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Run, Don’t Walk to go See “Paranormal Activity”

By Erika Blake
multipleverses.com Admin

I was one of those folks who randomly found the initial trailer for this film online and voted to try to get it in my area. I was intrigued by the trailer. I’m not a slasher horror film fan, but I love paranormal & psychological thrillers (expect a review next weekend for The Fourth Kind) – Ghosthunters and Destination Truth are the only reality TV that I currently watch and as an avid fan of The X-Files and Supernatural, this film looked right up my alley.

The film has made over $65 million making it the most profitable movie of all time (having been made for $15,000,) beating Blair Witch. Paranormal Activity shines because it spends much of the film doing something that is rare in horror films – it focuses on the characters. The film begins with the boyfriend, Micah buying a camera to record these strange happenings in the home that he shares with his girlfriend Katie. Katie brings a psychic in and we learn that ever since she was 8 years old something has been following her over the years, stirring up activity every once in a while. In the beginning Micah thinks it’s all a cool fun lark – he’s got a large professional camera, recorders, and software to analyze any possible EVPs that they might catch.

The couple are very normal people – she’s a student and he’s a day trader living in San Diego.  Of course like any good thriller things escalate over the course of the course of the movie. Daytime is spent dealing with the aftermath of the strange things that our couple witness and capture on video. Eventually Micah finally witnesses enough strange crap that he no longer thinks of this as a fun game but also becomes frightened.

The storytelling is surprisingly sophisticated and thought provoking. It’s also a wonderful case study of what terror and fear can do to otherwise normal, sane people. We get to see Katie and Micah go from a happy well adjusted couple to fighting, to fighting for their sanity. The second compelling part of the story is our couple unraveling the mystery of what it is exactly that is haunting their home and why. With each new discovery the tale just gets more chilling, especially when the activity picks up and bleeds into the daylight hours.

Because the film was shot w/ very basic cameras the small FX that were used in the film were extremely effective. They utilize a lot of the tricks that make the best of horror films – things happen in the dark and we don’t get to see what’s going on.  Our characters don’t always turn the lights on right away so we’re left to using our imagination to fill in blanks which only makes the scenes that much more terrifying.

The film is rated R – but it’s a soft R. We have some swearing but it’s not a film that parents couldn’t take their pre-teens to, for it’s really not any more scary than the scariest episode of Supernatural. Paranormal Activity is a fantastic psychological thriller that reminds me of watching a Hitchcock film – it also reminds me of the first time that I saw The Sixth Sense. It’s just a lot more raw.  I didn’t scream but my eyes were wide WIDE open through all of the night time scenes. The story was compelling and riveting. And it was delightfully refreshing seeing some new faces on film, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat were charming. With the two actors not being big names or familiar faces it was very easy to believe that that they were real people living through this nightmare.

Go support good independent films, remind Hollywood that we’re sick of reharsh, remakes, and crappy sequels and remind them that we will pay good money for thought provoking, original entertainment.  This movie is worth the hype, it’s a great film to experience if you’re looking to get scared for Halloween.

We saw the trailer for this back in February during Horror Fest- the movie looks great! More thriller than horror with some weird twists….

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