When Steven Spielberg talks, generally people listen. I am, admittedly, one of those people. So when I heard that he was calling a small, independent film titled Paranormal Activity the scariest movie of all time, I got excited.
Paranormal Activity was released on limited screens around the country and got rave reviews. It wasn’t long until the entire country had heard about the new horror film. Paramount Pictures even released a marketing campaign where fans could log on to a website and “demand” the movie. Paramount swore that when it received one million demands, the film would be released nationwide. The campaign worked and Paranormal Activity opened nationally on October 16.
My roommate Hailee and I love scary movies and we are constantly on the lookout for the next Exorcism of Emily Rose or The Ring. So we decided to be brave, believe all the hype we had heard about Paranormal Activity, and go see it. We even planned to go during the day because we were so worried about being terrified.
We left the theater in shock and awe. We could not understand how Spielberg had hailed that movie as the scariest movie of all time. Don’t get me wrong, Paranormal Activity is creepy, it could even be considered downright scary. But placing the movie among the ranks of The Shining or The Exorcist is a mistake.
Made for a measly $11,000, Paranormal Activity documents the cursed Katie, whose boyfriend Micah decides to document the couple’s experiences in their new townhouse. Katie truly believes she has been haunted for her entire life, but Micah seems to be interested only because it gave him an excuse to buy a new camera. Micah sets up the camera in the couple’s bedroom at night and they wait for scary things to start happening.
The haunting starts slowly, at first only a few creepy noises, but then doors start swinging back and forth and slamming closed. Micah reviews the evidence every morning and he and Katie even recruit the help of a ghost expert, who enters the house, claims to feel a malevolent presence, and politely declines to help them, referring them to a demonologist.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Shaylyn
I watched the movie and it was definitely one of the best movies I have seen. I am 17 years old and a senior in high school, and I absolutely love horror movies. But this is the only movie that has made my tremble. The movie did seem like a documentary, or a home video. For $11,000 they did very well. Even with the blurry camera. I personally am going to go see it again with some more of my friends. Every time I see the ending in the trailers, I jump, even though I know it is coming. Some of the choices that they made, made the movie more realistic. Like showing her throw Micah at the screen at the end instead of showing a demon or something. Good job!
2 - Todd Ford
Nice piece Meghan! I didn't know about Spielberg's involvement and I've never seen the trailer. I tend to avoid tools of hype as much as possible. The most dangerous thing you can do though with a movie like this is declare it the best or most or the scariest ever. It will always fall short for many people.
I did find it one of the scariest movies I've seen and also one of the most clever.
3 - Marco
Watched the movie some weeks ago and felt asleep after 10 minutes. The first 30 minutes it's just blabla talk. I would give it a rating of 1 of 200 points.
4 - Fawn
This movie started out a little boring then got more interesting as it went on... but the ending was just dissapointing.
It claims to based on evidence, but if I were the family of that couple... I would not want their deaths so publicized.
Scary for the most part... but not anywhere near The Shining and the Exorcist.
5 - SheNJ
The movie was terrible! I sat in the theater at the end waiting for something else to come back on because I just could not believe that movie ended the way it did.
The movie dragged in the beginning and my friend went to sleep. People started to become irritated and began saying booo, and blurting out they wanted a refund. I must say, I felt the same way.
I was so disappointed that I needed to see another film to justify my money spent. So my friend and I saw another movie, Law Abiding Citizen now that was a REAL movie!!! It was great!!! Bravo~
In summary, Paranormal was awful and I do not recommend anyone to pay to see that movie!
6 - Dave
This is truly the worst movie ever made and I am not alone on this opinion. Just about the entire theater was nodding their heads at how they just blew $10 for this pathetic excuse for a film. Bad acting, bad filming (nauseating), bad plot. We were disappointed that we made a couple of spoiled rich kids richer by being dumb enough to throw money away on this. CSPAN or The Weather Channel are infinitely more exiting! The R Rating is also a joke - this was a G movie (did I say movie? - I meant Cheesy Home Video. Anyone who gave this movie any positive rating at all is either stoned, drunk, stupid, or on "the take" for sure!
