I had high expectations going into Paranormal Activity. The trailer for the movie was pretty scary as far as trailers go. I also had several friends who had seen the movie, and some of them had not been able to sleep for several days afterward. Well-made horror flicks are few and far between in Hollywood these days, but Paranormal Activity looked promising.
Compared to the sloppy majority, the movie did not dissapoint. True, a few cliched scenes popped up, and some scary moments fell flat. The movie as a whole, however, was a smart and scary low-budget thriller along the lines of The Blair Witch Project. Beyond the element of terror, it was also an intriguing character study of a young modern American couple.
The movie is shot in documentary style and follows the exploits of young couple Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat). Micah is a day-trader, Katie a student. They live in a luxurious San Diego ranch house and have become "engaged to be engaged." Micah purchases a high-tech video camera to record the strange occurrences that are happening in their house. Katie tells Micah that she has been haunted since she was eight by a malevolent presence, and the spirit has recently returned into her life. Micah's documentary begins as a low-key, almost boring, recording of the couple's day-to-day life. But tension quickly mounts as things begin to go bump in the night.
Paranormal Activity was shot on a shoestring budget of $15,000, utilizing no-name actors and a handheld camera for the entire movie, a technique that suits the movie very well. During the day, the camera follows the two main characters and their gradually deteriorating relationship. At night, the camera documents the paranormal activity promised by the title. The supernatural events begin with a door swinging open and shut but build in scope to a truly terrifying conclusion.
The movie explodes with some horrifying moments, but what truly holds it together is its character study of Katie and Michael. The entire movie is set in their house, and besides a few extras, they are the only characters in the film, creating a very claustrophobic environment. When the movie begins, Katie and Micah act as a cute couple clearly very much in love. Micah is the funny, goofy half of the couple, neatly balancing out Katie's more serious side.
The growing problem of the supernatural occurrences begins to put a strain on the relationship. Micah's goofiness and skepticism only aggravate the situation. Katie's brittle self-composure begins to crack as she is forced to deal with an unhelpful boyfriend and a frightening series of events. Their relationship frays at the seams as their home life becomes more and more stressed. Katie and Micah's relationship at the end of the movie is almost unrecognizable from the one shown in the beginning, and it ends quite abruptly (no spoilers here). The film does a remarkable job of showing how outside stressors can lead to a deterioration of even the most secure relationship.
Overall, Paranormal Activity is a very scary movie that makes good use of its unorthodox camera style. It also makes the viewer interested and involved with the main characters as they descend into fright and anger. As the old Swedish proverb says, "Shared joy is double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow," and shared terror is truly horrifying.
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