MOVIE REVIEW
By Jorge Cantu
I have overheard people walking out of the theater saying that this should have been on YouTube, that the quality and movie was that poor, that bad. That the simple setting of the movie was stupid, never leaving the house in the suburbs of San Diego, California. The special effects, little to none, were too simple, not being scary at all. That the unknown actors brought the movie down, versus using well known A-list actors. I can see why people would think this; I can see why people would leave the theater commenting on these things. But in my opinion, all of these things are what make the movie what it is, what makes it almost seem real.
What really makes the movie is the very last scene, and the feeling you get walking away. It makes you think about the movie once it is done.
So I agree you either get into the movie for what it is, or you look at it as a simple, cheap and stupid non-scary movie. You either love it or hate it, and I have to say I loved it.
The unknown actors make the movie even more believable; since you are not staring at say Tom Cruise freaking out on screen that you know for sure is fake.
Yes it was a cheap movie to make, but I feel it is a slap in the face for Hollywood and their big budget films. Paranormal Activity is able to do what most scary movies do not, and that is a feeling of genuine suspense and a feeling of relation to the characters.
It seems that the special effects probably cost less than a say a crappy car to make. It isn’t what you are actually seeing on screen, it is that the story draws you into believe that there is something really there, happening to this girl Katie. You can almost relate to her raw fear as she screams and turns frantic on screen, because the movie makes it seem like such a real life scenario.
Now I won’t go into detail about the storyline too much since I do not want to spoil the fun. But I will go into what this movie does so well. The building of the story is slowly building, suspenseful, and not so much scary as more so creepy. During the movie I found myself intensely following the story line, excited to see what was going to happen night after night. And when things happen, they are downright creepy.
Katie, Micah’s wife, has experienced some sort of supernatural following all of her life, commenting on seeing shadows before at night, and feeling a presence around her in the past. Micah starts messing with his camera, thus the beginning of the movie is filled with glimpses of film when he turns the camera on. He wants to record their bedroom at night to try and witness any strange events of the paranormal force that follows Katie to see if it’s real. Then the real spookiness begins.
The story involves a couple who just moved into a new house. Their names are Katie and Micah, and it is shot through a home camera. This brought me back to the Blair Witch Project, which I loved because of the realness that the shaky camera brought to life. Paranormal Activity does just that, but takes it a step further in making you believe. With the beginning and ending of the movie involving a screen saying how the San Diego police department found the tape, adding to the realness.
