Paranormal Activity

[bloodyminded]

If overhype does damage to a movie's reputation, you don't normally see this in box office or dvd rental receipts. Overhype seems to work quite well. So (for an obvious comparison to this movie) people complained about "all the hype" surrounding The Blair Witch Project, and yet the movie made, by conservative estimates, more money than is available on Earth.

I agree that BWP was overhyped, but I enjoyed it.

Paranormal Activity is a proficient movie, as far as it goes. But it's not proficient within basic genere expectations: it's not scary. At all. Not once.

Aside from a halfway decent scene in which the unlikeable Katie stands and watches her unlikeable sleeping man for hours (as we know from the camera's clock), the whole thing feels overextended and underwhelming. Even that scene, surrounded as it is in banality, loses the punch it should have. Ditto the movie's ending, designed so obviously to be a shocker that it feels contrived and inorganic.

I felt a little cheated, because as a fan of horror movies, my expectations are not terribly high, so long as the central expectation is fulfilled: I get a bit scared, I'm held in suspense, I care and worry about what happens to these people.

Here, I didn't care. Not even a little bit.

The movie's not an abortion; it's got all the elements of a decent horror film, and the acting is competent, and nothing truly seems out of place; but the "Very Scary!" reputation is exceedingly undeserved. Not scary. You like to be scared at movies? Don't watch it. These guys don't understand horror films. They enjoy the so-called cinema verite scare films like The Balir Witch Project, and (like so many of that film's naysayers) think: "I could do that!"

Well, no. Clearly you cannot.

This is a one-trick pony movie: a short film by inclination, stretched into a feature-length disappointment.

For a lesson in the claustrophic horror movie, they should watch the French film Inside.

Edited January 25, 2011 by bloodyminded

[wyly]

If overhype does damage to a movie's reputation, you don't normally see this in box office or dvd rental receipts. Overhype seems to work quite well. So (for an obvious comparison to this movie) people complained about "all the hype" surrounding The Blair Witch Project, and yet the movie made, by conservative estimates, more money than is available on Earth.

I agree that BWP was overhyped, but I enjoyed it.

Paranormal Activity is a proficient movie, as far as it goes. But it's not proficient within basic genere expectations: it's not scary. At all. Not once.

Aside from a halfway decent scene in which the unlikeable Katie stands and watches her unlikeable sleeping man for hours (as we know from the camera's clock), the whole thing feels overextended and underwhelming. Even that scene, surrounded as it is in banality, loses the punch it should have. Ditto the movie's ending, designed so obviously to be a shocker that it feels contrived and inorganic.

I felt a little cheated, because as a fan of horror movies, my expectations are not terribly high, so long as the central expectation is fulfilled: I get a bit scared, I'm held in suspense, I care and worry about what happens to these people.

Here, I didn't care. Not even a little bit.

The movie's not an abortion; it's got all the elements of a decent horror film, and the acting is competent, and nothing truly seems out of place; but the "Very Scary!" reputation is exceedingly undeserved. Not scary. You like to be scared at movies? Don't watch it. These guys don't understand horror films. They enjoy the so-called cinema verite scare films like The Balir Witch Project, and (like so many of that film's naysayers) think: "I could do that!"

Well, no. Clearly you cannot.

This is a one-trick pony movie: a short film by inclination, stretched into a feature-length disappointment.

For a lesson in the claustrophic horror movie, they should watch the French film Inside.

ya but different theatrical techniques scare different people, what doesn't phase you may scare the crap out of someone else...and what scares you may bore someone else to sleep...movies with lunatic women running around slashing people doesn't frighten me; spider movies I find absolutely disturbing...

[bloodyminded]

ya but different theatrical techniques scare different people, what doesn't phase you may scare the crap out of someone else...and what scares you may bore someone else to sleep...movies with lunatic women running around slashing people doesn't frighten me; spider movies I find absolutely disturbing...

Actually, that's a fair point. It gets extremely subjective. I don't consider slasher movies scary at all (well, except for Inside, as I mentioned, which I found terrifying). To each his own!

[GostHacked]

The two things I did not like about the movie was the 'foreshadowing' with the video clip they watched on the computer. And the guy was a dick in many parts of the film. The creepy parts were very well done, the rest was sub-par in my view.

[bloodyminded]

The two things I did not like about the movie was the 'foreshadowing' with the video clip they watched on the computer. And the guy was a dick in many parts of the film. The creepy parts were very well done, the rest was sub-par in my view.

Yeah, I agree. I didn't think the better moments (and there are a few good ones) were enough to sustain it; I got the feeling, like i said, that this was really an excellent short film expanded into a feature-length one. Not enough meat on the bone.

[Michael Hardner]

Just saw this and ... yes I was scared. It's got a lot of the elements of Blair Witch, but has more of a build... really more of a suspense film than anything else.

I give it marks for making a bland suburban home in San Diego into a scary place. Also, the acting was fine, seemingly improvised. Yes, the male character is annoying but that was clearly the intent of the film maker so if you didn't like that character then the director was effective in his choices.

I am going to check out the sequel very soon too.