“Paranormal Activity” is a slow-build supernatural thriller suffused with a palpable sense of dread that escalates to the final climactic scene. Its strength is that it is rooted in the ordinary and plays on our most primal fears. Your imagination wreaks havoc with the horrors merely hinted at, and it’s the things you don’t see here that are what’s truly terrifying.
The premise: Katie Featherston and her oft obnoxious boyfriend, Micah Sloat (both actors play themselves) decide to move in to a run-of-the-mill suburban tract home in sunny San Diego. We soon discover that Katie has been the victim of a menacing “presence,” since she was eight years old, a fact Micah might have liked to know before he agreed on cohabitation. Rather than fleeing (or at least calling an exorcist), the couple decide to try to capture the haunting on film.
They wire their bedroom for video and sound, and the film is assembled from this “found” footage similar to “The Blair Witch Project” but without the nausea inducing handheld camera. Thankfully, Micah invested in a tripod.
With the tension mounting and the danger escalating, Micah in his infinite wisdom, makes the bright decision to taunt the demon into revealing itself. Katie, on the other hand, thinks this might be a bad idea (smart girl). I think you can guess where this is headed.
In one particularly creepy scene, Micah scans the previous night’s footage. In it he sees Katie, in a zombielike trance, arise from their bed only to stand perfectly still for hours, staring spookily at him as he sleeps. The footage keeps skipping ahead, hour by time-coded hour, with the evidence and tension mounting to terrifying proportions.
The film, by first time writer/director Oren Peli was shot in one week for approximately $15,000 in 2007 in Peli’s own home. This week marked the film’s widespread release after an intense Internet marketing campaign. To date, the micro-budgeted film has pulled in $62.5 million domestically; beating out “Saw VI” at the box-office with Halloween weekend fast approaching.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a real scare at the cineplex this season, skip the torture porn and opt for this creepy, disturbing film whose based-in-reality approach will have your stomach in knots and leave you on the edge of your seat.