Paranormal Activity
From FilmFile
Taglines:
- What Happens When You Sleep?
- Don't See It Alone
- Don't go alone
- Dare you experience the U.S. phenomenon?
Contents |
Synopsis
Katie and Micah are enjoying a happy and carefree existence. Their future looks promising until bizarre events begin to occur at night. In order to get to the bottom of things, Katie and Micah purchase a video camera to find out what happens at night while they sleep.
Review
Filmed on an extremely low budget in a short period of time, and captured on home video equipment, it is little wonder that similarities are being drawn between this film and The Blair Witch Project. However such comparisons would be unfair as Paranormal Activity works so much better than the often ambiguous Blair Witch, where we saw very little and only by reading extra details on the many fake websites could much of the events be discerned. Paranormal Activity shows you everything that is required to follow the events, and it used traditional scare techniques to unnerve and freak the audience out... only without an orchestra telling you when to jump.
The film, being compiled from home movie footage, spends a good 20 minutes or so at the start just introducing us to Mika and katie, the couple who are disturbed by strange noises in the night. We get to know their relationship and personalities first before the film begins to capture some of the spooky going-ons of the house. As the film progresses, Mika's curiosity seems to drive the events up in level, whilst Katie becomes more worried about what is happening.
Where the film works so well is that without any music, and with static cameras watching the couple sleep, it is up to the audience to keep an eye or eear open to spot anything unnatural. So, when the film switches to nightvision, you start concentrating on every detail and every shadow on screen, and listening for the tiniest of noises to alert you that something is not right. Thus when you do catch that shadow move past it makes you jump, and leaves you a bit shaken. By the later end of the film, even the simplicity of a light switching itself on and off will have you on edge.
Paranormal Activity deserves to be watched on the big screen, with the full effect of dark environment and surround speakers. The film also has multiple endings, with the cinematic release ending being staggeringly different than the one which did the festival rounds, and a third ending is tipped for DVD (although possibly just as an extra).
The film has already broken the Blair Witch profitability record, and deservedly so.
Trivia
- The original ending was changed at the suggestion of Steven Spielberg.
- The book Micah consults is a 1971 trade paperback from Dover Publications titled "Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft", by Ernst and Johanna Lehner.
- Although released by Paramount, this film is unique in that the studio's logo does not appear, nor do credits, except for one establishing copyright.
- Filmed for USD$15,000 and grossed USD$9.1 million in its first week in the US, breaking the record of highest-grossing weekend ever for a movie playing at less than 200 theaters.
- The director filmed the whole movie in his own home.
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