7 - John
I didn't see this movie, but I already knew that this movie was made by a bunch of rich kids that had connections. I knew this by how fast this movie got distributed; just like Blair Witch. Did you know that it had taken Sylvester Stalone 10 years pleading with Hollywood to make a movie from the script that he wrote. They finally relented and a movie was made. That movie was, "Rocky." If you think its that easy to get a film you've made released or if you don't believe me, try it for yourself!!! By the way, most movies that are made nowadays bite the big one anyways so this one must have really sucked ass!
8 - James
John -- The movie has been finished and waiting to be released since 2007. Before Paramount picked it up, it was just a regular indie movie. It's also unfair and pointless to compare how Rocky was made in 1976 to a movie's production 33 years later since the Hollywood system and landscape has changed dramatically.
9 - Alex
Do not bother wasting your money with such a bore. What a waste of $7. I would have been more scared by the caloric intake that I would have had from spending that $7 at McDonalds.
10 - Todd Ford
My teenage daughter saw this last night with her boyfriend (a Saw fanatic). She called me from his house after the movie and told me she was scared to drive home and would I please turn on all the lights so she wouldn't have to come home to a dark house. She slept with the lights on and was especially freaked out because Katie's standing by the bed staring at Micah for hours reminded her of how her sister sleepwalks.
I asked if her boyfriend liked it, fully expected her to say he hated it, and she said he loved it and the whole audience was jumping and screaming. She said a few people did say it was stupid as they were walking out.
11 - frances
I saw it, and it was one of the few movies that actually scared me. You thought the exorcism of emily rose, and the ring was scary? seriously?! they were a little ridiculous, and pretty stupid. Paranormal activity is a real horror film.
12 - Derek
I am not sure who here thought that movie was boring or not scary but that was one of my favourite movies of all-time. SO much better than most of the Hollywood horror crap they come up with today. It is an impressive feat to be able to make such a scary movie without using gore or violence but instead make a movie that effects people and their mind.
I found this movie to be actually really frightening and it was an amazing movie, kept me on the edge of my seat. And I also think that the ending to it was awesome but the smile to the camera wasn't needed. However, the part when she is walking up the stairs created great tension and it was an awesome frightful ending.
13 - Nikki
Thank you Dave and Alex! My mom and I went to see this movie and it was terrible! My friend saw it earlier that day and she told me not to, but because of all the talk we went. I still can't believe we stayed as long as we did. To anyone out there who hasn't seen it yet...DON'T!!!!
14 - Todd Ford
This may be the most divisive movie I've ever seen. I found it very effective and near perfect, but people I've come across in the real world and in the iworld seem to be split 50/50 between lovers and haters. Sometimes I wish I could see it through, say, Nikki's eyes so I could understand how two people can have such a completely different experience.
15 - Jeff
Movie was not scary at all. I saw it and demanded my money back. Really, there was nothing new, nothing scary. How are shaky grainy film shots scary? How are random objects moving around scary?? How is this movie scary???
16 - CARLOS
TRULY A GREAT MOVIE, FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WANTS THEIR MONEY BACK SHOULD KEEP TO YOUR FOOD STAMPS AND WELLFARE, A GREAT MOVIE AND IF YOU GUYS THINK YOU CAN DO BETTER MAKE A MOVIE
17 - Alex Amory
This was the single worst movie I have ever watched in my entire life. Utterly horrible. The characters were flat out so unrealistic in their actions, that I was blown away. The movie was a extremely long build up, to a climax (if you can even really call it that) that made you go.... Really? thats it? are you serious? This entire thing, just FOR THAT?!?!?! Horrible.
