Day 12 -- Paranormal Activity

Released: October 16, 2009

Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

Writer/Director: Oren Peli

Description: After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

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It took me a while to think of what to write about this movie because I had very mixed emotions about it. Obviously, I will leave my comments on the end scene until later so that people can stop reading if they want.

There's this phenomenon in horror movies today where they want us to believe that the footage is real, and I guess with the rise of shows like "Ghost Hunters", it's a good plot device because people want to believe in the paranormal so bad that they will buy into anything that they are told is real.

I personally, think it is a terrible way to tell a story. By making everyone believe it's real takes the challenge out of trying to actually scare the audience. If the people believe it happened in real life, thier own personal fears will make things more spooky to them than they really are.

When I began to watch this movie, I already had the fear that I was going to hate it like I did "The Blair Witch Project", which I also saw after it was revealed as "scripted" and not real. And the first hour or so I was bored, but hopeful that the final act would be satisfying; it was...sort of.

The movie opens with Micah (Micah Sloat) filming with his brand new camera which he says to his girlfriend, Katie (Katie Featherston), cost half of what he made that day. He begins filming every little moment of the first evening, which I found strange and creepy, but maybe it's because I never owned a camera that good. After a little banter between the couple, and Micah constantly wanting to make a sex tape, we get to the actual plot of the film. Katie has been haunted by a demon since she was eight years old and they are trying to capture it on tape.

Just like "Conversation With Other Women", Sloat and Featherston are in every frame of this film, which has only three other "actors" besides the couple in it. Sloat's and Featherston's performance are vital to the movie, and they are hit and miss, more for Sloat, though.

Featherston is powerful in this movie given the fact that it was almost entirely ad-libbed. There was no actual written script, so the fact that she knew the exact cues to raise her emotions and how to react to Micah like a real girlfriend would, was quite a feat. I genuinely felt her fear, pain and anger as the events progressed from spooky to downright scary. She was much, much better than anyone in "The Blair Witch Project".

Which brings me to the ending. Seriously, stop reading if you actually want to not be spoiled!

Since I watched this on Netflix, I didn't have the advantage to watch the alternate endings, so I assume this is the Steven Spielberg inspired ending. This was the first actually scary part of the film because you don't see anything that occurs downstairs, as the camera is fixed in the bedroom, until Micah comes flying into the camera and knocks it over. Then, a blood stained Katie stands in the doorway, she slowly walks into the room and apparently becomes the demon, or has always been the demon, I'm honestly not sure, and attacks the camera.

I have to believe that it's my sense of horror that makes me roll my eyes during these creepy movies where not much happens. I'm sure knowing it wasn't real helps, but I didn't jump once, nor did I ever gasp. Maybe it's all my time playing Resident Evil as a teen that has prepared me to anticipate when things are going to happen in these settings, or maybe I don't get scared by films. Either way, the film did not have it's desired effect on me. But one thing I have to give it is that this film was a million times better than that piece of crap, "Blair Witch".

Rating: 6.5/10 -- Some parts were well done in the story telling department, but it also had some major hole that it couldn't overcome. The biggest example is their shitty burglar alarm system, which never goes off when they move around the house. Also, Micah's forced acting didn't allow me completely buy into the characters.