PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
dir: Oren Peli
"Basically, they're these malevolent evil spirits that only exist to cause pain and commit evil for their own amusement. It's pretty creepy- I mean, they stalk people for years, like decades, and sometimes they're really intelligent in the way they do things to freak you out. " - Micah
Brief Synopsis
A couple set up a camera in their bedroom to capture video evidence of a suspected "haunting" occuring in their home. However, their interference may have negative concequences.
Why It's Here
Like any horror fan, I watch horror movies to be scared. To wait and see if the tension can be built just right and something unexpected can happen that will send me out of my comfort zone. However, like many horror fans, my increasing familiarity with the genre makes it much, much harder for me to be truly scared. Sure, you can make somebody jump into the frame and I'll be startled, but to be scared is a completely different demon.
In fact, there have only been three times (that I can recall) where I have been truly, honest to God, scared while watching a movie. The first time dates back to when my parents had a huge VHS library but barred me from viewing anything rated R or any almost-R-but-not-quite PG-13 films. Luckily, I had a friend whose parents could care less which led to such childhood delights as The Terminator and, um, Terminator 2. One day we decided to see what Halloween was all about, likely based on some promise that there would be boobs in it. There were. But by the time they showed up, I was too frightened to notice and had to walk home at the dimly lit, surely full mooned time of 8 P.M.
After that, I accidentally stumbled upon The Shining when I was a bit older. Completely unfamiliar with what the hell I was watching, I just decided to stop channel surfing and see where this kid on a tricycle could possibly be going in this random hotel, and then come the twins who asked him to play. I was paralyzed with fear, unable to look away. That is largely why The Shining haunts me to this day and why I respect it so highly. Kubrick got me while I was young.
The third, and so far, final time I was truly scared in a film was while watching Paranormal Activity. As the only film in the terror-trifecta to affect me for the first time as an adult, I have to give it a large degree of respect. I also have to credit my own approach to watching the film which says a lot about the state of marketing films these days. Some horror enthusiasts will instantly ignore me the second I say I have never seen The Blair Witch Project, and extremely polarizing low-budget breakthrough that changed how horror can be done. I figured I would watch twenty minutes then make up the rest in my head, assuming the budget didn't escalate in the third act, I'm probably close enough. The problem is, Blair Witch was ahead of my time, when I heard about it as a kid I was too busy being petrified by The Shining to bother with a movie about running around in the woods for an hour and a half.
Crediting Blair Witch with the pseudo-documentary hand-held cam thing, I find it difficult to say that Blair Witch is a better film than Paranormal Activity, again based on the first twenty minutes. Sure, it's more influential and groundbreaking and everything that scholars can write boring books on, but as a film, Paranormal has a lot more going on, clearly shot and edited by professionals, it's not necessarily about being "real", it's about using the most of your limited environment. Blair Witch got a lot of mileage out of shaking the camera around, hearing screams, and showing extreme close-ups to push people into fearing what they might maybe catch a glimpse of in the corner of the screen, but Paranormal Activity takes a minimalist horror route in being creative with it's sound mixing and finding unique ways to implement CGI to trick your mind into believing that maybe it's actually real.
I came into contact with this film while working my part time job and a rep for either the movie or for the theatre approached me and offered me a flyer about this new low-budget horror film playing only the one weekend, only at midnight. I passed it to other friends, having heard of the movie, but being basically unfamiliar. We all thought it would be interesting considering the positive buzz and decided to head over. This was a fairly excited experience since for the past few years I have been going into every movie with a very calculated approach to a film I had read quite a bit about, seen quite a bit of, and was generally sure would be a safe bet to toss thirteen bucks at. This time, however, I knew next to nothing, and it could go either way. Without the comfort zone of blogs, critics, and peers generating buzz for me, I was completely on my own, and for once in a long time, I wasn't in control of what to expect. By the time the film had ended, I swept through emotions of initial frustration to genuine terror which I initially tried to deny to myself. The 2 A.M. walk home didn't help a whole lot, but the film left me with a sense that few horror films were ever able to, a post-credits feeling of unease. Those who dislike horror movies always question why anyone would ever want to feel that after a movie, but to a horror fan, it's quite clear. The trembling emotion you feel after a good show is much more raw and powerful than what a sentimental tear-jerker could ever evoke.
