When I went to see it already a group of friends had gone to see it, saying it was so scary they couldn’t sleep and had to have a sleepover that night. I found it silly; I’ve haven’t been afraid of horror movies since I was a child. I’ll admit, this is still the case. This is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen, and it frightened me a bit while I was seeing it, but I will surely sleep soundly tonight. Of course, that’s just me.

It is compared to the Blair Witch Project in style [which I like; I think it makes it feel more real and pulls to viewer in] but I’d say the storyline and the documentation reminds me of House of Leaves in a way. I was appreciative that it had no reliance on gore to be scary and some of the creepiest moments were not just the “jumping scares.” Watching Katie stand in one spot for three hours disturbed me more.

And personally, I thought the attitudes and acting was rather good. In most horror movies, only the scared moments are show, and that’s all you ever see of the characters. In reality, even at your most frightened or most depressed, you manage to laugh at the little things, if not just for being so scared. Also, the effects were pretty good. It really fit well with the home video feel.

I have to say though, I was criticizing their stupidity. Sure, I can see the whole macho-idiot routine; a lot of straight guys I know do that when they are obviously scared or wrong about something, no matter the circumstances. But the fact that they would not try to find other demonologists seemed silly. Oh well.

As for the end, I liked it except her lunging at the camera… too cliche. I would much rather have seen her just smiling than lunging. It’s overdone and comes off as humorous for me at this point.

Overall, a great horror movie though, which is saying something for a genre that is so full of crap.

I thought it was a pretty fun scary movie for a rainy night. Everyone in the theatre seemed quite terrified, although I didn’t really find it that scary. It is nice to see a movie that breaks the typical horror movie story/exposition line occasionally as so many of them are completely predictable.

I came into this movie with zero expectations, given that I had neither seen the trailer nor read a single thing about what the film was even supposed to be about. Sure, I heard a few people say it was “kind of like Blair Witch but better”, but that’s not really saying a whole lot. And given the apparent demand for this film to be released nationally I figured it had to be worth watching. WRONG.

The big problem I have with Paranormal Activity... well, there are a number of them. Despite taking the mockumentary/found footage route the entire film feels set up, unrealistic, and overly amateurish – though that last one may be intentional. The protagonists just don’t feel “real”, especially when the creepy stuff – some of which is actually pretty scary – starts kicking in, and it’s the usual stuff you’d actually kind of expect from a crappy horror film: guy tries to be all “I’m going to kick its ass!” manly while the girl is all “I’m so scared but hopefully it’ll just go away if we leave it alone”. Seriously, if doors were slamming on their own right in front of you wouldn’t you just want to, oh I don’t know, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE? But no, that would be a boring movie.

The film’s slow progression creates a kind of repetition that isn’t very engaging or fun to watch, especially considering you see the same bedroom shot about twenty times. And while the scares start in a subtle way that’ll definitely creep you out, it starts to get a bit too dramatic. In fact the whole plot started to feel more like a cheap rip-off of The Amityville Horror (which is an awesome horror flick for ghost fans!). I won’t spoil the ending, but it made me chuckle instead of cringing from fright.

And seriously, the deep bass noise that kept coming (other viewers know what I’m talking about) was so unnecessary. It works for Silent Hill, but not here.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend paying money to see this in theaters. Unfortunately it’s too late to get my $12 back, but you can save yourselves the trouble. While it has some merits in that it doesn’t rely heavily on “jump” moments like Resident Evil, it’s not nearly as scary as the majority of fictional horror films out there. You can get a pretty good idea of what Paranormal Activity is like by watching Ghost Hunters or Most Haunted. And it won’t cost you nearly as much!

Check it out here: http://filmeyeballsbrain.com/2009/10/12/oren-peli-paranormal-activity-2007/

Movies that play on your biggest fears obviously impact you the most. And this is one of those. While waiting in line, a woman exclaimed: “Why am I even seeing this? I don’t believe in ghosts. When you’re dead, you’re fuckin’ dead.” I encountered her again on the way out. This time she was quiet. Her friends who had laughed heartily at her pre-movie comments were also silent.

It was a zombie-walk out of the theatre for almost everyone, I’d say. We all seemed to be using that time to tell ourselves we are fine and that we are okay. People walked arm-in-arm, people hugged themselves. The need for stability and safety was suddenly very important.

See this movie. I mean, it’s worth it. It’s almost extraordinary and it is about people just like you and I.