Movie Review: Paranormal Activity

The following review contains mild spoilers.

Paranormal Activity has been compared to the horror phenomenon that was The Blair Witch Project from a decade ago. They share many of the same characteristics, from the super low budget to the "things go bump in the night" mentality. However, if I can be so bold, I think Paranormal Activity trumps Blair Witch in almost every area, but particularly in its better crafting of slowly building tension into a crescendo that's almost unbearable.

Shot for a measly $15,000 over one week in writer/director/editor/producer Oren Peli's San Diego home, Paranormal Activity is the epitome of getting a lot out of a little. Done in the in-camera style of the aforementioned Blair Witch (and countless others from the last decade), we follow a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are trying to live their life after having moved in together, but a certain domestic disturbance is disrupting that. According to Katie, she has been haunted since she was a little girl, and her boyfriend Micah, sceptical at first, decides to take things into his own hands by filming the two of them as they sleep to try and capture "whatever paranormal phenomena is occurring or is not occurring."

Much like its scale and budget, the idea is small and simple but Peli gets the most out of pretty much every aspect. Reportedly he filmed over 70 hours of footage, and has whittled that down to just under 90 minutes, masterfully crafting tension that builds and builds for that entire time. Unlike Blair Witch, the scares keep coming in steady succession, with no unnecessarily long stretches of nothing scary happening. The film basically works in stages: we see Katie and Micah talking in normal conversation, then we cut to them getting ready for bed and then sleeping, and we watch from the camera Micah has set up in front of their bed.

The mysterious and freaky nighttime occurrences get worse and worse every time. We start off with keys in the middle of the living room floor after they were left on the counter, then move onto the bed sheets moving, and even Katie sleepwalking (including standing at the side of her bed for hours on end, as indicated by the timer at the bottom right of the screen). I won't give any more of the scares away, and even from those mentioned it probably sounds just too simple to be scary, but trust me, it is. How Peli is able to get so much out of so little is beyond brilliant, and I really look forward to what he does with his next project, which is purported to be an alien-related project entitled Area 51. Undoubtedly his budget on that one will be bigger.

Article Author: Ross Miller

I am a film critic and blogger, and have been so since late 2007, going from starting my own movie review website, Movie World (which is still running), and then moving on to writing for various movie blogs.

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