Missing the Blair Witch boat might be another reason why this film works so well for me. Blair Witch advocates may have either enjoyed the similar style or rolled their eyes in copy-cat disgust with this film, but as part of a generation who missed the boat on that other movie, this one is like something that may as well have never existed before. It's a bit cruel, but unlike a timeless classic in film making, it's hard to go back and view a pop-culture phenomenon a decade after the case when everyone else has moved on. These are the types of films that get tossed in the pop culture dump bin known as "yesterdays news", and I have no doubts that this film will wind up there in a decade or so, not because it's poorly made, but because it's aesthetic applies to a certain era of technology (cameras, editing software), and it's spooks will be worn out by the inevitable cash-in rip-offs to follow. The film is like a temporary deal, a show in town for a limited time; it's like an elite club, the horror genre is full of them, ask the Sam Raimi/Evil Dead worshippers. I have already had numerous people decry that the film is a waste of time and lots of other nasty things, but that's what makes this film peculiar for me. It's an artifact that resonates with a very particular group at a very particular time and no one else may ever get it, but the beauty is, no one else needs to.
The film's protagonists are fairly likable people, each with their own faults, but overall average people with a stable relationship. The film is initially annoying because of the constant back and forth between "scary night-vision sleeping scenes" and "not scary daytime scenes with lame jokes". The clear division between scares and character development makes the movie fairly simplistic, even amateur in it's presentation, but this eventually wears away as the night scenes begin to blend with the day scenes when things begin to heat up and our characters begin to actually wake up in the night. Everyone is afraid of the dark to some degree, and the sensation of watching a completely ordinary couple sleep in their own bed, in their own home, while these nasty things occur all around them can bring a sense of fear into anyone. Sleep is our most vulnerable time, we are unconscious to the things around us and to imagine these things happening while we are defenseless in our own bed is a scare that's seemingly so easy, it's hard to believe it hasn't been abused more.
It's likely the director Oren Peli is responsible for managing these bedside frights, making them effective rather than overselling them. Other horror films of course have attacked the bedroom at night, even great films like Poltergeist, but they resort to the boogeyman concept of something under your bed, or watching you when you feel like you are being watched. It seems far less films have successfully captured the minimalist sense than Peli has here. Rather than some theatrical monster creeping over the end of the bed, minor things occur like a light switch popping on, or a door slamming. Effects that are incredibly easy to stage, but horrifying to imagine happening right next to you. Peli knows he doesn't need extravagant set pieces to chisel at people's insecurities, he just needs to attack them with their own imagination.
In fact, there have only been three times (that I can recall) where I have been truly, honest to God, scared while watching a movie. The first time dates back to when my parents had a huge VHS library but barred me from viewing anything rated R or any almost-R-but-not-quite PG-13 films. Luckily, I had a friend whose parents could care less which led to such childhood delights as The Terminator and, um, Terminator 2. One day we decided to see what Halloween was all about, likely based on some promise that there would be boobs in it. There were. But by the time they showed up, I was too frightened to notice and had to walk home at the dimly lit, surely full mooned time of 8 P.M.
After that, I accidentally stumbled upon The Shining when I was a bit older. Completely unfamiliar with what the hell I was watching, I just decided to stop channel surfing and see where this kid on a tricycle could possibly be going in this random hotel, and then come the twins who asked him to play. I was paralyzed with fear, unable to look away. That is largely why The Shining haunts me to this day and why I respect it so highly. Kubrick got me while I was young.
The third, and so far, final time I was truly scared in a film was while watching Paranormal Activity. As the only film in the terror-trifecta to affect me for the first time as an adult, I have to give it a large degree of respect. I also have to credit my own approach to watching the film which says a lot about the state of marketing films these days. Some horror enthusiasts will instantly ignore me the second I say I have never seen The Blair Witch Project, and extremely polarizing low-budget breakthrough that changed how horror can be done. I figured I would watch twenty minutes then make up the rest in my head, assuming the budget didn't escalate in the third act, I'm probably close enough. The problem is, Blair Witch was ahead of my time, when I heard about it as a kid I was too busy being petrified by The Shining to bother with a movie about running around in the woods for an hour and a half.
