MOVIE REVIEW - Paranormal Activity

You may have heard some buzz about this new Independent thriller Paranormal Activity. If you heard good buzz.....you heard right!

I have to admit, I was ready for bad here. There have been so many movies over the past few years that claim to be scary, or disturbing and few are. PA is not terrifying, but makes you think, and you can easily put yourself in the actors place. That fact alone, is skillful movie making.

PA is an amazing story outside of the actual movie. It was written and directed by Oren Peli, his first feature movie. It was made in 7 days while being filmed exclusively in his own home. All for under $15,000. More cool things? There are no opening or closing credits to this movie. It starts, and it ends. It does have two actors in it. Micah Sloate and Katie Feathersone. Who? Yea no kidding...doesn't matter.

I think as more young filmmakers grow up and begin their careers, you will see more movies just like this. The door opened on this a few years ago, with a movie called Open Water. Another real low budget movie with two actors and the knowledge of what scary really was.

In PA, Micah and Katie are young lovers that move in together in San Diego. She claims she has been haunted since she was 8 years old by some entity. To this point the haunting has been mild. Micah, in typical guy fashion sets out to protect her and solve this problem. All he ends up doing is further agitating the entity or demon, and escalates the haunting. He buys a big time night vision camera and video tapes the two sleeping every night to see what is going bump in the night. And there is plenty.

PA does all the right things to scare you. It knows what frightens you and exploits it to the hilt. Very Hitchcock -like in that regard. Virtually no blood, or violence, it doesn't need it. I gotta admit, it does get you thinking about what goes on in your house while you're asleep. The sleeping scenes, although repetitious are compelling and prey on your nerves. You may not want to see this if you have any reservations about sleeping in the house at night alone. This is NOT a slasher flick, and some will find it ho-hum. And that's too bad.

Filmed in the same style as Cloverfield, and The Blair Witch Project, with a single hand held camera. It is the camera Micha buys in the movie. Well done there. PA is not herky-jerky as the others which makes it easier to watch. Also it has another thing over both of those flicks. It's actually scary at times. Kudos too to the two actors here, Micah and Katie. Both very good. Katie especially as you can feel her terror through the screen.

Paranormal Activity. Disturbing for some I'm sure. The sleeper hit of the year so far. ....(no pun intended) This is a very good movie.