Paranormal Activity

Rating: ***1/2 (Out of 4)
Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Director: Oren Peli



'Don't see it alone'

That's the tag line of 'Paranormal Activity'. For the faint-hearted, do take it seriously. I kid you not. This is a very scary horror movie, I haven't had a horror experience this scary at the cinema for years. In recent times, the horror genre have always seen more disappointment than excitement. In the obsession for expensive looking special effects, true horror fans can't help but to lament that the film industry seems to have lose the touch to evoke genuine fear.

Here we are, there's this little film made with a shoestring budget of USD 15,000, with only 2 actors (and a third actor with very minor presence), and set entirely in a residential home, and with absence of any special effect. It is amazing that it effectively evokes genuine fear with such minimalist feature.

It uses a mockementary narrative style to tell a haunted house story, to surprisingly good effect. I was somewhat sceptical when I first heard about the hype over 'Paranormal Activity'. Based on my experience of watching the other mockementary styled horror films, such as 'Blair Witch Project' and 'Cloverfield', I thought this method, while lending realism to the story, seems to suffer from difficulties in shaping characters, constraint by its need to present the events in the story as footage discovered after the events took place. As a result, we often knew little about the characters to make the whole viewing experience an absorbing one. That was what I felt about 'Blair Witch Project'. While I admire it as a landmark film, the horror experience was a muted one.

The story revolves around only Micah and Katie, a young couple. 'Paranormal Activity' cleverly arranged a self-introduction sequence by Katie during a consultation session with a psychic, so we knew enough about her as a person to sustain our interest throughout the film. Katie Featherston is an important element which make the film works. She is vulnerable, scared as hell, and helpless. We felt that.

The same could not be said to the Micah character. In fact, it is the weak link of this film, preventing it from achieving greatness. Micah is like a stubborn, mischievous boy who just wouldn't listen., and some of his behavior is just not very plausible. Despite being warned by the phychic not to communicate with the demon with a Ouija board, that's exactly what he did. There is also this difficulties to justify his obsession with his camera. At times, the camera seemed to be present when it shouldn't have been. Although it had to be acknowledged that this is a pretty common problem with other mockumentary horror films.

Despite its flaws, 'Paranormal Activity' scores in what it intend to do, which is to scare. It is a horror experience most of us can relate to. I just know that when end of the year comes, when it is time to compile my favourite films for 2010, 'Paranormal Activity' will be there in the list.