Despite fierce hype, I made a conscious choice not to see this film during its cinema run, as I feel these types of movies work best at home. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed with the end result.
The film (as almost everyone now knows) focuses on a young couple named Katie and Micah who have been experiencing bumps in the night. Micah thinks it’s great and sets about filming the couple as they sleep to see if they can capture anything on camera. Katie however is scared and does not like his idea one bit. As the film progresses, the titular paranormal activity increases with terrifying consequences.
My biggest gripe with the film (and there are a few) is that there’s far too much downtime. Watching Micah fart about in his big house with all of his fancy gadgets made me hate him even more, which leads me to my second biggest gripe…he’s an unlikeable douchebag! This made the ending personally satisfying for me-but for all the wrong reasons.
Where the film excels is in its chillingly real and expertly crafted scare sequences. I got goose bumps every time night fell and the duos bed time approached. Technically, the film was miles better than other shaky cam fare such as BWP (which is an unfair comparison on my part, as technology has come a long way in the ensuing 10 years and the camera was largely static). The sound design and effects work was top notch too.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Paranormal Activity is an effective film from conception to execution, there’s no denying that. It loses points however, due to unlikeable characters who commit far too many unrealistic loser moves.
