Paranormal Activity Review

This review is less than timely for a reason: the more I sat and thought about Paranormal Activity, the less I liked the film. Oh, it is still worth seeing (especially if you’ve managed to stay mostly spoiler free). But I am feeling confident about comments I made to Adam when the film was released: “I am predicting that Paranormal Activity will go the way of the The Blair Witch Project . Big, strong showing in the theater that is likely to usher in a short period of more indie horror movies getting greenlit. Maybe strong initial DVD sales but then very few people will ever watch it again.”

Paranormal Activity follows Micah and Katie, a young couple who are being bothered by something that goes bump in the night. Micah purchases a video camera to document what has been happening and it is through that camera that the film is shot. A large portion of the film consists of watching the couple asleep at night with the camera on a nearby tripod. These scenes contain the few genuinely creepy moments that drive the suspense and feeling of dread.

But will those moments still be creepy once you know what they are? It’s doubtful even if ghosts/demons rank number one on your fears list. The same can be said about the ending, which was changed from the film festival version at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg.

The characters of Micah and Katie (using the real first names of the actors) were compelling and believable to me during my first viewing. But this is where it really fell apart for me during retrospection. It seems as though the couple has an urgency switch reset during their nightly slumber. The paranormal activity keeps becoming more intense but their reactions largely plateau by the middle of the film.

But, as I said in the opening paragraph, I do think the movie is worth a viewing for fans of horror movies. It will obviously not be the scariest movie you’ve ever seen. It is suspenseful and chilling and interesting enough to keep me,  a nonbeliever of both demons and ghosts, intrigued for its duration… on the first view, at least.