Directors: Oren Peli
Screenplay: Oren Peli
Producers: Jason Blum, Oren Peli
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 86 min.

(4/5)

Call it “the little movie that could,” Paranormal Activity is the talk of the town. A home made film shot in six days for $15,000 and grossing $62 million (and counting), it’s the type of success story studios pine for. The bubble grew with word of mouth screenings in college towns across the US and in combination with a slow burn release, the film has certainly come along way from its little debut at Screamfest.

Micah and Katie have an uninvited guest haunting their home. After a visit from an “expert,” they discover that it’s not the house that is haunted but rather that Katie is being followed around by some sort of evil spirit. Micah thinks the so-called-experts are all wacky and manages to convince Katie that the way to deal with the problem is to set up a video camera to record the sleeping couple and perhaps catch some sort of evidence which will yield an explanation; the film is a combination of the night time footage and the arguments which grow with frequency and intensity as the night time events become ever more disturbing.

The film shot on DV, is impressive for a number of reasons including the special effects which are seamless but most notably for the fact that director Oren Peli has the good sense to keep the camera steady for extended periods of time. The moments of most effective thrill come from the camera looking into the room and the sounds which are emanating from elsewhere. Even when the camera is in motion, there’s a sense that Peli knows exactly what random images he’s shooting and it’s never disorienting though thankfully kept to a minimum.

Paranormal Activity relies a great deal on its leads. The film really works because Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are instantly relatable, an average couple who, though by no means ugly, look like regular people and their reactions to the situations are genuine and feel almost like Mulder and Scully: one believes, the other doesn’t and as events progress the non-believer has no choice but to admit something is amiss.

The film’s other great success is the sound design which slowly builds tension even when nothing is happening. Peli incorporated a low frequency sound which set the mood for the night time events and built expectation, expectation that was sometime met and other times played up with little payoff. It’s Peli’s play on the audience which helps build the tension leading to the final few minutes which explode with a terrifying and completely satisfying conclusion.

Unlike a great deal of today’s horror films, Paranormal Activityrelies on classic tricks of cinema to scare the audience rather than gross out gore. The film works best with a full house where you can feel the excitement and expectation of the audience and hear the low (and sometimes very loud) murmurings of a crowd on the edge of their seats. That said, I expect the viewing experience may also be heightened if seeing it at home, alone with the natural night time noises of your home interplaying with the all-too-real sounds captured on film.

If a good scare is what you’re looking for this Halloween, skip Saw VI and opt instead for this low-fi approach to horror; it’s guaranteed to be much more satisfying.