Crediting Blair Witch with the pseudo-documentary hand-held cam thing, I find it difficult to say that Blair Witch is a better film than Paranormal Activity, again based on the first twenty minutes. Sure, it's more influential and groundbreaking and everything that scholars can write boring books on, but as a film, Paranormal has a lot more going on, clearly shot and edited by professionals, it's not necessarily about being "real", it's about using the most of your limited environment. Blair Witch got a lot of mileage out of shaking the camera around, hearing screams, and showing extreme close-ups to push people into fearing what they might maybe catch a glimpse of in the corner of the screen, but Paranormal Activity takes a minimalist horror route in being creative with it's sound mixing and finding unique ways to implement CGI to trick your mind into believing that maybe it's actually real.
I came into contact with this film while working my part time job and a rep for either the movie or for the theatre approached me and offered me a flyer about this new low-budget horror film playing only the one weekend, only at midnight. I passed it to other friends, having heard of the movie, but being basically unfamiliar. We all thought it would be interesting considering the positive buzz and decided to head over. This was a fairly excited experience since for the past few years I have been going into every movie with a very calculated approach to a film I had read quite a bit about, seen quite a bit of, and was generally sure would be a safe bet to toss thirteen bucks at. This time, however, I knew next to nothing, and it could go either way. Without the comfort zone of blogs, critics, and peers generating buzz for me, I was completely on my own, and for once in a long time, I wasn't in control of what to expect. By the time the film had ended, I swept through emotions of initial frustration to genuine terror which I initially tried to deny to myself. The 2 A.M. walk home didn't help a whole lot, but the film left me with a sense that few horror films were ever able to, a post-credits feeling of unease. Those who dislike horror movies always question why anyone would ever want to feel that after a movie, but to a horror fan, it's quite clear. The trembling emotion you feel after a good show is much more raw and powerful than what a sentimental tear-jerker could ever evoke.
Missing the Blair Witch boat might be another reason why this film works so well for me. Blair Witch advocates may have either enjoyed the similar style or rolled their eyes in copy-cat disgust with this film, but as part of a generation who missed the boat on that other movie, this one is like something that may as well have never existed before. It's a bit cruel, but unlike a timeless classic in film making, it's hard to go back and view a pop-culture phenomenon a decade after the case when everyone else has moved on. These are the types of films that get tossed in the pop culture dump bin known as "yesterdays news", and I have no doubts that this film will wind up there in a decade or so, not because it's poorly made, but because it's aesthetic applies to a certain era of technology (cameras, editing software), and it's spooks will be worn out by the inevitable cash-in rip-offs to follow. The film is like a temporary deal, a show in town for a limited time; it's like an elite club, the horror genre is full of them, ask the Sam Raimi/Evil Dead worshippers. I have already had numerous people decry that the film is a waste of time and lots of other nasty things, but that's what makes this film peculiar for me. It's an artifact that resonates with a very particular group at a very particular time and no one else may ever get it, but the beauty is, no one else needs to.
The film's protagonists are fairly likable people, each with their own faults, but overall average people with a stable relationship. The film is initially annoying because of the constant back and forth between "scary night-vision sleeping scenes" and "not scary daytime scenes with lame jokes". The clear division between scares and character development makes the movie fairly simplistic, even amateur in it's presentation, but this eventually wears away as the night scenes begin to blend with the day scenes when things begin to heat up and our characters begin to actually wake up in the night. Everyone is afraid of the dark to some degree, and the sensation of watching a completely ordinary couple sleep in their own bed, in their own home, while these nasty things occur all around them can bring a sense of fear into anyone. Sleep is our most vulnerable time, we are unconscious to the things around us and to imagine these things happening while we are defenseless in our own bed is a scare that's seemingly so easy, it's hard to believe it hasn't been abused more.
It's likely the director Oren Peli is responsible for managing these bedside frights, making them effective rather than overselling them. Other horror films of course have attacked the bedroom at night, even great films like Poltergeist, but they resort to the boogeyman concept of something under your bed, or watching you when you feel like you are being watched. It seems far less films have successfully captured the minimalist sense than Peli has here. Rather than some theatrical monster creeping over the end of the bed, minor things occur like a light switch popping on, or a door slamming. Effects that are incredibly easy to stage, but horrifying to imagine happening right next to you. Peli knows he doesn't need extravagant set pieces to chisel at people's insecurities, he just needs to attack them with their own imagination.