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Well, there was tons of hype surrounding this film, partly because it was first featured at a
few film fests (Scream Film Fest, Hollywood, CA, Sydney Film Fest in Sydney, AUSTRALIA,
and Slamdance) in 2007 before finally being scooped by Dreamworks and Warner Bros. and
re-done with a much larger budget.
The initial budget of writer/producer/director/editor Oren Peli was only $11,000 to $15,000
and was shot in just 7-days. It starred newbies Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, and of
course, their camcorder. The actors in the film use their real names as their characters. The
story is something typical that one would find on any of the real-life nonfiction television
shows that are on cable.
Micah and Katie have been boyfriend and girlfriend for three years and having been living
together for about a year. Suddenly, weird things have started occurring around the house,
such as lights turning on and off, water running with anyone having turned it on, and weird
noises and breezes. When Katie decides to tell Micah about all of this, he gets a really nice
camcorder with a super bright light attached to it and sets out to record all of these
paranormal occurrences. Many times one thinks he is just more concerned with his little
video project and getting everything on film than he is with the well-being of his own
girlfriend.
The movie really has an extremely authentic look to it, much as how The Blair Witch
Project did, but the scenes of shakiness in the camera footage are nowhere near as
nauseating as the latter film's were. In fact, I did not find that there was much erratic
camerawork at all. The film really works hard at keeping a slow and steady pace, developing
the characters for most of the first half of the film, and executes scenes that will genuinely
freak one out, especially if you let your imagination go and think of personal experiences
that may have involved creepy sounds or happenings that may not have been able to be
correctly explained at the time of their occurrence.
The pace of the film felt slightly slow at a few points however overall, the pace was kept
entertaining by Micah's wit and humor, as well as a foreboding fear that something is going
to happen soon. The pace of the movie was better than most films. This is one film where
watching it with a noisy or chatty audience will lead to one missing scenes of ultra subtlety.
Many films that have boring or plodding scenes of drama, usually can win an audience over
by having a very effectively shot and directed last ten minutes of their film, leaving the
audience to exit the movie theater on a good note. This films follows that rule and executes
it to the fullest potential. The slow build-up in the beginning of the film really felt like a
roller coaster slowly creeping up to the top of the highest peak on the track, pausing ever so
slightly before dropping at break-neck speed, continuing that pace for the next 3 or 4
minutes. That is definitely how the set-up of events in this film felt.
Rumor has it that the last ten minutes of the original film, before Dreamworks and Warner
Bros. got hold of it, was even scarier than the version that is showing for free in very limited
showings around the U.S., such as the showing that I just viewed, but I do not know for
sure. What I can comment on is that the marketing strategy for creating buzz and interest
in this film is unrivaled. On Twitter alone, this film has been eating up everyone's twits like
flesh-hungry cannibals coming across fresh-meat for the first time in weeks. Elements of
suspense played out in Paranormal Activity reminded me of portions of [REC] and its
American remake, Quarantine, if only slightly.
There have been so many ultra low-budget films that have gone on to make millions of
dollars, reaping in ticket sales and creating quite a stir and buzz in the world of film and
within the circle of film critics, bloggers, and film geeks worldwide. I believe Paranormal
Activity to be one of those. There continues to be nothing but blogging, twittering, and
text messaging about this film non-stop. I can honestly say that this film will be worth your
money and time, even if it does not scare the crap out of you, but I'm guessing it probably
will.
I just realized that I enjoyed this film pretty heavily and it was not gory or filled with nudity
of any kind. Is this a new leaf that I am turning over? Nah....
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