Film not as scary as hype makes it
By Brian McCumsey
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Focus
"Paranormal Activity" is not the fear-inducing, hide under your covers, scream at the top of your lungs movie that it's been hyped up to be. In fact, little of this movie is even scary.
I'd like to ask a question of all of those who've hailed this as "the scariest movie I've ever seen."
What movies are you watching?
I'm not saying this movie is without any scares. There are a couple scenes that made me feel slightly eerie, but overall my imagination (which can tend to be overactive) didn't spend one moment thinking about this movie.
The plot to "Paranormal Activity" is fairly basic. Micah (pronounced Mee-kah, and played by Micah Sloat) and Katie (played by Katie Featherston, "Walking Distance," "Mutation") are engaged and living together. They're like any ordinary young couple: they're in love, sometimes they fight, they have a house that's potentially haunted- the usual stuff. When strange things start happening around their house, Micah decides to set up his new, high-tech video camera in an attempt to document what's going on.
Before I get into why the movie didn't work for me, I want to give it some praise. It cost around $11,000 to make. This being the case, I didn't expect much in the way of acting. But to my surprise, the performances are quite good. Micah and Katie have chemistry and genuinely seem like a couple-impressive for actors with little experience.
I'm also thankful this movie attempted to scare us without using violence and gore.
Although the movie doesn't end up being too scary, I genuinely appreciated the effort it took to make a horror movie that wasn't disgusting.
I didn't hate "Paranormal Activity," but I'm growing very tired of the handheld camera gimmick.
The reason I'm so tired of it is because it's already been done and no longer carries the same weight it once did. I know that "Paranormal Activity" isn't based on a true story. Trying to convince me that it is by shaking the camera makes me feel like the movie studio thinks I am a na've 5-year-old.
I'd like to ask a question of all of those who've hailed this as "the scariest movie I've ever seen."
What movies are you watching?
I'm not saying this movie is without any scares. There are a couple scenes that made me feel slightly eerie, but overall my imagination (which can tend to be overactive) didn't spend one moment thinking about this movie.
The plot to "Paranormal Activity" is fairly basic. Micah (pronounced Mee-kah, and played by Micah Sloat) and Katie (played by Katie Featherston, "Walking Distance," "Mutation") are engaged and living together. They're like any ordinary young couple: they're in love, sometimes they fight, they have a house that's potentially haunted- the usual stuff. When strange things start happening around their house, Micah decides to set up his new, high-tech video camera in an attempt to document what's going on.
Before I get into why the movie didn't work for me, I want to give it some praise. It cost around $11,000 to make. This being the case, I didn't expect much in the way of acting. But to my surprise, the performances are quite good. Micah and Katie have chemistry and genuinely seem like a couple-impressive for actors with little experience.
I'm also thankful this movie attempted to scare us without using violence and gore.
Although the movie doesn't end up being too scary, I genuinely appreciated the effort it took to make a horror movie that wasn't disgusting.
I didn't hate "Paranormal Activity," but I'm growing very tired of the handheld camera gimmick.
The reason I'm so tired of it is because it's already been done and no longer carries the same weight it once did. I know that "Paranormal Activity" isn't based on a true story. Trying to convince me that it is by shaking the camera makes me feel like the movie studio thinks I am a na've 5-year-old.
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