Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity (2009): 7.1/10
I need to say a few things about this film before I get to the actual review. There is so much hype, so much calculated and planned hype that has been built around this film. I want to ignore it or try to for the sake of the review because while the marketing is brilliant, it is annoying and everyones reactions to it seems to be based off of the marketing of the film making everyone think this way before they even had seen the film. Looking at the film on these expectations; does it live up to them? Absolutely not. I do not want to judge this in comparison to the claims that it is the scariest film ever made; because it is not. It is far from being that. Based on these claims, the film is completely overrated and completely overhyped. However, if I look at the film without thinking about everything it has been built up to be by the marketing, I really really liked this a lot. I want to keep thinking about the film as its own entity and as a very impressive and creative use of essentially zero budget.
Two things first: 1. I did not see this in the theater. Before anyone can claim "well no wonder it was not one of the scariest movies you have seen if you did not see this in the theater" let me stop you right there. While scary movies are much scarier in the theater then they are while watching at home, a scary film should be able to have relatively the same reaction with people at home then on the big screen. It needs to be able to function and succeed without relying on the communal experience factor going for it. Most of the scariest films I have seen are films I have not seen in the theater. If it cannot match up to those films, then it does not belong on a list of my most frightening films. I am not saying the movie did not scare me. It creeped me out quite a bit.
Secondly the version of it that I saw had the original ending. After reading the new ending that was released in theaters (which proves that it was being prepped for a mass audience from the beginning) I can say that if I had seen that version my rating would be lower. Talk about stupid. While I had problems with the original ending as well, not in content but in style, the ending that I saw was of the classic nobody wins variety that I like to see. Personally though my favorite ending would be the one that was only shown at one screening. It is the ending that after reading about it, just having come off the movie, prevented me from sleeping for a good 15 minutes.
So as I have said before I am not judging this on the basis that it is one of the scariest movies ever made because for me it was not. I am judging it on the basis of whether or not I enjoyed the film. I am a fan of films like this; they do inherently draw me in. I think what the director and writer Oren Peli did with what he had to work with was very impressive and displayed a great deal of creativity on his part.
The film relies on anticipation to an insane degree but it works because the pay off, no matter how small it is, is satisfying based on how he builds the tension throughout the scenes. The film only has two people to really stay with as Micah and Katie provide us with the characters that we watch throughout the film. They, along with the homemade nature of the film ground it in a believability. When this subgenre of films is used, it is neccesary to get actors who can act as naturally as the style of the film calls for. This was an issue I had with Cloverfield; while the style was going for a level of authenticity, the acting was as stilted as any bad big budget film. This is a huge reason that the film that Paranormal Activity is being compared to, The Blair Witch Project (which deserves its status because without it, none of these other films would exist) works so well; the actors in it, particularly Heather Donahue were so good and you never felt like you were watching someone act. While Micah does a very nice job in an unlikeable role, Katie Featherston is extremely convincing here as Katie. She does a really nice job of drawing us into the story and of making us care about what happens to this couple.
Rather than focus on individual character development, Peli focuses on how they interact as a couple. This works well because it does help us care about Micah more when we see that they are happy as a couple at least until Micah gets out of hand with his priorities. It was very amusing to hear him squirm when Katie tells him that he is not in control of the situation; that IT is. "How dare you...blah blah blah" What an idiot. He does set his priorities straight by the end though...but it is too late.
For me the creepiest moments were the pattering footsteps and subsequent crash, the shadow on the door and of course the finale. While the movie is not incredibly scary, it is legitimately creepy in both its use of anticipation and its use of minimal effects. The lack of effects (obviously because of money) adds to the relatability factor that the movie carries which I think is extremely important. In another movie we would have seen a lot more and would probably have seen the demon at some point. The sounds and creepings about that the film shows us are all the types of squeaks and shadows that we think we see in real life. Little moments like that have terrified all of us in real life so taking those small goings on and allowing them to be parrt of an inescapable and random evil is very effective.
I am not looking forward to a sequel at all mainly because as I see it, the film did not end the way other people saw it. While I am intrigued to see what this director can do with a budget and I think he deserves the chance most definitely, I just do not want a sequel. At all.
Overall I really liked this a lot but I hate the hype and the marketing of it, brilliant as it is. It is not one of the scariest movies I have ever seen but it is quite effective and has stuck with me since my viewing of it last night.
Cinema is Truth
Cinema is Truth
Horrorphile
As soon as I heard that Paranormal Activity was making big box office, I feared for exactly what is happening: audiences going to see it having absorbed the massive hype, and thus find the movie irritating or underwhelming. The same thing happened for Blair Witch.
Trailers for both these movies should never have existed.
