Review of Paranormal Activity (2007) by Maslow E — 22 Sep 2017

Paranormal Activity, originally shot in 2006, didn't get a mainstream release until October of 2009 when Paramount Pictures bought the film. Paranormal Activity is an interesting movie, now although most people know the series today as the shaky, found footage film, that is about ghosts and demonic possessions, without ever actually showing it, the series started from humble beginnings. The first couple entries had to be demanded for, if Paranormal Activity wasn't playing at your local theatre you had to visit a website and ask for it to be played there, it was almost like a crowd funded movie before sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo were a thing. Made for around $15,000 and shot entirely in director's, Oren Peli's house, Paranormal Activity tells the story of Katie and Micah, a young couple living together who find themselves experiencing nightly disturbances for inexplicable reasons.

One word that could sum not just this film, but the series as whole, is polarizing. As the first Paranormal Activity was growing in popularity, the film was heavily advertised as one of the scariest movies of all time, that in and of itself creates false pretence as it couldn't be farther from the truth. I do not consider myself much of a believer in the paranormal, so that may have tampered my experience with the film, nevertheless I can understand why someone would be frightened by this movie, however it is definitely not a horrific movie. It's totally easy to see why many people are so divided about this series, one side views the movies as a realistic depiction of paranormal occurrences and the other just sees a bunch of people shaking a camera around and slamming doors for an hour and a half. I consider pretty neutral with the issue, there are moments where certain events do get under my skin, however thinking back to it I realize how stupid it is.

Now the first Paranormal Activity movie plays out almost like a psychological thriller, a lot is left up the imagination and you see the effect of the events taking a toll on the characters. There isn't a lot that happens in the movie, the viewer is basically confined to the house for the entire runtime and you do a lot of analyzing, asking yourself "is that shadowy figure, or is it my imagination?", "did that lamp just move or am I going insane?", and this is probably where my biggest issue arises from. I've seen Paranormal Activity a handful of times, and each viewingI keep a careful eye trying to see if I can pick up on any background things, however every time, I come up with nothing. For a movie that heavily relies on the viewer examining what's going on, there just isn't a lot there. You'd think that with a movie about a ghostly haunting that features these long drawn out scenes, the filmmakers would include subtle activity in the background to create even more of a frightening experience. Sadly they don't, and everything you get is at face value. Other problems that face the movie are, the acting, slow scenes, badly improvised dialogue, odd cuts, etc, most of these issues are constricted to the screenplay and low budget, so some of it is forgivable.

Overall Paranormal Activity isn't a horrible film by any stretch of the imagination, it's easy to see both sides of the argument, however I lean more towards it being a pretty decent time. It's a watchable film that does have some good scenes of intensity, particularly the hallway scene where Micah uses baby powder, that was definitely an effective sequence that did get under my skin. As with most films it isn't perfect and it's not something I can recommend to everybody, you have to know what you're getting yourself into and although I was never frightened by it, I do enjoy watching this movie from time-to-time, so for the reason I'm giving Paranormal Activity a 6/10.