A Great Source of 'Paranormal' Scares

by Brett Parker

You’ve probably heard all the hype by now. That Paranormal Activity is a $11,000 horror indie being cited as one of the scariest movie in ages. That the film’s release started off very small until overwhelmingly positive word of mouth caused moviegoers to hit the net and “demand it” in their cities toward a wider release. That Steven Spielberg himself was reportedly so scared viewing this film that he stopped watching it halfway through. Bloody-Disgusting.com cheerfully boasts that with this film, “nightmares are guaranteed.” So what’s the deal with this little scary-movie-that-could? Is it really worth all the hype?

The film has finally arrived at my local multiplex and I’ve thrown my very own eyes upon it. My answer to that question: absolutely! Paranormal Activity is the real deal: that rare fright fest that holds you in its grasp, plays around with you, then jabs you with big-time scares you won’t soon be able to shake. What makes the film so remarkable is how bare-bones simple the production values are and how powerhouse effective the terror turns out to be. Like The Blair Witch Project before it, the film is a low-budget account of supernatural horrors made to feel realistic. While the new film may borrow some pages from the Blair Witch playbook, it smokes the former in concept and fascination. Behold a new horror classic that truly will make you lose a few nights’ sleep.

The film opens with a man named Micah (Micah Sloat) playing around with a new video camera. The framing device is the fact that every scene from the film will be generated by Micah’s camera; we never see footage outside of his own personal lens. Micah has bought the camera to figure out just what the hell is going on with his girlfriend, Katie (Katie Featherstone). Ever since she was a little girl, Katie has suspected that she has been plagued by a supernatural presence, one that may have now followed her into her new suburban home she shares with Micah. A psychic expert (Mark Fredrichs) consults the couple in their home and informs them that a demon may be drawn to Katie with the intention of wreaking havoc. His prognosis: do nothing that will agitate the demon and consult a demonic expert as soon as possible.

Micah discards this advice and comes up with his own plan, thanks to his trusty camera. He sets up the camera at a wide-angle, voyeuristic view in their bedroom and plans on recording themselves while they sleep. With the help of night vision and an on-screen clock, the couple will be able to see if any strange occurrences happen within the darkness of their slumber. Most of the film consists of us watching this footage and it proves to be quite a terrifying sight. For a demonic presence really does make itself known throughout the house. At first, it starts off by playing with doors and making ambiguous noises. But this evil being is just getting warmed up! It has wickedly devilish tricks up its sleeves meant to pull the couples’ nerves inside out!

We go to horror movies for good scares, but there are too many times where Hollywood vehicles rely on distracting computer effects and quick jolts in place of something that can truly shake us. It was said that DreamWorks wanted to pump this story up with big stars and a costly budget, but if any gloss was added to this concept, it would probably be no different than the usual spooky trash. The modest budget allows writer-director Oren Peli to move away from showy special effects and towards primitive fears of things that go bump in the night. Most of the film’s scares are made up of shadows, thuds, noises, acting, and simple objects arranged in a way that creates great unease and intensity. Towards the end, a key character enters the house and has one small piece of dialogue that generates more creepiness than any CGI creature in recent horror memory. I can picture this film being a true inspiration for amateur filmmakers. On its surface, Paranormal Activity looks like the kind of film that anyone with a camera, editor, and a sly sense of cheap special effects can pull off.

The masterstroke of the film is the way Peli exploits the vulnerability of sleep and the menacing nature of darkness as terrors that can grip any audience member. These primal fears are generated by the terror of not being able to see or grasp an unseen entity that is out to harm you in your most vulnerable and fatigued state. The cleverness of the demon is in the way it keeps its dreadful deeds hidden within the shadows and in subtle undercurrents, making the anticipation of its acts just as terrifying as the acts themselves. Peli is aware of this principle and uses it to push our sense of pulse-pounding dread to its absolute breaking point.

With his two leads, Peli has found actors that not only give off a vivid vibe, but make us reflect on how our own frantic anxieties would play out in the face of supernatural horrors. Featherstone generates a genuine arc from level-headed female to frightened victim quite convincingly. Sloat, on the other hand, is curious in the way he cares more about putting everything on film than the devastating condition of his girlfriend. There’s a certain pigheaded ignorance to his actions than can simultaneously agitate his girlfriend, the demon, and certain audience members. Yet if it weren’t for his aesthetic drive and his misguided efforts, there certainly wouldn’t be the movie as we know it. Perhaps within this suburban nightmare, Peli is using his characters to comment on the domestic frustrations of men trying to help with their girlfriend’s issues. Micah tries with considerable effort to save his girlfriend from her plights, but he doesn’t have the grace or the wisdom to fine-tune himself to her feminine needs. I can imagine what ultimately happens to Micah in the end being a wicked metaphor for what usually happens to boyfriends who try to intervene with their loved ones’ problems.

Comparison of this film to The Blair Witch Project almost seemed inevitable, for both films employ grainy, bargain-basement values in capturing the essence of obscure terrors hidden within darkness. Both films try for a device of real-life footage of real people discovered in the aftermath of a supernatural attack. Both films kept the source of the frights hidden in obscurity with the anticipation of the nightmarish threats being the true source of fear. While Blair Witch was an effective and scary film, I feel Paranormal Activity outdoes it considerably. Its concept is more focused and its ideas are more compelling and fearful. Blair Witch suffered from the fact that it allowed its characters to meander with their wild anxieties where Paranormal Activity appears to have a tighter plot with very few missteps. I guess the supernatural is scarier when it lands on your doorstep as opposed to some far off woods area.

I usually find it very difficult to be scared by a horror movie, for my film intellect allows me to consider the genre’s technical aspects over the intention of the projected fears. There’s a short list I have of movies that have genuinely scared me. These titles include The Shining, Halloween, 28 Days Later, and now it appears I’ll have to add Paranormal Activity to that list. This could very well be one of the best scary movies I’ve ever seen. Perfect execution. Effective backstory. Fascinating threat. Not a wasted frame. Its biggest flaw is perhaps the realization that it lacks penetrating themes akin to most great horror classics. This enterprise is all a stunt, but it’s a ghoulishly delightful one; one that will probably stay parked in your nightmares for a very long time.