Paranormal Activity (2007) – Movie Review
Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity is an ode to the fear we share at some certain points in our lives at the noises and creaks of the silent nights at home. We follow the lives of Katie played by Katie Featherston and Micah played by Micah Sloat, a young couple settling down in their lovely home in San Diego, California. But all is not well in their sunny abode, Katie has a dark dark secret she has to tell, and evil secret. She explains to Micah of her past as a child being haunted by something unknown as a child and then her home being mysteriously burned down. This story does not phase the alpha male character Micah, as a skeptic and meat head, he buys a camera with half his paycheck to lay the idea of something being wrong in their new home to wrest. His award-winning idea is to set his camera up in their master bedroom while they are asleep to watching any stirring in their home at the dead of night. What is to be seen by the lens of their camera is chronicling of a nightmare living in the shadows of the night.
This film plays off of darkness and camera angle so well, the positioning of that camera in their master bedroom is just creepy. The angle shows us Micah and Katie’s bed, but more importantly it shows the staircase and all the way down the hall into the dark bathroom which is a huge playing field for spooky things to happen. Seeing shadows of something that isn’t there briefly is just hair raising freaky. What is great is that these characters wake up in the middle of the night to see shadows here and there and flip out which is something anyone can relate to. Anyone who said “Holy shit, what was that” at a shadow will love the thrill of that creepy tension seeing a slow moving shadow creeping right up to Katie and Micah. What worked great with the darkness and camera angle was the audio in this film which was amazing!
The audio in this film ranges from spine tingling silence that builds unbelievable amounts of tension to the horrific sounds of the thing haunting the young couple. I mean this thing does not sound like some ghost going “boo!” like he is being paid minimum wage to do it, this thing sounds like it is bellowing from hell. From complete silence to hearing walking off in the distance, getting slowly closer and then hearing right at the top of the stairs is bone chilling. It is so creepy because you see nothing, then hear a grumble from something that is there but isn’t. Hearing a little tip tap and a rustling here and there is jarring in a film that plays off of utter silence like this. One strange thing to note which plays into the silence is the fact that the theater didn’t super dim the lighting in the theater like normal, they shut off all the lights in the theater to promote a claustrophobic feeling in the theaters. The best way to describe all of this is that this film plays off the age-old fear of the dark.
Are You Afraid of the Dark? If you are Katie and Micah, you are right you need to fear the dark, that dark, eat some caffeine so your doesn’t get up! But I digress, this film’s shining success is the way it played off of my childhood fears of the dark. My personal fear of murders in the closet and corpses under my bed and psychos tapping on the outside of my window all came flooding back to me watching this film because of the shadow and sounds effects used. The thing is when I was a child, those fears were not real, for these characters it was real, their fears and reason for taping the night was justified. My imagination ran wild as an impressionable child watching horror movies and this film played off those insecurities as boy perfectly.
I give this film one huge thumb up for being a nightmare of a film, people should not have to live with this amount of terror, but the main characters Micah and Katie did and I watched their horror and gained some for myself. Watching this movie with friends is great, I expect that if I wasn’t in a packed theater, this film would have been even more terrifying.
Duration : 0:5:58
That's Just Weird [a funny song]
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February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
Funny as and …
Funny as and good review! Movie was pretty good for only what the 20 grand they spend on it?
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
@cyberprox, Dicks.. …
@cyberprox, Dicks…… mother trying to get away with being FAKERS!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
@cyberprox, Mother …
@cyberprox, Mother fuckers, how dare they act this out!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
@cyberprox, Yeah, …
@cyberprox, Yeah, fakers!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
fake….
fake….
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
its fake. booh booh
its fake. booh booh
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
FAKERs
FAKERs
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
haha great review …
haha great review greg, that ghostbusters dvd is in my update which be coming soon!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
lol good review, …
lol good review, pretty funny too
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
.. is that …
.. is that Ghostbusters 1 and 2 I see in the right corner? I want that.. NOW!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
@gregarganda
I …
@gregarganda
I think he meant
“You’re not only good at reviewing, you’re good as a comedian too!”
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
people saying that …
people saying that the first 25 minutes are boring but thats how any movie is basically. There setting it up and building it
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
aa… woops, sry i …
)
aa… woops, sry i am not English xD, i ment your goot at reviwing and good as a comedian, i just put the wrong word eheheheheheheheh (Peter’s Laugh
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
@Reddasx, “your not …
@Reddasx, “your not even good at reviewing”?
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
2:17 OMFG DUDE I …
2:17 OMFG DUDE I LOLED THE CRAP OUT OF ME XD, your not even good at reviewing, your good as a comedian too! dang xD
but seriously tho, the movie is realistic but i think it sucked, it could have been better, cause i like to be scared, and there are just a few scary parts which i got scared, not 100% but its still scary and realistic, but, what i hate is the ending, the film started so well and ended so badly
it was pretty good for a scary movie, but still… that girl just me off xD
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
lol okiee, thaanks
lol okiee, thaanks
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
HAHAHAHAA… whop …
HAHAHAHAA… whop him with a piece of meat!!!! Love it! Keep tokin bruda! Lol
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
ooh haha, okie , …
ooh haha, okie , thaanks
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
lets put it this …
lets put it this way, if ya believe in paranormal and demons and what not, then i’d say go watch it, except go watch it as not expecting much, since the movie was somewhat over hyped, its still a great movie, but the first like 25mins, is somewhat boring, but it sets the mood later on, so just hang in there when ya go to see it.
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
Awesome review …
Awesome review brother! I’m gonna check this one out!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
are you kidding me …
are you kidding me its just a movie
omg just like the end of the world they say will happen on 2012 …….they like ot pump fear into someone and make them jump at shadows of there own selfs …..get a grip you do park at the mall dont you ? get a grip on your self its only a movie….sweety
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
man..u HI..??
man..u HI..??
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
is it seeeriously …
is it seeeriously thaat scaary, caause i reeeeeeally wanna see it , but ppl aree telling mee noot too
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
lmao you got it sir …
lmao you got it sir , (handshake)
February 21st, 2010 at 10:35 am
whats great about …
whats great about this movie is that it gets to people that NEVER get scared of “scary” movies. it elliminates any factors that make you feel more secure. you can’t defend yourself against this thing. you can’t get rid of it by moving. you cant do any of this. it really puts you in micah and katie’s point of view. you’re almost one with the scene as if you’re really there. thats what creeped me out. my friends were asking me to stay the night at their place haha. great movie. great thrill
March 5th, 2010 at 9:05 am
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