Paranormal Activity
by Oren Peli
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Katie Featherston, Micah SloatDirector: Oren Peli
Brand: PAR
Producer: Oren Peli
Writer: Oren Peli
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
Published: 2009
DVD Release Date: 2009-12-29
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Paranormal Activity
Movie Review: Riveting And Eerie Tale Of A Haunting Recorded On Film
Summary: 5 Stars
A young couple, Katie and Micah, have been experiencing strange events in their home, but the incidents - bumps in the night, sounds of whipered voices, faucets seeming to turn themselves off and on - are nothing compared to the escalating supernatural events that come after Micah gets it into his head to try and document the phenomena. He buys a camcorder and a load of film to record events day and night and see just what really goes on in the house when they're asleep.
In Blair Witch-style, the entire movie is seen as a compilation of what the camera captured. Paranormal Activity comes off feeling very real - the performers are extremely natural, never once seeming like they're acting, and none of the effects Look remotely like special effects. The characterization is in-depth, and it's the characters that make the whole 'recording' scenario seem so plausible.
Of the two, it's Katie that doesn't think the recording idea is very smart: it's Katie who's experiencing the supernatural happenings more first hand than Micah (although they both hear bumps and creaks in the night - which could be anything - it's her that hears the whispers) and she's the one who's lived through this before, as she's been periodically visited or haunted, apparantly by the same entity, at various points since childhood. It starts up, continues for a while, then disappears for years at a stretch. And it's followed her from place to place, so the activity is obviously centered on her, not on a specific house or place. With Micah, we have one of those rare cases in storytelling where the tale seems to tell us a lot about a character that the character himself doesn't seem to be aware of. Micah loves Katie, and is trying to help, but I think that in the early stages his state of mind - albeit not consciously - is kind of "this can't Really be happening. We'll find there's some rational explanation or not, but in the end we'll just laugh about it. But you know, wouldn't it be kind of cool if there really Was something?" I don't think that in the early days of his experiments with recording events he's ever able to genuinely perceive this 'haunting' as a threat; therefore he doesn't think he's putting Katie or himself in danger when he takes actions that he's been warned aren't wise, that could provoke the entity and make things worse.
Things do go from bad to worse, and it gets increasingly difficult to think of a 'rational' explanation for the increasing activity. Katie's strong fears from the start and her inclination that they should just ride it out rather than try to understand it, perhaps indicate an intuitive sense of just how dangerous the entity they're dealing with really is, or perhaps indicate that she's glimpsed more during previous incidents of activity than she's letting on. She does Not believe they can 'defeat' this being, and thinks that the best thing they can do is ignore it and it will do what it's always done before when ignored: eventually go away. Micah becomes obsessed with understanding it, and by the time he has to admit that the threat is extremely real, he can't back off. He seems to think that he'd be letting Katie down if he stopped (even though that's what she wants him to do), or perhaps thinks that he'd be less manly if he were to admit he was on the wrong track. Again, he doesn't necesarily think these things consciously, and that may go for Katie too, but that's the interpretation I got of their motivations. And so, even as things get worse, the recording continues, and Micah continues trying to capture evidence on film, alternately trying to communicate with the entity or to try and find ways of directly combatting it. All of which just seems to be bringing the being on and on closer into our world, and leading to an increasingly scary series of events and a shock ender.
Some will find the movie too slow-moving. Personally, I liked its pace, I liked how in the first third of the movie most of what we're seeing the camera capture is just ordinary, everyday stuff. It makes it feel real, lets you know the characters, and makes it more potent when events do progress from just the occasional unexplained noise to more bizarre events. I think it was extremely well-executed, and is one of the best movies of its kind. Also recommended: [Rec], Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project.
Summary of Paranormal Activity
This intense edge-of-your seat horror film follows a young suburban couple who record the sinister disturbances in their home while they sleep ? even as the domestic haunting becomes more frequent, more threatening and all too personal. Hypnotic and harrowing, Paranormal Activity uniquely delivers frightful suspense punctuated by moments of sudden and unexpected terror, all the way to the shocking ending.Featuring a version not shown in theaters with an exclusive alternate ending, Paranormal Activity is the one supernatural thriller DVD to own that plays on your most primal fears, and guarantees you?ll need to sleep with the lights on.
Like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity is an impressive and harrowing indie chiller that derives much of its terror--and there is quite a bit of that in its brief running time--by playing on the most basic of human fears: that which cannot be seen. Though one might assume that the point-of-view aesthetic had been worn out thanks to Cloverfield and Quarantine (and, lest one forgets, Blair Witch), Paranormal makes excellent use of the single-camera technique, which helps to not only preserve the film's central conceit--a new-minted couple records the increasingly threatening supernatural phenomena that have invaded their home on a camcorder--but underscore the realism needed to drive home the low-fi (if completely persuasive) special effects. The approach is also crucial to the film's suspense, which unfolds in long, largely broken takes to nerve-rattling effect. Not every horror fan--or moviegoer--will fall for the film's spook-show approach. Those that found Blair Witch's less-is-more approach aggravating will feel the same way about Paranormal, but the sleight of hand exhibited by first-time director Oren Peli, and assisted by his two leads, relative newcomers Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, should provide adventurous viewers with fresher and stronger scares than anything from Hollywood in recent years. --Paul Gaita
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