Paranormal Activity
After a young, middle class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban “starter” tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic, but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.
Genres: Science Fiction/Fantasy and Thriller; Running Time: 1 hr. 39 min.; Release Date: September 25th, 2009 (limited); MPAA Rating: R for language.
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Michael Bayouth
Directed by: Oren Peli
Produced by: Jason Blum, Steven Schneider, Oren Peli
We went to see this movie Saturday night at the new CineBistro Theater in Hyde Park Village (Click to read my take on the theater). We’d heard a lot of hype along with people claiming it was the scariest movie ever. Well let me give away the entire plot of the movie right here:
Something weird happening to the girl..they start recording themselves to see if they catch footage or weird things happening..they hear a noise..they go to sleep..the door opens…they go to sleep…something moves downstairs..they go to sleep..something bangs on the walls..they go to sleep..something breaths..they go to sleep..finally something a little bit scary happens..the movie ends…oh ya and at one point a demon with hooves leaves three footprints on the floor.
One of the big problems was that the “home movie” would be sped up as they slept, and then just before something happened, it would slow to normal speed. Wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that something was about to happen, so all the suspense was sucked out of the movie.
There were a couple of places in the script where there was hope the storyline might get interesting, but in each case, it was never followed up on. I suspect it might have been scenes cut from the movie, but the setups to those should have been cut too if that was the case. It only made me think the screenwriter and director were amateurs.
The concept was OK, but it’s been done before to much better effect. Overall, neither one of us found the movie scray at all.
(No Ratings Yet)
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Honestly I had mixed feelings about this one. There were parts of it that scared me quite a bit, but other moments (the burning Ouija board for instance) that didn’t scare me at all. On the other hand the moments when the film sped up then slowed down just as something was about to happen were, to me, quite effective. The clock was placed in the lower right-hand corner while the action would take place on the left side of the screen. I’d find myself sweating as I watched the seconds ticked by, unable to take my eyes off the clock even though I knew whatever happened would be on the other side of the screen.
I agree, there were a few scary parts, but after a bit, they gave away when a scary part was about to happen with the fast forward tape thing.