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Hype can make or break a movie. Word-of-mouth “hype”
vs. the hype of a studio usually will result in a film that
does well with audiences and at the box office. “Blair Witch
Project” created a new standard for low-budget movies that
built their reputation by word-of-mouth. Writer/director
Oren Peli does a very nice job with “Paranormal Activity”
building a “real” world and using a cinéma-vérité approach
that adds to the sense of that we are just watching an extended
home movie. “Paranormal Activity” isn’t what I would call
a horror movie per se but one that builds to a number of
disquieting, terrifying moments—the type of terrifying moments
when you’re home alone and you hear a sound or see something
that seems out-of-place and disturbs you. These type of
movies which tend to use the run-of-the-mill every day moments
(think “Psycho” as kind of a precursor to this as Hitchcock
lulled his audience into a false sense of security as to
what the film was truly about before a major shift in tone)and
little creepy things that disquiet the viewer. We’re all
jaded by the good and bad horror films that we’ve seen that
when something like “Paranormal Activity” comes along, it
catches us off guard. ***
“Paranormal Activity” focuses on a couple Micah and
Katie (played by Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston) who
are haunted by some unknown spirit. It’s not the house that’s
haunted but Katie herself who seems to be the “chosen” of
a very evil spirit. The spirit plays pranks before moving
on to some seriously disturbing behavior. ***
Is “Paranormal Behavior” a great movie? No. It’s an
enjoyable movie for some folks it will be boring simply
because not a lot happens but that’s not what this is about—it’s
about how it effects Micha and Katie’s relationship as things
get progressively worse. The reason the film gets an “R”
rating is simply—language with the “F” bomb being dropped
pretty regularly. It’s not because of gore, violence or
anything else because actually the film is relatively sedate
with small things such as keys moved, doors closed, the
attic opened, mysterious footsteps and other strange things.
This stuff also brings the film down to earth and, as a
result, makes it something that anyone can relate to. ---
Image & Sound:
“Paranormal Activity” is never going to look great.
It was shot on SD videotape. If you choose to get this on
home video I don’t think you’ll see a big difference between
DVD and Blu-ray. Perhaps detail is a bit richer but you’ll
also see the limitations of the presentation as well. ***
Audio sounds decent with dialogue front and center.
“Paranormal Activity” really isn’t about the presentation.
It’s about the sense of reality. ---
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