Susan Granger’s review of “Paranormal Activity” (Paramount Pictures)
Horror movies have always been popular because they give audiences what they want: pleasurable terror in pure escapism. We love being scared from the safety of our cinema seats, secure in the knowledge that whatever’s on the screen is made ‘real’ only by our suspension of disbelief.
Following in the viral marketing footsteps of “The Blair Witch Project,” this faux-documentary fright flick was made by Oren Pell, an Israeli-born videogame designer, for $11,000. Filmed in one week back in 2006, it played the film festival circuit and, eventually, made its way to the Pacific Palisades home of Steven Spielberg who, as the story goes, watched the DVD and then freaked out when his bathroom door was inexplicably locked from the inside!
The creepy set-up is simple: San Diego college student Katie (Katie Featherstone) has been haunted by some ghostly demon since a tragic incident from her childhood, so her smug, day-trader boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat) sets up time-coded, night-vision surveillance equipment and a camcorder in the bedroom of their two-story suburban tract house to chronicle the otherworldly happenings. What Katie and Micah do during the day is dull, particularly when they joke and bicker, tempting the spirit world via the Ouija board, and consult an unimpressive psychic (Mark Fredrichs). But when the sun sets, weird things happen. Doors swing open by themselves. The wind howls. Shadows pass the bed and climb the walls. Lights in the hallway flicker on and off. There are ominous scuttling noises. But no CGI monsters, no grisly gore -.only a persistent, anticipatory sense of dread. The low-tech, naturalistic premise hinges on the psychological menace of what is unseen, not what is seen.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 0, “Paranormal Activity” is a subtly scary, supernatural 7, a pop-culture phenomenon, primarily because the make-believe amateur video ignites our imagination. And if you enjoyed it in the theater, surrounded by other patrons, just imagine how much more effective it will be as a DVD in the dark, quiet privacy of your home. Boo!
