Paranormal Activity: Honey, Put the Camera Down
Paranormal Activity is something of a rarity in the horror world these days. When most films just offer up deformed inbred mutants torturing Midwestern teenagers to death and calls it good, Paranormal Activity actually tries to scare you. It plays on those fears we all have, of waking up to a strange noise in the middle of the night, and lying there, heart hammering, wondering, What the hell is in my house? It bypasses the “torture porn” approach of most modern horror films and actually sets out to create a mood and an atmosphere of fear.
And it does a pretty good job of it.
Micah and Katie are a young couple who have just moved in together. Katie has been experiencing some sort of paranormal disturbances on and off since she was eight. Little stuff. Noises in the night. Something breathing at the foot of her bed. Her name whispered in her ear. The events are ramping up again and Micah gets the idea to set up a video camera to see if they can catch something supernatural on tape. He says once they see what they’re dealing with, they’ll have a better idea of how to handle it, but, like most guys, he just thinks it’d be cool to have it on video.
They set the camera up at the foot of the bed and let it run while they sleep, and this is where the film really shines. There’s something eerie about that locked-down camera shot. A clock is added to the footage, and they scan quickly ahead, Micah and Katie sleeping and shifting positions rapidly. Then the fast-forwarding stops, the footage plays in real time and you wait… What you’re waiting for, you don’t know, only that they stopped the tape for a reason. You try to look everywhere at once, straining your eyes and ears for any hint of what’s coming. A low-level hum starts to build. The moment stretches out and the tension builds. And when the occurrences happen, they happen seemingly in-camera, with no cut-aways, no tricks visible, looking for all the world like actual supernatural events caught on tape.
This is what Paranormal Activity does so well. It remembers that often what you don’t see is as unsettling as what you do, that the build is often better than the scare, that once you give you a fear form, it loses some of its power. It places the danger squarely in the one room where you should feel the most safe, and at a time when you’re most vulnerable. And that lends extra threat to everything that happens. A light coming on in the hallway. Footsteps on the stairs. Mundane things, but in this context chilling and full of menace.
Of course, how effectively it will work on you is wholly dependent on your willingness to buy into the conceit of this type of film, that you’re watching footage of an actual event, cut together after the fact by a third party. Also, how willing you are to accept that people would continuously grab a camera and keep filming, or stay in an obviously haunted building, long after any sane person would have given up and jumped ship. (They do give a reason for staying in the house, but, you know, the stuff going on, I think I’d try leaving anyway.) You also need to believe that two twenty-somethings with one income could afford a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-story house in San Diego. That for me was way harder to buy than the whole demonic possession thing.
Do yourself a favor though: If you go, ignore the hype machine. This is certainly not “the scariest film ever made” or “the scariest movie since The Exorcist” or any of the other poster-ready sound bites they’ve culled from reviews. It’s genuinely creepy, and it has a few jump-scares, but I certainly wouldn’t place it in the same company as Regan and Captain Howdy. Still, it’s a welcome change from the usual “horror” films that Hollywood churns out and it delivers plenty of atmosphere and chills. Definitely worth seeing this Hallowe’en season.
And don’t be surprised if you find yourself eyeing your bedroom door a little warily when you go to bed that night.
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3 Responses to “Paranormal Activity: Honey, Put the Camera Down”
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October 13th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Very cool that you got to see this. I don’t think this is playing in my market and this poor man’s grass roots marketing campaign is grating on my nerves. My exposure to the marketing for this flick so far has been xerox copies of fliers posted on telephone poles, stacked up on the counters of my local used DVD store, stapled to stray dogs and affixed with masking tape to various members of the local clergy. The “demand your local theater play” campaign seems a little low rent even for an independent film and it was almost to the point where I was expecting the flyer’s to start out “DEMAND THE FILM THE LIBERAL MEDIA DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE!”
I’m all for a good concept film though and as long as it’s done well I’m all for giving it a go. Throw fruit at me if you must, but I loved Blair Witch when it first came out. Just by the time the 14th rehash of the same concept hit I was with the majority of the movie-going public in screaming PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. It doesn’t lessen my enjoyment of the films that it worked for though. I’ll have to see if enough people in my city have DEMANDED Paranormal Activity.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I found the movie to be absolutely hilarious and insulting at the same time. Micah was an absolute smart ass at times which was funny but the whole build up of scares scene starting from a simple noise downstairs, then next night footsteps on the stairs, then a loud bang on a wall, then a combination of the two, and etc.. was a bit of an insult to anyone’s intelligence, way too predictable. Some of the scares had me in tears especially the very end which I won’t spoil for you. If you want a good laugh go see it. I highly recommend it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I’m just getting set to post my review, but I think you’re comments (Nick) pretty much hit the nail on the head on why people like this genre of filmmaking or don’t. Having become a hardened skeptic over the last few years, I find myself having to be very very impressed by anything that even remotely asks you to buy into stuff like this. But it’s that “insulting” comment that sums up. For the genre to work it has to put the audience through a series of things that are rather insulting to common sense to buy the rest. If you can’t make that initial leap, it never works.