Review: Paranormal Activity

Warning: There ARE spoilers in this post. If you plan on seeing the movie, don’t read!

When I was younger I had a ghost club. Nothing really happened with the club, but I would go “investigate” supposedly haunted locations and document my findings (nothing.) Of course I could go hunt ghosts, but the idea of playing hide & go seek in the dark terrified me. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal. I wouldn’t say I’m a believer, but I am open to the possibility. I’m a skeptic first – meaning I try finding the science or smoke and mirrors behind the activity first. That doesn’t mean that I won’t call my shower curtain a demon if it moves by itself.

When I heard about Paranormal Activity, I had no idea what the big deal was. I hadn’t seen the preview, I just heard it was an extremely scary movie. After watching the preview, co-workers were convinced they did not want to see it, but me? I was anxious! Seeing people scream and hide in their seats only made me more interested. I kept saying, “It’s not real!” I had to see how this movie was causing people to have a physical reaction in their seats.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that has actually scared me, but I will admit that Paranormal Activity proved that the less you see, the more creeped out you get. The movie is supposed to be a home movie created by Micah and Katie. Think Blair Witch meets Cloverfield except without the seizure-inducing shaky camera. They’ve been experiencing, wait for it… paranormal activity for a while and Micah wanted to capture it on tape. It started out pretty slow, but as Micah kept provoking it, the attacks started getting more intense.

The movie instilled just the right amount of fear. It attacked your senses. You heard the footsteps and you saw the footprints in the powder, but you couldn’t see what was causing it. There was no music with startling booms, bangs or bings, but there were loud pounding sounds caused by the “demon.”

It started getting really disturbing when you saw how it was affecting Katie. The time stamp on the camera would show her standing near the side of the bed for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. Her lack of expression and movement were enough to give me goosebumps. Once I knew she was officially possessed I started getting really creeped out. For whatever reason I don’t like seeing faces of possessed people and I knew before the end of the movie we’d have a close-up. I did not see the end coming. It’s easy to forget that this isn’t real. I won’t give away the ending, but it was probably the scariest part of the movie for me.

I didn’t scream or cry like the people in the previews, but I did hide my eyes a couple times (especially at the end.) I was totally sucked in and enjoyed every minute. I was nervous about sleeping alone that night. I was told by a few people that the movie wasn’t bad, but the night after was terrifying. There were a few times I would wake up and think about the ending and feel a small chill, but honestly I slept pretty well.

Would I see it again? Yes. If you have an open mind and you want to be scared, I recommend checking out Paranormal Activity. It has the suspense that so many other films lack. If you’re looking for gore and Hollywood horror, go see Saw VI.