#32. "Paranormal Activity" (2007, Pehli)
By Eivind Langdal
23rd December 2009

I apologize if I, in the following paragraph, sound too much like an advertiser on television that you wish you could slowly strangle with a piano wire in a manner similar to what one of the characters in Audition did. Okay, here we go:

Are you tired of cheesy horror films - the kind that uses far too many false shocks and easy thrills? Are you tired of not being frightened? Do you want to see a film that willscare you to the living core of your bone? Then, my friend, you should see Paranormal Activity, a Blair Witch-like chiller that has been endorsed by no other than Steven Spielberg himself, creator of such films as Jaws, Jurassic Park and E.T (now available on DVD in a store near you). Made from a budget of just $15.000, it has become the most successful independent movie of all time, grossing over $100.000.000.

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, allow me to write about this film in the serious manner it deserves. It’s a simple little flick, really. It uses a small amount of actors, and its location is so limited that… uh, I can’t think of anything clever to say here. Anyway, it follows a two sweethearts, Micah and Katie, who, after having heard strange noises in their bedroom at night, decides to buy a video camera and put it on a tripod to try and catch a glimpse of what is actually happening after the sandman has done his work.

The entire film is shot in a manner similar to the classic The Blair Witch Project, with no other cameras employed but the one owned by Micah and Katie. There have been a fair share of these kinds of films lately (some of which I have unfortunately not yet seen), but Paranormal Activity manages to sidestep its comparisons to its 1999 forefather and become something unique. Not everyone shares that opinion, though, with many people having called it slow and devoid of any action. Do not listen to those people. If you’re a horror film fan, you do not want to miss Paranormal Activity (I know I slipped into “advertising guy” mood again there, but it’s just a habit I can’t seem to shake).

It would be cruel of me to reveal too much of the plot in Paranormal Activity, as so much of the film’s success depends on both the audience and the characters slowly learning their facts about what is going on (and let’s not deny this: something is going on). The film’s ace of spades are the scenes shot at night, where the camera is mounted on the tripod, never moving, catching only a normal couple sleeping and missing the fact that there are an awful lot of noises in their house at the nocturnal hours that really shouldn’t be there. Paranormal Activity is similar to A Tale of Two Sisters in the sense that it uses conventional methods to scare us (such as sounds of footsteps and creaking doors), but in both of these films, “conventional” is definitely not a negative word. Trust me, you will get scared.

While the night scenes are the film’s best, the ones shot at day are not entirely devoid of a point either. It’s here we get to know Micah and Katie and what kind of relationship they have. During a visit by a psychic, Katie reveals that she has had similar experiences in the past concerning nighttime activities. We can tell she is genuinely frightened, and the audience slowly learns to share that feeling. Micah is more reluctant to the fact that something out of the ordinary is going on, but even he has to give in when the evidence starts piling up like a garbage hill on a junkyard (the scene where he investigates some sounds from the nighttime recordings with Audacity is particularly intriguing, as we get a visual representation of aural activity). I felt Micah’s initial doubt was an important part of the film, as both characters blindly believing that something supernatural was going on from the get-go would be one meal too big to swallow.

I mentioned The Blair Witch Project earlier, but as far as themes go, Parnormal Activity has more in common with its sequel (no, don’t stop reading), specifically the fact that a camera can not be lying. Like the characters in Blair Witch 2, Micah and Katie investigate the camera tapes at day, where Katie finds herself looking at herself doing things she cannot possibly remember having done. They suggest it might be sleepwalking, but both they and the audience has a pretty strong hunch it is something else entirely. This is a horror film, after all.

After a few nights, Micah and Katie gets a second visit from the psychic, who tells them they shouldn’t try to converse with whatever entity is disturbing them at night. Of course, this is easier said than done, and soon enough, the couple finds that their curiosity has gotten the best of them. Strangely enough, the audience is still on their side here, as we too wants to find out more, even though we too have been warned not to look closer. Characters in horror films have done things that have caused bad consequences for them before, but this is one of the few times where we too do the same things.

A final few words here: I feel Paranormal Activity is a film that is best described in aquatic metaphors. For me, watching the nighttime scenes in this film was like being underwater, devoid of the ability to breathe. The day-time scenes was like being on shore, where I could breathe again. I wonder, why would I deliberately try to drown myself? Why would I watch a film like Paranormal Activity? It scared me so much it almost got became too much. I am, in a rare instance, devoid of an answer.