Paranormal Activity, I’m Glad You Weren’t in 3D

by Boogie Brown

I really dislike scary movies (and the Scary Movie series for that matter). When I saw The Ring, it was on HBO at 10 in the morning in the middle of July with the summer sun beaming into my living room, and I still couldn’t bear to see a television screen for an entire month afterwards. I totally went analog and had to read books for entertainment. It was terrible. All the characters sounded like me!

That said, I’m hoping that by writing this review, I’ll have externalized the tormenting experience that was Paranormal Activity and enable myself to sleep at night again. Some people talk to therapists; I write blog entries.

Paranormal Activity is a gem of a film precisely because of its own self-conscious austerity. We as audiences have grown desensitized to all the ostentation crammed down our throats by the overblown, special effects-ridden, CGI-flanked, latex-laden spectacles that pass as movies these days (cough cough, GIJOE cough). PA knowingly fights the tide and purposefully strips that all away. It’s like a naked scary movie. Or more appropriately, a reclining nude because it’s truly artful. I’ve seen PowerPoint presentations more elaborate than this movie. And yet it works simply because it sticks to the essence of good filmmaking and lets the audience use their imagination rather than turning it off.

In the film, a young woman Katie, played by Katie Featherston, has an eerie history with some undefined paranormal presence that makes itself known sporadically throughout her life. Her live-in boyfriend Micah, played by Micah Sloat, purchases a high-end handheld camera to document these encounters while they sleep, but really he’s trying to prove to her it’s all in her head. Inevitably, he gets PWNed and is proven wrong. What’s new, eh fellas? John Edwards knows what I’m talking about, heyyyooohh!

The entire movie is composed of these verite shots from the handheld, lending it the veracity (GRE word!) of a YouTube video. The scenes teeter back and forth between the couple’s daytime conversations, often with Micah behind the camera, discussing this haunting phenomena and night-time surveillance footage of the paranormal activity in question. With each day, the tension builds gradually as their conversations devolve into quibbles and the evening escapades transform into something far worse.

It is this juxtaposition that allows writer-director Oren Peli to build the only special effect used in the movie: suspense. The daytime discussions make you connect to the lovey dovey couple (big mistake!) and the frustration of their predicament, all of which heightens the tension for the viewer. Then, every time the couple goes to sleep, the audience waits in agony for the inevitable. But Peli starts slowly and makes sure that even the tiniest, mundane things–a light going out, a curtain swaying, etc.–cause goosebumps to form, spines to shudder, and bladders to burst. It’s the only movie when I’ve heard someone in the audience exclaim “Oh shit, did you see that shadow move?!” and I was terrified out of my mind because yes, I did see that shadow move! The fear is all in what we don’t see, the unknown, and Peli plays on that like Yo Yo Ma on the cello or Kate Austen on my heart strings.

PA was made for $15,000, a fraction of Blair Witch’s shoestring budget, and pocket change for the average blockbuster. It was shot in a single suburban house with pretty much just Micah and Katie for a few days. Sounds like a fun weekend! And because of the simplicity, PA sticks to storytelling and is all the more terrifying for it. Literally, all I could say afterwards walking home was “Aww mindfuck!”

So let me amend my first statement: I really dislike good scary movies. They make me pee my pants, and Paranormal Activity is indeed a good one. This refreshing YouTube era take on the spine-tingling genre uses Hitchcockian suspense for maximum effect, and it will haunt the shit out of you for quite sometime. The Ring ruined television for me (and also the VHS, which thankfully is already extinct). Paranormal Activity has now ruined my bed and bedroom. So if you “demand” this movie, be sure to order some Ambien to go with it. I, on the other hand, will know to only watch movies called Normal Activity from now on. I hear it’s about Jim and Pam from The Office, and the worst thing that happens while they sleep is Jim snoring. What a nose!

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