Movie Review: Paranormal Activity (2007)
Recent buzz has jacked up the popularity of this film, a movie that was seen by very few people for the first two years after production. Made in the director’s own home, using digital cameras and a quartet of virtually untrained actors, it cost a paltry $15K to make. After Paramount picked it up for a wide release, it made $9 million in the first weekend. This makes Paranormal Activity, dollar for dollar, the most profitable film in all of history.
The plot is as simple as the production values. A very nice young couple, Micah and Katie, are puzzled and mildly concerned about some bumps in the night. Katie says that it has been happening around her ever since she was a child, and Micah decides to set up a video camera in order to record what goes on while they sleep.
I’m not your usual moviegoer. Even if the plot is pointless, the acting is atrocious, and the production values non-existent, I can still find delight in a film if someone involved puts in a little extra effort to make it shine. This means that I often find myself paying rapt attention to the camera work, for example, or the performance of an obscure supporting character, while recognizing that the overall movie sucks major hose.
Paranormal Activity doesn’t suck, at least as long as you know what you are signing up for before you plop down your hard earned for a ticket. It is an independent film with no budget, virtually no special effects to speak of, and rather overwrought performances. Even so, it manages to keep the tension going through the use of some simple yet surprisingly effective ploys. The immediacy of the video, most of which is a static shot taken inside of a normal bedroom, allows the viewer to imagine what they would do if it was their house which was creaking, their bedroom door which was slamming shut in the middle of the night.
The bottom line is that this is a film which will be appreciated more by people who are interested in the mechanics and art of putting a movie together, and less so by those who are interested in a scary good time. If you are the former and not the latter, then I’d urge you to make a trip to your local cineplex.
Still, even though my sensibilities lined up so I could appreciate the film to the fullest, there was still something that kept me from being completely satisfied. It concerns an aspect of the plot, and I’m loathe to reveal it outright since the plot is such thin gruel. If you are going to go see the movie, then I strongly urge you to just pass the rest of this essay on by and go buy a ticket. If you have already seen the film, or if you aren’t interested in this type of scary movie, then please read on.
The plot hinges on the fact that the girlfriend character is possessed by the devil. This was unsatisfying to me because I go to movies to escape my life for a time, not relive it!
I mean, I can’t count how many girlfriends I’ve had which were either possessed by a demon, or at least acted like they were.
It is easier to count the girls I’ve dated which weren’t evil hellspawn, which is two, and one of them was crazy instead of possessed.
You can come to one of two conclusions about how I always seem to hook up with demon-ridden hags. Either I’m attracted to possessed girls, or the demons doing the possessing are attracted to me!
November 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Me too man, me too.
My theory is “teh crazy” is more or less the natural state of women. The rare woman that is found that doesn’t seem to be effected is just insane in a less-than-obvious way.
I have had to deal with a few compulsary liars (seems to be what I attract most). One with OCD so bad that I would find her scrubbing her hands with bleach and a scrub brush. A manic depressive who I eventually found out was heavily medicated to an approximation of “normal”, until she forgot to take her meds for a day or two. What a great way of finding out about something like that, I recommend it (um… not). One that hated water… like she had to force herself to bathe… It was odd, but not too odious because she WOULD bathe and wash her hands etc, she just hated it and would complain. One depressed Narcaleptic who I would find curled up in a cute little ball sleeping in the back of my closet because “the world couldn’t get her there”. And one child. Before you think bad of me, she was cronologically 23 (I was 27 at the time), but her parents were STILL doing everything for her. Her mom did her laundry and made her bed, her dad paid her car insurance and provided her with a car. They had signed her up for college and told her what classes she was taking much the same way they did when she was in kindergarden (and she wasn’t bothered by that). They FINALLY made her get a job in the short time we were dating and she would come over to my house after work and cry for hours about how mean the people were to her. She worked in a pizza place in a K-Mart! How stressful could it be?
Odd thing is, they all SEEMED so normal when we met and for the first few weeks/few months of dating, but eventually, the Crazy started. I’m too nice to just dump a girl flat because she has a few flaws, I have a few myself, but geesh.
At least its not boring.
s (the crazy magnet)
November 24th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
As P.G. Wodehouse put it, “Sooner or later, out pops the cloven hoof.”