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Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Michael Bayouth
Director: Oren Peli
Company: Paramount Pictures
Review by: Yvette M. Kelley & Sean Kelley
Rating: 4 out of 5
We both like ghost stories. Yvette likes to analyze the story arc to the climax. Hence, why we call her “Grissom”. I myself seem to find ghost stories are a little too slow for my taste now and personally I don’t think I have seen one recently that has delivered once it’s gotten to it’s climax.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY DELIVERS!
This is the movie that when you watch Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures or Ghost Placewhatevertitleyouwanthere - THIS IS THE STUFF YOU WISH YOU’D SEE!
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY WILL CREEP YOU OUT!
Getting ‘creeped out’ is so much more than being just ‘scared’. When you’re scared, it hits you then goes away. It may keep you on your toes for a little bit, but with a well-placed dose of humor it’s gone until the next scare comes up.
Being creeped out goes much deeper. When you get creeped out the feeling stays with you and no matter what happens next you still feel that dread lingering over and going straight to your core. It’s unshakable.
Now Yvette loves to be scared, so I can’t tell you how many times she has freak out next to me watching a movie. Hell, she freaks out when we’re watching them at home on the TV. My all time favorite is when we saw “Scream” in the theaters and it’s the opening scene with Drew Barrymore and the phone call. After that scene she grabbed my hand and put it on her chest. Her heart was racing like she just snorted cocaine ala Tony Montana ‘Scarface’ style!
But this movie had me feeling “UNCLEAN” when it was over. I personally haven’t been creeped out like this, in a theater, over a film since I saw Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” back in 1989. I’ve been scared, but not creeped. It was awesome to feel that again!
I left the theater hoping I didn’t have any nightmares when we got home because I thought I would freak out if I did. I don’t want the nightmares! Yvette was stating how she’d go see that again and I think in today’s economy that’s HUGE!
The theater where we watched the screening; The Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA; had a great crowd that evening. The line went around the block. The first person in line for this Midnight showing (Linda) was there since 5:30pm.
Dread Centrals own “Nomad” was there to introduce the movie to the packed house since this was a sponsored event between them and Paramount Pictures. The theatre was very generous in supplying all the patrons’ free drinks and popcorn when you went in.
Boston is a huge college city and the theater had that kind of college-party atmosphere flowing through it, which kept the evening enjoyable. As for the crowd; You had the ones that were easily spooked and screamed at every little thing; the ones that talked to the screen; and the ones who were the “enforcers”, that would shush everyone so as not to miss any important dialogue. These enforcers were very good at their job because once you heard “shhh” the whole theater would become silent immediately. And I’m glad to say that there weren’t that many moments when they were needed.
The crowd was into it all evening long and ate up everything Paranormal Activity dished out. To the point of when the film ended and we were all sitting there in the dark, no one moved. Until one of the audience members shouted out “I don’t know what to do!” And none of us did, until they brought up the lights and the crowd applauded like crazy.
Right from the opening credits we jump immediately into the explanation of the storyline. The main characters Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherston) are a couple that lives in San Diego. We are first introduced to Micah filming himself on camera standing in front of a mirror and telling us why he has the equipment. Because he and his, as he calls her, his ‘engaged to be engaged’ girlfriend Katie have been experiencing some really strange events in their home. There’s no build up in that sense, but it doesn’t matter. It was set up perfectly. You get the immediate feel that this is an “amateur” film, done by “real” people. Not Hollywood actors with a crew.
You only get the POV from the camera throughout the entire film. Either Micah or Katie would take turns doing the filming; with Micah doing the majority of it. During the evening hours when they are sleeping the camera would be positioned on a tripod in front of their bed.
The dialog and acting in the movie felt very genuine, as if you were just watching a friend’s home video. Plenty of times through the film the audience was laughing at a number of things. Whether it was the dialog or something the two main characters did physically, it all flowed very organically and natural.
We did notice that the audiences laughter would sometimes sound like that nervous laughter you get when you’re just not sure about what’s going on and that was a big thing about the film. You didn’t exactly know what was happening and why. So you weren’t sure if the next moment you’d be scared or not. The movie keeps you off guard.
Director Oren Peli kept the audience on that roller coaster ride of emotion that all good scary movies need. You knew that when you hit morning and the daylight was there, things would be okay and you could relax, but when the nighttime came, the hairs on the back of your neck would be standing up waiting for the terror to begin. And just like any good roller coaster he put in a few twists and turns along the way to keep you excited.
The big plus with the script that “Grissom”, as well as everyone else that really dissects a script, could only find 3 plot holes that she really questioned in this film. Sadly we can’t say them here because there would be some major spoiler spillage and we don’t want that happening. BUT even though she noticed them, they never took away anything as to how good this movie was. It was very well put together so much so that if we didn’t know any better we would have thought all of it was real.
I will give you a heads up. The filming has the ‘Shaky Cam’ quality and ‘Shaky Cam’ kills me. It’s not a problem with Yvette. I’m not able to watch it without becoming nauseous. However, the camerawork here isn’t as crazy as say “Cloverfield” or “Quarantine”. There are moments that it’s used to help build up the tension in the appropriate spots, but it’s mostly a slow move when it’s being used. Regrettably for me, that doesn’t matter. Give me a few continuous minutes of it and I’m ready to ‘Chunder’.
FYI – I did make it through the film and if I can, so can you. I suggest just closing your eyes for a few moments and taking some deep breaths when it happens.
So lets sum this entire thing up: Very good acting, dialogue, script and directing. We’re not going to go into any production value since this was a low budget film and it’s done on video camera, but there are a number of very cool – and I mean VERY COOL – Special F/X. The F/X team has a few surprises up their sleeve. Sorry gore hounds, no blood and guts. This is ‘old school’ scary in a modern way, which makes it “CREEPY AS HELL!”
If you like ghost story movies or even the TV ghost investigation shows, then this is the one that should be top priority on your list to see and if you’re anything like Yvette, you’ll want to see it again, just like her.
