PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (includes trailer)
June 20th 2010 13:19
Paranormal Activity is a rebellious piece of no-budget film making that defiantly roars out against a film industry based on movies, whose large budgets could rid the world of poverty and Hollywood stars who’s pay could probably fix the financial deficit. Paranormal Activity was made by Oren Peli, an Israeli-American jack of all trades, who handles all key crew roles (He wrote, directed, edited and photographed). Peli dares to be an amateur in a game rigged for professionals. Paranormal Activity is a horror film made on a budget of $11,000 which manages to hit more frightening notes that slicker films couldn’t pull off.
The story: Katie and Micah are a young couple, living in a house which is experiencing nightly goings on. Things are going bump in the night and Katie believes it to be of a supernatural nature. Micah has picked up his camera to document their discoveries and put these beliefs of hers to the test. As horror films go, we get what we’re expecting – things get scary.
The film begins, resembling gonzo porn, I sort of wandered at first what would redeem it, and it’s right here, in the film’s first five minutes that you have to make that commitment to embrace it immediately. If you’re aware of the hyperbole of praise that’s rained down on Paranormal Activity, then you’re more likely to go with the flow. “Bring it on!”, I thought. Even though I didn’t get to see Paranormal Activity at the cinema, I still turned off the lights, cranked up the surround sound and waited to be sucked into what might await me, as I tried to make this viewing experience as complete as possible. This would have been quite an experience to see in cinemas!
Everything you see in Paranormal Activity is either Micah or occasionally, Katie picking up their camera and recording what they want to document. Katie believes that something has followed her around her whole life and whether she’s in this house or a different one, it won’t actually make any difference. Her boyfriend Micah is sceptical about all of this, sometimes he’s reluctantly supportive and at other times he’s just condescending, but we begin to see evidence that she’s not imagining things. The whole of the film has the appearance of some ones home videos, and while it doesn’t make for anything that you believe could initially be scary, traditionally speaking, without the use of framing, lighting or mood music, it still manages to create a reality that is impressively tangible. This ‘reality’ will be the launching pad for the terrifying rabbit that this film pulls out of it’s low budget hat.
The presence that we begin to feel in their house is very real. Make sure you’ve got some decent speakers in your system when watching this or you might miss the boat. Paranormal Activity’s low budget energy creates a momentum and this snowballs the effect of the eeriness all creeping around you. What makes Paranormal Activity fascinating is it’s paradoxical strengths and weaknesses. It’s flaws and effectiveness go hand in hand. You never forget that you are watching something that was made for a few odd grand and as a result Paranormal Activity wears it’s limitations on it’s sleeves. What’s really exciting is how it uses these limitations to make you under estimate it and that’s where the real scares come in.
A terrifying atmosphere begins to steam train forward as you keep watching, and unless you pause to make yourself a peanut butter sandwich, you stay caught in it’s cloud of chilly apparitions and paranormal excellence – there are some truly frightening things to be experienced here. Micah just keeps carrying around that bloody camera and his video footage goes along way in bringing the film’s pseudo ‘film with in a film’ style to fruition. We get the feeling that this very camera, capturing everything we see, might just be the problem, whatever’s in their house is getting more unhappy with them. Although indebted to the Blair Witch Project, what is so striking about Paranormal Activity is that while it may not be the most polished film ever made, it uses it’s ‘flying by the seat of its pants’ look, to play with horror film conventions.
It establishes it’s own set of rules that the viewer starts to go along with sub-consciously and it’s the breaking of those rules that really highlight what’s so well crafted about this film. At the same time, it still adheres to classic dramatic structure, as you sense the ghosts of previous horror films that have inspired it. This film knows when to hold back and let you under estimate it and just when you think you know what it can and can’t do – look out! There are some really terrifying surprises that await you.
Some ingenious yet simple sound design makes for an unsettling couple of scenes, as hard as you might try to use it’s no-budget production feel to stay ahead of the film, it has a way of sneaking up on you. The two lead actors blend in well to the film, they aren’t required to do a lot, as the characters they play have a kind of façade that many people adopt when they know they’re being recorded on a video camera. We’ve become used to this as a society by now, with things like Big Brother where we’re constantly presented with something that many people accept as witnessing ‘reality’. This is another thing that Paranormal Activity uses to it’s advantage and that’s probably why it had such a strong response from audiences. It’s a film that easily plugs into our current culture.
