Director: Oren Peli
Writer: Oren Peli
Genre: Horror – Mystery
Country: USA
Certification: 12+
Language: English

MAIN CAST:

Katie Featherston [Katie]
Micah Sloat [Micah]
Mark Fredrichs [The Psychic]

Katie, a student, has spent most of her life being stalked by a ghost who is more often malevolent than not. Since her youth it has followed her from house to house, whispering her name at night… constantly watching her.

Living with her boyfriend, Micah, in a two-story house, Katie, who did not tell him about her ghostly stalker before they moved in together, had hoped that the entity would not follow her to her new home. Unfortunately… it did, and she had to tell Micah – whose incredulity mixed with fascination leads him into purchasing a video camera in the hopes of catching the entity on film.

And this is where the story begins…

Katie calls in a psychic in order to assess the situation. The psychic, after listening to what Katie has to say, tells her that he ‘feels’ the entity in the house, and that it isn’t a ghost… he strongly feels that it is a demon. He tells Katie that it doesn’t matter how far she runs, it will follow her. He also tells her that the demon feeds off of negativity, and the more negativity that surrounds her, the stronger it gets. Her only hope is to contact Dr. Abrams, a demonologist. Although Katie wants to contact the demonologist, Micah is reluctant to do so. This causes friction.

Giving in to Micah’s refusal to contact a demonologist, Katie allows him to follow her around with a camera, and to film them while they sleep.

On the first night, just past two in the morning, the camera picks up the sound of footsteps in the hallway outside the bedroom.

On the second night, the sound of footsteps again echoes inside the house as the couple sleep, but this time it is accompanied with the moving of the bedroom door.

Caught on tape does not necessarily mean peace of mind for Katie because an incredulous Micah has seen the light… far from it… Micah’s fascination makes him bold, he goads the entity, provoking it, and as the arguments between Katie and Micah escalate, the entity grows stronger, and the sleepless nights and paranormal activity take their toll on Katie who begins to fall behind in her school work, and Micah, who is a day trader, loses money he can ill afford to lose.

When Katie wakes up screaming in the night because of horrific nightmares, Micah’s fascination gives way to concern… which grows all the more when Katie is caught on camera sleepwalking.

‘Paranormal Activity’ the brainchild of Oren Peli, was filmed entirely in his home over the course of a single weekend back in 2006 and cost just under £9,000.00… in its first weekend at the cinema in the US, it pushed ‘Saw VI’ from first position and although it was knocked to second position by the arrival of Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’, the film grossed over £50 million [to date] which now makes it the highest grossing horror movie of the year. Wow… what a return on £9,000.00 and 2 days of work!

Having had the opportunity to view this movie over the weekend [it’s only coming out in cinemas this coming weekend], I have to say that I wasn’t totally impressed.

Firstly, the movie was filmed in that now-known-and-common-format… the documentary. In this case, as in the case with ‘Blair Witch’, ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘Quarantine’, we can call it a docu-horror – one of those movies filmed entirely with a handheld video camera that gives the impression that what you are seeing is… um… ‘real’. Well, it’s not… it’s a fiction, so don’t rush off to Google it like I did! Shock, horror… yes, I did! I wasn’t quite certain because the actors used their real names, and, quite honestly, their acting suckered me in. So, either I’m really gullible… or they’re really good actors. Let’s say it was superior acting and leave it at that.

The quality of the sound and the visuals are pretty basic – to be expected with a handheld video camera – and the setting itself is singularly uninspiring, especially for a horror movie. There is very little atmosphere, if any, and quite honestly, the house sometimes seems too big and cold for the young couple who would have been better suited to a flat, however, I doubt the effect would have been the same if the movie had been filmed within a small flat.

Although, as stated above, the atmosphere is off at first [for a horror], as the haunting begins, going from disconcerting to downright worrying, the atmosphere, without ever really being tense, is more than a little mystifying. Let’s face it, footsteps echoing in an empty hallway, doors moving without anyone being present, the sound of growling in a dark bedroom as a young couple sleep blissfully unaware of the malevolent being literally breathing down their backs – the atmosphere isn’t heavy or even dark, but it is suitably unsettling, and there are times, without giving anything away, where unsettling is too mild a word… chilling comes to mind.

The movie trailer, for those who haven’t seen it, shows the first viewing of the movie – we, literally, watch the audience watching the movie. In the trailer, you see how captivated the audience has become, jumping at each and every sound, some people gasping in fear or holding their hands up in front of their eyes because they’re too frightened to watch… well… I didn’t experience any of this, nor did anyone else who accompanied me to the viewing. While we did find ourselves captivated by the movie halfway through, we were never totally immersed… I think this had something to do with the movie’s slow start. The beginning feels very much like a home movie, and it takes about 30 minutes to get into it – unfortunately, it only lasts 86 minutes.

‘Paranormal Activity’ is low-budget, the setting isn’t all that suitable for a horror, the atmosphere and ‘feel’ of the movie is very ‘reality television’ or ‘home movie’, however, the acting is brilliant and the story itself, while resembling one of those ‘paranormal’ television shows that seem to be so popular nowadays, is extremely interesting. Not a fan of these shows because I just can’t stand the well-rehearsed and repetitive; “if you can hear me please make a sound”, followed by the person who spoke the words running out of the room screaming the minute the ‘ghost’ obeys the command. So why tell the ‘ghost’ to make a sound if you’re going to run out of the room screaming?

Anyways… back to the movie.

Regardless that ‘Paranormal Activity’, at first, failed to capture my attention, I realised, halfway through, that it was incredibly fascinating… and disturbingly addictive. I wanted to know what was going to happen next – I wanted to know ‘who’ or ‘what’ the entity was, or ‘why’ it was haunting poor terrified Katie. I’m not easily frightened by horror movies, and when I am, I’m not the type who jumps or screams or even gasps, and I daresay that I wasn’t frightened by this movie either, but I was chilled by certain scenes, and the images haunted me for hours afterwards. This isn’t the ‘Blair Witch’ with its ominous atmosphere, but it is a good horror movie and worthy of being watched.