We haven’t been to the movies in quite a while. With the choice of this summer’s offerings, we’d rather stay in with Netflix then fork over $10 a ticket to be insulted for a couple hours or more. The last movie we saw (and loved) was Up.
However, with Halloween a couple weeks away (one of my fave holidays) we thought we’d give Paranormal Activity a look see. What initially attracted me to the movie was, from what little marketing has taken place, that this movie is more psychological suspense/horror then buckets of gore toss at the screen.
It’s not that I’m at all squeamish about gore. I will sit down to watch cable shows (Discovery, TLC, etc) on all manner of surgery, forensics and autopsies that will send my hubby out to the garage to look for something else to do. But gratuitous bloodletting and bursting guts that substitute for plot and dialogue is lazy, insulting and [the unforgivable entertainment sin] BOOORRRIIIINNNGGGG! They don’t scare you, they just aim to gross you out. I had no desire to see even Saw I so I won’t be spending any money to see Saw XX or whatever number sequel is out now.
The good news: PA delivers some good moments of building suspense and heart-bounding WTF? Did you see that??!!
The bad news: those moments are so few and far between that the running time of 1 hr 39 minutes is about 1 hour 9 minutes too long.
More discussion and spoilers over the jump.
The “this is found tape by amateurs” motif is not new; however I give props that it doesn’t have a really cheesy feel and the actors are very natural and believable. The dialogue rings true and never sounds a false note. In fact, so true that my husband (who was bored with the movie over all because he doesn’t believe in the supernatural) that the increasing animosity and fights between the girlfriend and boyfriend (Katie and Micah) disturbed him in the same way of being an unwilling witness to an intimates public fight at a party.
The set up just takes too long. We jump into the story as it opens with Micah spending a wad on a professional grade digital camcorder, with lights, that he hooks into his laptop. Too many scenes of him screwing around with it, taping their breaksfasts, teethbrushing, etc.
Katie spends more time on camera and she is very believable in her reaction not only to a possible entity focused on her but in her reactions to having a camera stripping away her privacy at every moment. Micah wavers between thinking this is all a big joke and going a little machismo in wanting to confront whatever is stalking his girlfriend. He is adament about getting a Ouija board while Katie (and later a friend) are freaked about the idea.
I can understand where this movie will appeal to young adults — it eschews gore for atmosphere, and slowly builds the suspense rather then beating one over the head every minute of 120 minutes with CGI, sub-woofers and earsplitting music. In a way, Paranormal Activity is very much the progeny of 1963’s The Haunting … all the action takes place out of sight — heard but never really seen. Kudos that PA is trying to recapture suspense and terror.
All in all, I found the movie more creepy than truly scary.
My Grade: C+
Comment by moviegique on 10/19 @ 1:03 am #
Interesting. I agree exactly with your description of what this movie is and how it plays out, but loved it. My son would agree with you about the slowness of the buildup.
Dead on about The Haunting, too, but I didn’t like that movie.
My review:
http://bitmaelstrom.blogspot.com/2009/10/paranormal-activity-return-of-old-dark.html
Comment by SGT Ted on 10/19 @ 5:54 am #
Your husband needs to watch Ghost Hunters.
Comment by Joe on 10/19 @ 5:54 am #
The Blair Witch Project worked like that the first time you saw it. My wife still loves that film (I liked it once). And it actually gradually built the suspense well over the film.
Comment by Darleen on 10/19 @ 6:51 am #
SGT Ted
I catch that show once in a while… husband wandered through the livingroom, stopped to look at it a bit, then dismissed it as a giant fraud.
He likes a good spooky story, he can suspend disbelief for fiction. But he has particular contempt for anything that even attempts to convince people the supernatural is real.
Comment by Reason on 10/19 @ 6:56 am #
If Wikipedia is to be believed, the original ending would have been much better (be warned, Wikipedia basically tells you the entire plot and events of the movie) in line with the film.
