Review: Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity – Writer/Director Oren Peli. Starring Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

A ghost story set in suburbia to do to the bedroom what The Blair Witch Project did for the woods. Shot in the same hand-held camera point of view as Blair Witch (but not as shaky, thank god), Paranormal Activity is a truly terrifying invitation into the home of Katie and Micah. A typical young couple, their story is told through the composition of home video footage. Character development is constructed through playful banter and suggestive dialogue, played out as natural as anyone’s home movies would be. Though it seems strange, unexplained events have been happening in their home and in the age where everything is caught on camera, Micah has decided to film at night in hopes of discovering the origin. He teasingly suspects they are haunted and wants to catch a ghost on film. Each evening the camera is set up on a tripod in their bedroom with a full view of the room, capturing the two sleeping. It is here the horror starts.

The camera is set. The lights go off. The couple sleep in bed. This is the normality of everyday life easily assimilative, a truly terrifying scenario that you will dread when the time comes each night. We know something is going to happen and must be an escalation of the previous night. The anticipation of this certainty is the simple and thrilling aspect of this supernatural thriller. After activity happens, the couple watch the tape too. They learn what happens while they sleep after viewing the footage we have just seen, and show us their reactions to it.

Soon they enlist the help of a psychic, used to give the audience the rules and structure of the poltergeist. They are told not to taunt the presence by filming. It enrages it further. And they cannot run, it will follow them as it’s connected to Katie. We learn Katie has been having paranormal experiences most of her life. A brief history of the ghost’s possible source is given although never fully explained. Mystery is key.

Nothing overly original every really happens and there are no big bloody gore scenes. But the tension is always there once the lights are turned off and the couple go to sleep. The performances are believable but it’s not about the acting, not about the effects. It is about the scares. And there’s plenty here. Essential viewing in a cinema where everybody is holding their breath. Destine to long hold a place in horror movie history.

Reviewed by Troy King.