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Paranormal Activity (2007)

Director: Oren Peli

Time Out rating

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64 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

‘The fear of what happens at night while you are asleep,’ director Oren Peli has observed, ‘is a primal one that everyone has in common.’ It’s this feeling of vulnerability that Peli’s slow-burning supernatural chiller so effectively exploits, fashioning heart-stopping scares out of almost nothing. Shown without opening or closing credits, the images are presented as ‘found’ video footage recorded inside the San Diego suburban home of day trader Micah (Micah Sloat) and his graduate student girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherston), whose sleep is disturbed by those bumps, scratches and creaks that tease your peripheral hearing when you’re half asleep. The crucial difference is that what was once unknowable is now visible, thanks to a ‘night vision’ video camera set up in the couple’s bedroom.

It’s Micah who bought the video camera, and it is he who obsessively pores over hours of footage, searching for black-and-white evidence that the house is haunted. What the camera coldly observes is disturbing but far from conclusive: a shadow falls across the open bedroom door; a sheet billows as if something is trying to slip beneath it; sleepwalking Katie climbs out of the bed and stands beside it, vibrating slightly on the spot. Despite this, we empathise totally with Katie’s powerlessness and fear. We want to shout ‘Wake up!’, but we know she won’t hear us. Micah, by contrast, is oblivious to Katie’s deteriorating mental state and to the unravelling of their friendly, relaxed relationship. During a visit by an oddball psychic, Katie and Micah were told that the demon – if that is what it is – will feed off any emotional discord, a warning that now seems to be coming true.

In the ten years since the success of ‘The Blair Witch Project’, dozens of horror movies have tried and failed to emulate its surprise success. So what is it that made ‘Paranormal Activity’, a $15,000 debut feature shot in a week by a computer-games programmer, into a $100 million box-office phenomenon? Well, leaving aside Paramount’s brilliant viral marketing campaign, pretty much everything.

Firstly, as Peli acknowledges, actors Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston are not merely improvising their characters, they’re telling the story; as individuals and as a couple, they are both utterly natural and convincing. Secondly, Peli’s familiarity with technology allows him to make imaginative, compelling use of it, achieving maximum effect with minimum resources. Even when the camera is locked on to the tripod, showing only a static shot of the bedroom, its open door and the corridor beyond, the quivering tension is maintained, our eyes combing the shadows and the edges of the frame in search of anything out of the ordinary. Thirdly, Peli makes brilliant use of sound effects, sometimes forcing us to imagine entire scenes that take place off-screen. See it if you dare – sleepless nights await.

Author: Nigel Floyd

Time Out London Issue 2049: 26 November - 2 December

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User reviews of this film

Thomas Noctor said...

Posted on Jun 06 2010 16:32 He's good yeah, My eldest Brother is a huge fan, but I really enjoyed this!

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Bibi said...

Posted on Jun 05 2010 20:52 Great horror! Way better than all the usual Hollywood C*** that is churned out. Believable (was it really a true story?) We wondered if it was all real footage that had been used! Apart from the ending!! Last time I saw a film as CREEPY was THE BELL WITCH: AN AMERICAN HAUNTING. Loved it! Recommended

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Johanna said...

Posted on Apr 03 2010 15:09 Thomas Noctor, are you an Argento fan?

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Thomas Noctor said...

Posted on Apr 03 2010 15:00 Why do idiots who dislike horror movies watch movies like this? Go watch your chick flicks! Or your crappy 'horrors' like 'The Ring'! This is class, if you find this boring go look at 'He's just not that into you'!

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Johanna said...

