Review of Paranormal Activity

Courtesy Wikimedia

Okay, I was wrong.

When The Blair Witch Project came out, the movie was suitably freaky. The "what if" premise was as much a part of the film's terror as the movie itself. Unfortunately, the hype was as artificial as the movie itself: friends of the producers spread rumors on the Internet that The Blair Witch Project was the scariest movie ever.  Sound familiar?

So you can understand my skepticism when Paranormal Activity released in a limited number of theaters, practically begging viewers on its web site to ask to see it.  The exclusivity was clearly meant to make people only want to see the movie even more.  Considering the numerous first-time posters on dozens of horror forums proclaiming it "the scariest movie ever" and…well, I didn't believe them.

I was wrong. Paranormal Activity, about a modern couple trying to survive a demonic haunting, does everything right.

• It takes the documentary medium a step further than Blair Witch, primarily used the style to make the film feel raw.  That unfiltered feel is also present in Paranormal Activity, but the film goes beyond that by playing with time stamps.  As the time stamp speeds up or slow down, the producers torque the tension.
• Never has a single open bedroom door been so disturbing. It conveys, by being open night after night, a sense of vulnerability, acts as a gateway between worlds, and symbolizes a violation of sanctuary. I couldn't take my eyes off the door the entire movie.
• Silence.  Paranormal Activity uses silence to freak out the audience.  Our own fears build and build in the vacuum of sound.  In fact, the silence was so deafening that the sound from the movies playing next door and the clicking of the film projector proved a distraction.  In that regard Paranormal Activity might be even scarier on a small screen.
• Whether it's propping up the false bravado of Micah or the dire predictions of The Psychic, there are no heroes here. And when someone a solution is finally identified as being capable of helping…it is tantalizingly out of reach.

This movie's plot isn't anything new. The same territory has been covered by The Haunting, Poltergeist, and The Exorcist. Paranormal Activity is simply a terrifying ghost story stripped down to its bare bones.

It may not be the scariest movie ever, but it comes damned close.