"Paranormal Activity" Review

Introduction

I will be reviewing "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones," here and in the newspaper I write for, "The Utah Statesman." However, from what I understand, one needs see at least the first three films in the franchise to understand it. Because of this, I will be reviewing these movies on this blog.

In the interest of time, I will only write short reviews of the first three films. I will concentrate more time on the one that is coming out this weekend.

Review

"Paranormal Activity" succeeds as a horror film because it uses its simplicity to create a realistic feel.

Katie and Micah (played by actors with the same first names: Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) are boyfriend and girlfriend living with each other. Before they moved in, Katie neglected to tell Micah that she has had past experience with some kind of presence. She has been visited by some kind of entity, and she does not know what it is. It is revealed in the beginning by a paranormal expert that this presence is demonic.

The presence has been felt off and on in her life. It has been dormant for a while, but she is starting to see weird stuff coming back to visit her. Micah decides to document their life with a video camera to see if what she is saying is true. During the day, he records their day-to-day interactions. By night, he records them as they sleep to see if there is anything out of the ordinary happening.

Each night, something happens. It starts out fairly subtle, but after a while it becomes more and more bizarre.

From beginning to end, this movie is very entertaining. The filmmakers knew that in order to give a good sense of horror, the audience needs an emotional attachment to the characters.

Watching the couple interact is part of what makes it fun. Micah is funny at times because he is sarcastic. He does not seem to believe that there is any such thing as demons, so he does not take anything seriously. Katie, however, knows what she has seen and felt, and she gets really mad when he makes fun of her.

What is interesting about this is the men watching into this movie can relate to Micah and the women to Katie. *I do not mean to make a lot of assumptions, but in my experience, women are usually more scared of horror films than men. Before I saw this movie, the women I talked to thought I was crazy that I would even watch it.

At the beginning of the movie, I felt calm like Micah. However as it progresses, he starts getting more concerned, and I could definitely feel the intensity build itself up.

This film was very cheap to make. The main actors are both not very famous except for in the franchise this film started. Paying them must not have been difficult. The camera is a cheap one that most people can afford. The special effects are also fairly inexpensive in that it mostly involves things moving around. According to IMDB's "Paranormal Activity" page, the estimated budget for this film was only $15,000.

The simplicity and cheapness of it all is why it ended up being horrifying. Knowing that there are no great special effects, the filmmakers had to focus their efforts on making sure it is well written with what they had. The demonic presence shown is usually subtle with a door creaking or a big noise. The biggest effects are things moving around. By the end, it gave me a good sense of terror.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. It succeeds in a way movies with a higher budget often fail to do: scare me. It does so with its simple special effects and outstanding writing.

Content: Rated R. There is a little sexual content and implications that a couple is either about to engage in intercourse or has already done so, but it is nothing you would not see in a standard PG-13 movie. There is maybe a little bit of blood at the end, but it is not very clear. There is moderate language including quite a few "F" words.

*I just want to make one thing clear: I do not intend to start any stereotypes that are wrong about women. I am just talking about how men and women tend to react differently according to my own experiences. I know that there are quite a few women who love horror and are not scared of it at all.