Paranormal Activity ultimately only has one purpose and nothing else, it simply attempts to scare the hell out of you and it does an admirable job. It’s a very cool film and bloody impressive too.
The story: Katie and Micah are a young couple, living in a house which is experiencing nightly goings on. Things are going bump in the night and Katie believes it to be of a supernatural nature. Micah has picked up his camera to document their discoveries and put these beliefs of hers to the test. As horror films go, we get what we’re expecting – things get scary.
The film begins, resembling gonzo porn, I sort of wandered at first what would redeem it, and it’s right here, in the film’s first five minutes that you have to make that commitment to embrace it immediately. If you’re aware of the hyperbole of praise that’s rained down on Paranormal Activity, then you’re more likely to go with the flow. “Bring it on!”, I thought. Even though I didn’t get to see Paranormal Activity at the cinema, I still turned off the lights, cranked up the surround sound and waited to be sucked into what might await me, as I tried to make this viewing experience as complete as possible. This would have been quite an experience to see in cinemas!
Everything you see in Paranormal Activity is either Micah or occasionally, Katie picking up their camera and recording what they want to document. Katie believes that something has followed her around her whole life and whether she’s in this house or a different one, it won’t actually make any difference. Her boyfriend Micah is sceptical about all of this, sometimes he’s reluctantly supportive and at other times he’s just condescending, but we begin to see evidence that she’s not imagining things. The whole of the film has the appearance of some ones home videos, and while it doesn’t make for anything that you believe could initially be scary, traditionally speaking, without the use of framing, lighting or mood music, it still manages to create a reality that is impressively tangible. This ‘reality’ will be the launching pad for the terrifying rabbit that this film pulls out of it’s low budget hat.
The presence that we begin to feel in their house is very real. Make sure you’ve got some decent speakers in your system when watching this or you might miss the boat. Paranormal Activity’s low budget energy creates a momentum and this snowballs the effect of the eeriness all creeping around you. What makes Paranormal Activity fascinating is it’s paradoxical strengths and weaknesses. It’s flaws and effectiveness go hand in hand. You never forget that you are watching something that was made for a few odd grand and as a result Paranormal Activity wears it’s limitations on it’s sleeves. What’s really exciting is how it uses these limitations to make you under estimate it and that’s where the real scares come in.
A terrifying atmosphere begins to steam train forward as you keep watching, and unless you pause to make yourself a peanut butter sandwich, you stay caught in it’s cloud of chilly apparitions and paranormal excellence – there are some truly frightening things to be experienced here. Micah just keeps carrying around that bloody camera and his video footage goes along way in bringing the film’s pseudo ‘film with in a film’ style to fruition. We get the feeling that this very camera, capturing everything we see, might just be the problem, whatever’s in their house is getting more unhappy with them. Although indebted to the Blair Witch Project, what is so striking about Paranormal Activity is that while it may not be the most polished film ever made, it uses it’s ‘flying by the seat of its pants’ look, to play with horror film conventions.
It establishes it’s own set of rules that the viewer starts to go along with sub-consciously and it’s the breaking of those rules that really highlight what’s so well crafted about this film. At the same time, it still adheres to classic dramatic structure, as you sense the ghosts of previous horror films that have inspired it. This film knows when to hold back and let you under estimate it and just when you think you know what it can and can’t do – look out! There are some really terrifying surprises that await you.
Some ingenious yet simple sound design makes for an unsettling couple of scenes, as hard as you might try to use it’s no-budget production feel to stay ahead of the film, it has a way of sneaking up on you. The two lead actors blend in well to the film, they aren’t required to do a lot, as the characters they play have a kind of façade that many people adopt when they know they’re being recorded on a video camera. We’ve become used to this as a society by now, with things like Big Brother where we’re constantly presented with something that many people accept as witnessing ‘reality’. This is another thing that Paranormal Activity uses to it’s advantage and that’s probably why it had such a strong response from audiences. It’s a film that easily plugs into our current culture.
Paranormal Activity ultimately only has one purpose and nothing else, it simply attempts to scare the hell out of you and it does an admirable job. It’s a very cool film and bloody impressive too.
| 106 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
It worked well within its limited scope and never tried to be anything but a gradual building of suspense. Smartly toying with very real world phobias that made it easy to buy into the conceit. (Phi couldn't sleep for days afterward
Surprisingly honest characters were refreshing too, they weren't completely likable but there faults made them more human.