I’m still interested in going to see it, if only to kill a few brain cells after this work trip ends Friday.
Comment by SGT Ted on 10/19 @ 6:58 am #
He ought to pay more attention to the show as the TAPS folks approach it from trying to debunk the claims of paranormal stuff rather then being ghost groupies trying to prove what they already beleive. There is much to that show that is convincing to skeptics with open minds.
Comment by Darleen on 10/19 @ 7:03 am #
SGT Ted
I agree with you. I very much like that aspect of the show.
Comment by JD on 10/19 @ 7:20 am #
Darleen’s husband and I think alike.
Comment by DarthRove on 10/19 @ 7:46 am #
JD, I don’t have time to consider if I agree with you or not. I’m working through details of my new theory that Rich Rodriguez sent Terrelle Pryor and Justin Boren to Ohio State on a false-flag operation with the intent of sabotaging the Buckeye’s offense. If so, the operation has been successful.
Comment by Great Mencken's Ghost! on 10/19 @ 9:12 am #
Or the ‘debunking’ is just the shill, like the guy in the crowd who tries to convince you the 3-card monte dealer is on the up and up…
Comment by Blake on 10/19 @ 10:08 am #
Darleen,
Your formula can be applied to a lot of Hollywood movies. Most action/adventure flicks any more tend to throw in an explosion when they’re stuck and the director isn’t quite sure what to do.
Comment by Jamie on 10/20 @ 7:23 am #
Stephen King wrote an essay on the subject of how to write horror a long time ago. I can’t remember the details, but I recall that he posited a hierarchy of horror: first, scare people by writing something actually scary; if you can’t do that, scare them by shocking them somehow; finally, if you can’t do anything else, go for the gross-out. I WISH I could recall how he formulated all the parts before the gross-out, but sadly the “go for the gross-out” is the only part that stuck with me.
He did say he tried to avoid the gross-out because he considered it the cheapest scare. But I stopped reading his stuff after It, I think it was, because the gross-out figured more and more often. Have I missed a return to real scariness?
Comment by Mikee on 10/20 @ 10:10 am #
I recommend A Serious Man by the Coen brothers.
There is however no reason to see this in theaters rather than waiting for it to come out on DVD, as the movie will be just a wonderful on a small screen as on the large one. It relies not on special effects or overwhelming music, but rather on dialogue and plot to entertain the audience. In fact, I would describe it as a movie whose entire reason for being is to manipulate the audience’s responses as it goes along.
Enjoy!
Comment by Swen Swenson on 10/20 @ 7:50 pm #
How could you resist Saw (The Uncut Edition)?!
Comment by Jennifer on 10/20 @ 9:05 pm #
Another movie that is coming out that offers a clean alternative is ‘’Paranormal.’’ Below is some additional information about this new thriller!!
Paranormal, the latest supernatural thriller from Cross Shadow Productions, (the
creators of the Dove.org approved, best-selling BMG releases: Pray and Pray 2:
The Woods) will be available in stores nationwide January 26th 2010. The 2009 Mrs. America is starring in it.
See more information and trailers at:
http://www.ParanormalTheMovie.com
Following the success of family-friendly suspense/thriller The Exorcism of Emily
Rose (Sony Pictures), comes a riveting supernatural thriller in the vein of the hit
SyFy television series, Ghost Hunters and Frank Peretti’s House (Roadside
Attractions / Lionsgate).
Paranormal follows best-selling, self-made novelist Greg Evans struggling through the worst case of writer’s block in his award-winning career. In a desperate search for
inspiration, Greg quickly finds himself immersed in a world he is not prepared to face.
Turning to a group of paranormal investigators, Greg and the ghost hunting team search for proof and answers, yet are unaware they are about to have an experience of a
lifetime! None will leave the way they came. Paranormal will peel back the supernatural curtain to reveal how The TRUTH will EXPOSE the darkness!