is right out of “The Exorcist.”
The film is most effective as we watch the couple sleep, the camera on, the time in the bottom right of the screen, awaiting for something to happen. Most importantly, Peli doesn’t hit you over the head when it does. Later the happenings are less subtle, but just seeing a door move on its’ own, or a hall light turn on in the background, or the powder-pronounced footprints of an invisible being, can be the scariest fucking thing you’ve ever seen.
Happy pre-Halloween folks! In what’s been an uncommonly good year for horror movies (from “Drag Me to Hell” to “My Bloody Valentine” to “The Haunting in Connecticut”), by picking up a jewel like this one, they’re showing they’ve got a few treats left to give out.