So what was the original ending?? When was the ending changed? The ending I saw had the demon ghost appear to hurl Micah at the camera (or was it hurling itself at the camera, I can't quite remember, it was all a blur of fear-induced adrenalin, truly palpable in the cinema audience I saw it with (which reminded me of the festival screening I went to of The Descent a couple of years earlier).
Horrorphile
As soon as I heard that Paranormal Activity was making big box office, I feared for exactly what is happening: audiences going to see it having absorbed the massive hype, and thus find the movie irritating or underwhelming. The same thing happened for Blair Witch.
Trailers for both these movies should never have existed.
So what was the original ending?? When was the ending changed? The ending I saw had the demon ghost appear to hurl Micah at the camera (or was it hurling itself at the camera, I can't quite remember, it was all a blur of fear-induced adrenalin, truly palpable in the cinema audience I saw it with (which reminded me of the festival screening I went to of The Descent a couple of years earlier).
Horrorphile
BTW, Love the Louise Brooks background ...
Thoughts from a Cinephile
Thoughts from a TV Watcher
The ending that I saw which was the original ending was that Katie wakes up and kills Micah off camera and then comes back to the bed and rocks back and forth on the ground with a knife in her hand for around 24 hours or so. Then her friend shows up and finds Micah dead and runs out (all off camera) and then 20 minutes later the police show up and find Micah dead. They go up to the room and Katie appears to then be herself and since she still has the knife in her hand the police shoot her.
The ending that was put into theaters has Katie hurling Micah at the camera and killing him and then smiling at the camera and running off. We then see a caption that says how she has not been seen since.
I really liked the ending I saw because it was so final and while not neccasarily unconventional for the genre, it was just a nicely upsetting end whereas the other one (not having seen it I cannot say whether or not I think it works) seems to me from the description to be annoyingly convenient.
The funny thing is I did not go in expecting much because I really try to downplay extremely hyped up movies (outside of the ones I personally am really hyped for) so that I won't go in expecting too much. So in that way I wasn't underwhelmed. It is just that for me so few films could live up to the hype it acquired and for me hype like that inadvertently takes away from the work. Which is unfortunate because I really really liked this movie.
So I am trying to just think about the work just for the work. Even without the expectations though, for me it is still not one of the scariest films I have seen. However, I absolutely think it is a notable film within the genre and deserves to be placed among the more creative and interesting titles it has to offer. I agree about The Blair Witch Project as well. Thankfully I saw it way after all of the hype had died down (like years and years after) but there is this permanent backlash against it by some which I just do not get because I think it is a pretty great film.
I have not seen Ils (Them) because funnily enough, I am too scared to see it but hope to work up to that one day. I've been going back and forth on whether or not to watch it for quite some time. I totally agree about The Descent. I watched that on a very small TV and I was losing my mind because I was so terrified. Easily in the Top 5 Horror Films of the Decade for me. Are you looking forward to the sequel? I'm very split on it.
Horrorphile
where did you get to see the original ending? I had no idea the ending had been changed/compromised ... I'd love to see that. Do you think it will ever be made available again? DVD perhaps???
As much as I'm a gorehound, I'm also a terrorfreak, and I'm more impressed by a movie that is genuinely frightening than a movie that features impressive gore effects, because it is much harder to frighten than it is to shock. You should check out my Scariest Movies Ever Made list that I recently updated.
Not looking forward to the sequel to The Descent, as I saw the original ending which didn't leave much room for a sequel. Plus, the whole conceit of the subterranean creatures is no longer a nasty nightmarish surprise, we know they're down there and what they look like. I'll still see the movie of course.
Thoughts from a Cinephile
Thoughts from a TV Watcher
The original UK ending for that is insanely great and the stupid American shorter ending is awful.
Like you, I will see the sequel as well only out of morbid curiosity.
I do think it is much more impressive to frighten with little than to shock with a lot. However I think there is some really amazing stuff out there in the gore category. I think I have a decent tolerance for stuff but unfortunately as a horror fan I have a limit of what I can watch which is disappointing because I miss out on a few things but I can only push myself so far. But I will be seeing Antichrist so I guess I have a higher tolerance than some. I really like both types of horror though.
Very cool list. Just the tone and feel of Alien alone is just haunting let alone the content of the film. I want to make a list like that but I always get caught up in what would count. I plan on doing a horror of the decade list at some point but I'd still like to see a few things. Great list!
Cinema is Truth
Cinema is Truth
Really Long Link
Thoughts from a Cinephile
Thoughts from a TV Watcher
Horrorphile
It's like the whole test-screening thing. I understand the commerce of it, but I don't like the artistic compromise of it.
Thoughts from a Cinephile
Thoughts from a TV Watcher