Posted on Apr 02 2010 18:36 PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007)
The premise: couple live in a house, couple hear strange noises, couple suspect it's some paranormal jive. In an attempt to catch the noisy paranormal happenings on film the boyfriend, Micah, invests in a video camera, the point at which the audience are introduced to the situation. The camera is the audience's eyes.
The couple are fairly ordinary looking on the Hollywood scale of plastic-fantastic-attractive (yeh, I'm pretty sure they're real and she defo hasn't gone for lip fillers yet) and they're unrecognisible new blood, for Micah Sloat it's his acting debut. I imagine it's intended to make the idea that this is 'real' footage more believable, as is using the actors' real names and typewriter style font. It really isn't real. No real. None.
So, we've got our eyes, we're watching. They consult a psychic (there's no mention of a psychiatrist) and he's a bit unhappy with the whole thing, it's not a ghost, it's a demon situation. He's pretty sensible and leaves them to it, doesn't want to get involved etc. Turns out the demon's very fond of Katie and intends to haunt her indefinitely. Micah gets all pissy and possessive and is determined to kick some paranormal demonic ass. But he ain't no Bill Murray.
The scariest parts (we're working on a 'not-actually-very-scary-if-you-wake-up-and-leave-your-
house-sometimes' scary scale here. Well sciencey) are the most subtle. Inexplicable thuds, a light turning on and off, a door moving ajar seen and heard by the camera, the audience, as the couple sleep unaware and vulnerable, are the most sinister and unsettling moments. These small acts create an air of menace. One that is watered down, washed out and solidified into a Hollywood cheapo cheesey puff by the time dinosaur footprints appear in the bedroom.
The mundane non-events inter-cutting the spooky goings on are boring. But I don't think they're boring, nor varied enough. The couple's relationship is generally believable. A few cute quips in the set up gives a solid enough impression of a rapport. However, the boring bits could have been used more productively as an opportunity to embellish the characters and their relationship. I don't care about either of them and vaguely hope that Micah dies really, really soon because his macho posturing is annoying.
Also, the more boring the boring bits, (and by boring I mean realistically boring, not just gratuitously boring) the more poignant and intense the scary bits. But it was all just a bit flat. Hanging around the middle.
The ending felt like a half-hearted attempt to go with something more subtle than the usual explosion but the director bottled it and went for some computer generated Hollywood demon eyes and a "I'M JUST GONA SHOUT THE EXPLANATION IN CASE WE WERE TOO SUBTLE AND YOU DIDN'T GET IT, OKAAAY?!?!?!" ending.
It wasn't awful, but it wasn't very good either. A bit like mashed potato without an accompaniment. Think The Blair Witch Project in a bedroom and ten years past its sell by date.
The Blair Witch Project gag is one you can't repeat. It worked the first time round because it was novel. You can't do that again and have the same psychological and emotional effect on an audience. Most people's memories can stretch back ten years of Hollywood cinematic history.
Although, it has managed to successfully to get bums on seats and become the most profitable film in Hollywood history, a title previously held by The Blair Witch Project. The gag didn't work but the bait did. Buck made. Successsssss.
©Johanna Lambert

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Grant said...

Posted on Mar 04 2010 10:02 I expected to be disappointed by this film but I must confess that it did creep-me-out a bit. Technically it's well-constructed and builds nicely and with a degree of subtlety. The acting is good and mostly believable, although I wouldn't have been as gung-ho as the male lead if this was happening for real in my house. The progression of events makes some sort of sense and the denouement works too. I never 'got' Blair Witch Project; it just seemed incredibly phoney and extremely boring but this film pushed my buttons. I knew this wasn't real but there was a well-crafted verisimilitude to the whole production. A suggestion: watch it on your own or with a loved one, in the dark and you'll certainly get, at least, the odd little chill.

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kris said...

Posted on Feb 18 2010 17:10 terrible and boring how can anyone seriously be scared of this? ooh footprints in baby powder! why are horror movies these days all GARBAGE!!!! oh yea i had a quiji board once too, i bought it at kmart im sure it really spoke to demons

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Venessa said...

Posted on Jan 26 2010 22:31 blair witch in a house, yawn !!!!!

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critique said...

Posted on Jan 25 2010 16:20 Intriguing stuff. If you enjoyed `Blair Witch`, i`d be surprised if you dislike this.

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Thomas Noctor said...

Posted on Jan 14 2010 01:12 Class film ignore the haters, they obviously know nothing about low budget horrors. Excellent Movie!

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rayray said...

Posted on Jan 10 2010 23:21 "Bungle im behind the shower curtain" woo hoo hoo ha ha ha...................

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gab said...

Posted on Jan 10 2010 15:42 If you think this is scary, you must live in North London. Suspension of belief is normal in horror films, but some of the things the characters do border on the pointless and insane and make no sense whatsoever, after what we see them do and say earlier. The ending is a cop out, too.

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rayray said...

Posted on Dec 31 2009 14:56 Bungle.....lookout....ahhhhhhhhhh

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parrick said...

Posted on Dec 31 2009 14:55 rayray you are so on it. I totally get where your coming from. That was some fucked up shit son.

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rayray said...

Posted on Dec 31 2009 14:53 Is everyone completely missing the vital plot points, when Bungle was swinging rom the shower curtain screaming for help. It was so freaky......The scariest shit i ever did see. Whoop Whoop

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