Don't believe anything these delusional people who convinced themselves this movie was good just to be a part of the hype, have to say. This is a very, very bad movie.
18 - Jordan Richardson
Saw it and absolutely loved it. I found this to be the first truly effective horror film in years. It is a movie about space and shadows, time and distance. It is NOT a movie about a big gory reveal or flashy special effects.
If anything, I would have liked the film to have chosen a subtler approach to the subject matter and have left a few more things to the imagination. It is the anticipation that is absolutely killer here, with lots of waiting and watching in the dark with the characters to see what could happen. And Oren Peli truly knows that what's scariest isn't what we see but rather what we don't see and what we imagine we see.
To Alex, I didn't find the characters unrealistic in the slightest. The male was the typical Alpha: as Roger Ebert says, he was the type of guy who wouldn't ever ask for directions. He had his gadgets and his obsessions, but it's clear that part of him thinks his girlfriend is crazy until he can't deny the events anymore. And the events cause him to act like any Alpha would: he lashes out, becomes protective and wants to solve the problem.
Katie was, on the other hand, tired of living with this "activity." She clearly had hopes of getting on with her life but this "thing" followed her, so she, again, reacted as anyone in her position would have. Partially in denial and partially frozen by fear, she behaves consistently throughout the picture.
All in all, this is one of the best horror movies I've seen in a long time. In a day and age of special effects and overly gory torture porn taking the place of true terror, it's good to see that some people still know how to make scary movies properly.
19 - Todd Ford
I'm with you all the way Jordan. Btw, my latest thoughts on the movie being an allegory are the "link of the day" over at The House Next Door blog.
20 - david k
I think P.A. is a lot better than the Exorcist. That movie was a yawn. Hide and Seek with Dakota Fanning even was better than Exorcist
21 - wally
What a crappy movie!
The teens working the snack bar where more terrifying than this thing.
I make more compelling home horror movies with my cats than this piece of garbage.
22 - shaye
Me and my Boyfriend are horror film fanatics. We even buy the no name films from walmart that are cheesy as all get out just for fun. and when we saw the commercials for this film we just had to see it. on the way to the theatre we were like, "oh they say this is the scariest movie of the year" blah blah blah. This film... seriously...a waste of our time. It blows!! we kept waiting for something to be so scary but it never happened.if anything it was more commical than scary, Micah the boyfriend would mess with Katie with jokes and stupid sayings and everytime she would scream he grabed his big camera first to see what happened. the audience laughed more than they did scream. the end was the if you would even say the scariest part but it was a horrible horrible ending. im glad to hear other people agree with our opinion on this movie because all of the high school kids in theatre were freaking out after the movie saying they were so scared. to us it was pathetic and a scam for stealing peoples money. the commercials make the movie seem scary because they show the ending making people think the whole movie will be like that. why would people want to watch a girl stand for five min?? ooo thats scary!! i would have rather paid money to watch the Blair Witch Project AGAIN. pathetic excuse for a scary movie. please dont waste your time or your money.
23 - Horror movie fan
People, WHAT ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?..... its been a long time since i watched a movie that keep me from sleeping that night. I know its not gory, its not a big cast of famous and there isn't some exotic location but GEEEEZE this happened for real? there's a lotta people out there claiming (some really proving) paranomal activity but nothing comes close to what happened here. Just makes me want to stay away from any girl named Katie :(
24 - burrrr!
this movie sucks! the ending sucks! i was like wtf is that it? gansters across my street are way more scary than this s@#$...
for real if this movie scare u, you need to get out our house and get a life!
25 - Scary Movie Finatic
Real talk. I try and watch every scary movie that comes out! Past and present even the independent and unrated scary movies. This movie bothered me soo much. Well plotted, not over the top, no special effects, just plain scary. Not one person on this panel can say they didn't jump or didn't get cold chills during the movie at least once. I loved the movie but I want see it again though. It got to me way too much. My girl and I are on the same page. Sacriest movie of all time.