Movie Review: “Paranormal Activity”
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 2:57PM | By Franck Tabouring 
Seen on: October 7, 2009
The players: Director: Oren Peli, Writer: Oren Peli, Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Michael Bayouth
Facts of interest: Produced with less than $15,000.
The plot: A happy couple moves into a hew suburban home and is soon haunted by a mysterious spirit at night.
Our thoughts: Now I clearly understand why midnight showings and all kinds of other screenings of Oren Peli’s low-budget horror thriller “Paranormal Activity” have been selling out everywhere. It’s an utterly intense and totally frightening big-screen experience that embraces simplicity but delivers one heck of a superb show.
Peli certainly didn’t reinvent any genre with this flick, but he sure managed to create a small film stuffed with solid thrills and surprises that even successfully scared this reviewer. Yes, you can definitely count me among all those who say “Paranormal Activity” is one of the scariest films they’ve seen in ages.
Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat play a young couple moving into a typical suburban house, looking forward to their experience of living together for the first time. Unfortunately, they soon start to experience a series of mysterious events that particularly disturb their peace at night, when they’re trying to sleep.
Determined to find out what all these unsettling noises and a potential presence of something creepy are all about, Micah decides to record their bedroom at night with a video camera. His findings are quite disturbing, and what happens next is entirely up to you to discover…
“Paranormal Activity” takes some time to build up suspense and reach a fast pace driven by many scary moments and terrifying scenes, but all in all, this is anything but a boring movie. Additionally, select shock effects and the overall dark, creepy atmosphere work better than in any other big-budget Hollywood horror flick.
The story of course is way over the top and the characters’ decisions are questionable, but these are issues that really don’t matter this time around. Most importantly, they don’t even interfere with the film’s goal to frighten its audience, and that’s one of the reasons I absolutely enjoyed this experience.
Paramount did the right thing sending the film into a bigger release, because I honestly can’t remember when I last saw a horror film that scared me this much. It takes a lot to make me feel fear in a movie, but this one kept its promise and made me jump in my seat more than once.
Freaky quote: "Something's here!" – Katie Featherston
The final word: At this point, that’s all I want to say about “Paranormal Activity.” Go out there and discover it yourself, and return to join the discussion. For people in love with scary flicks that take them by surprise, this is a winner. It’s based on such a simple, easy concept, but it works throughout. Enough said.
Article by Franck Tabouring
Reader Comments (3)
Ok, so I just got back from the movie, "Paranormal actiity" and if you have not seen it, wait until it comes out on DVD because it was the lamest waste of $30 I have ever spent in my life.
The first hour of the movie shows this couple doing random stuff in their house with their camera they had purchased to tape this "entity" that was stalking the woman in the movie since she was 8 years old.
The past 30 minutes gives you like 4 lame scenes of what I would consider G rated scare tactics.
I have to say at the least I was highly dissappointed! When I saw the trailer for the movie on TV it actually looked like it would scare the heck out of you when in fact I have seen scarier segments of the Barney show.
So, anyone wanting to waste their money and time on this movie take it from someone that has seen it and don't you will be highly disappointed!
I had very high expectations (something I usually try to avoid because you end up disappointed 90% of the time) for this movie and I wasn't disappointed at all! It's awesome! I've seen over 1000 horror movies and Paranormal Activity is definitely one of the best I've seen (top 50)! It's not one of the best I've seen only because it's one of the scariest, it's also one of the most realistic and it's the movie I've always dreamed of! I've always wanted someone to make a realistic movie like The Blair Witch Project about a family or a couple filming in their house to catch ghosts and this movie has everything that I wanted! It's very suspenseful and it has some truly effective scenes! A lot of people say that it's boring and I really don't get it! It's WAY too suspenseful to be boring! I've been trying to understand why the people that thought that it was boring went to see it since it was released! Why does someone who get bored easily go see a movie about a couple filming in their house? While we're at it, why does someone expect to be scared in a theater full of people? The fact that there are idiotic teens that can't stop talking and laughing 90% of the time doesn't help. Personally, I can't imagine finding a movie scary with 30 persons around me. I thought the movie was scary (compared to most movies), but I watched it alone in the dark with an headset. The fact that I believe (or want to) in ghosts/demons helped as well. Actually, I can't imagine someone who doesn't believe in ghosts/demons finding a movie about them scary. What makes ghost/demons movies scary is the fact that maybe they exist. Anyway, the first few minutes of the movie is the only time I didn't feel uneasy! The atmosphere was simply creepy! Hell, even a few parts with nothing but the couple talking were creepy! I guess it was the expectation that something really bad was going to happen. Anyway, when the movie was about to end I felt bad because I really didn't want it to end and any movie that makes me feel this way deserves 5 stars. I Can't wait for the DVD.
PS: All of the people who call the people who like this movie sheeps are immature idiots. Just because you think a movie is bad doesn't mean that those who think it's good are sheeps or wrong or whatever stupid *beep* bigots love to come up with.
This movie was a very poor attemt a recreating the real life feel of the Blair Witch Project combine with a high school grade film level of production that promises much more than it delivers. Much like the Blair Witch.The trailers 4 this movie shows all and any of the some what interesting parts of the film at least blair witch was an original idea at the time for the big screen. The hype 4 this movie far exceeds the feeling left once watchin the film.Very slow build up to a meger at best climax overal would give the film 2 bong hits outta 10 if u like home videos and amateur filming with no real plot line and a very improve feel to them then this movie will prob sit a little better with u than me but I think I bought into toomuch of the hype and it mared my interpritation of this film. (There's a hole in my bowl wanna plug it with a nugget productions inc. pat pend)