Paranormal Activity – Movie Review (2007)

Who said ghost movies get old? Oren Peli's debut film, featuring a young couple, a new house and one creepy demon, makes your skin go goose bump and jump in your seat. And that's with no special effects whatsoever, no famous diva actors, no budget, no nothing.

The movie starts with a message from Paramount pictures saying that it would like to thank the families of Micah and Katie, and the San Diego Police Department for their supposed cooperation and support for the movie. Although this beginning is similar to that from The Blair Witch Project (1999), it's effective in the way that it creates the illusion of the movie actually being “for real”, and that Micah and Katie, the movie's main characters, are already food for the evil ghosts. The entire movie represents just one week's filming work done in the director's own house, who actually inspired him to create this movie. Upon moving into the suburban cozy house from a mid-town apartment, he started noticing at night how the house makes noises as if it is “alive”. Like creepy crawlies actually live under your bed and stuff like that.

If Paranormal Activity was made with no more than $20,000, the re-recorded soundtrack and the shooting of different endings (there were at least three different ones, and some say even nine) are not included in this budget limit. Steven Spielberg was the one to preview the movie and suggest a different, more sensational finish for the movie than the one that was viewed during the film festivals two years ago.

The movie is about a young couple who moves into a haunted house that is quick to show them it is not fond of their moving in. Or maybe the girl brought “it” along? Either way, Katie (Katie Featherson) and Micah (Micah Sloat) settle down in San Diego, California, and Katie starts to wonder if some malevolent spirit is looming around the house. She is quite into the paranormal area and also believes that evil ghosts have been following her since childhood, although her boyfriend is not quite a believer. However, after a few nights of loud unexpected noises and strange happenings, Micah starts to believe Katie and thinks that maybe some ghost has traced her from the old home to the new one. They decide to go see a paranormal researcher who tells them that he can't help. But Micah can't just sit around and leave it be (like we would), he sets up a camera in their bedroom that records what happens in the house while they sleep at night. As the saying goes, “seeing is believing”, so after they view the tapes that demonstrate the presence of a strange entity, they take the brilliant idea of bringing an Ouija board and try “reasoning” with the thing. Right. You can guess how that goes.

Like the Blair Witch project a lot of viral marketing has been spun around Paranormal Activity, with its title being among the top words tweeted for several days in line in Twitter. Part engineered by Paramount, part organic, the myth around the movie has cashed some serious profits of approx. $9 million in its first week of release, although it opened in just a few dozens cinemas, managing to beat horror genre rival Saw VI over the Halloween weekend. The movie itself has succeeded in winning the biggest profit of all times for a film with such a low budget.

After the whole Blair Witch wave had died off, it didn't seem like a scary movie anymore. And we know that time will also take its toll on the likes of Paranormal Activity, but for now, just for now, tell me if you're willing to watch this movie at night... all alone. You can leave a light on, just in case. But after viewing the movie and that really unnerving time counter in the down right corner of the screen, counting the seconds until the next bad thing will come up, we're not so sure about the lights. Or any dark empty house for that matter.

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