REVIEW: Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity (2009): Written and Directed by Oren Peli. Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs. Rated R (language). Running time: 86 minutes

3 ½ stars (out of four)

Apparently reality is the only thing that can truly scare us anymore. Over the past several years, there’s been a growing subgenre of horror films that create pseudo-realities out of handheld cameras and amateur actors. Starting ten years ago with The Blair Witch Project, and more the more recent Quarantine based on the Spanish REC, these films could be seen as a reaction to the disgusting unreality of the ever-popular torture porn movies. They are bringing the suspense and terror back to a genre that has recently been confusing squeamishness for real fright.

Paranormal Activity follows this trend of simulating home videos, even going so far as leaving out a title sequence and end credits. The home movie in questions accounts the haunting of college undergrad Katie, who claims to have been followed her whole life by an evil spirit, which we learn from a psychic to be a demon. Micah, Katie’s live-in boyfriend, hopes to catch the demon on camera while they sleep and even try to get it out of his house. For the purposes of this film, he captures every part of the process with a high-quality video and sound system.

The film’s mockumentary style is hardly innovative, but what makes Paranormal Activity so remarkable is the way it plays on our expectations for a horror film, and subverts them in every scene. Writer/director Oren Peli deconstructs the genre to its most basic elements, putting new twists on classic tricks and continually surprising us with simple but effective filmmaking.

The structure of the film systematically winds up the audience by building tension in its night scenes (when the demon comes out) and providing release in the daytime scenes. Peli conditions the audience with this pattern of tension, release, tension, release, until the demon starts creating mayhem in the daytime and there is no relief to be found by the light of day. The actual paranormal activity in the film gradually builds in intensity, beginning with a simple swing of the door and later escalating to more horrific occurrences.

Each of these scares, particularly those in the night-cam shots, is carefully created with simple tricks of lighting and editing, but they’re effective in their simplicity. After a tense anticipatory build-up, a mere shadow on the wall is enough to cause a jolt. Paranormal Activity, which was shot in a week in Peli’s house on a minimal budget, is a testament to my theory that the scariest films are those made on a low budget.

Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat, who use their actual names in the film, give naturalistic performances that succeed in enhancing the film’s verisimilitude without growing tedious. Underneath their improvised dialogue and true-to-life reactions however, they play stock horror film characters: the comely, vulnerable girl and her cocky, self-assured boyfriend. That Peli hides these artifices under the guise of a home movie makes the film all the more impressive.

Along with Drag Me to Hell, this is the second horror film in a year to feature demons as its specter of choice and I’m wondering if they’re not currently the most ripe with frightful potential. Zombies and ghosts have had more than their fair share of the market (don’t even get me started on vampires) and seem to be capable of creating real mystery, something lacking in most of today’s horror fare. Paranormal Activity has so far received a limited release, but will be enjoying a wider release this weekend – just in time for Halloween. Now if a film like this could take even a small bite out of Saw VI’s box office, I would rest easier in my demon-plagued bed.

- Steve Avigliano, 10/13/09

You May Have Missed...

The following are three movies released this year that are no longer in theaters, but either will be on DVD soon or already are.

Ponyo - 3 stars (out of four)

An unusual and wonderful fantasy about a magical fish, Ponyo, who eventually becomes a little girl on land and befriends a kindergarten-aged boy named Sōsuke. Ponyo is much more of a children’s story than past Miyazaki films and so the film is imbued with a sense of innocence. Despite its relatively straightforward narrative, Ponyo’s animation has a strangeness to it that takes the film to a place of playful inventiveness uncommon in most children’s movies. The American voice-over actors are even pretty good, including Liam Neeson, Tina Fey and the youngest siblings of Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers (don’t worry: they’re cute enough as the kids’ voice and they only sing in the credits). Ponyo may not be the strongest film Miyazaki has made, but it’s a charming adventure and better than just about every animated film that doesn’t have the word “Pixar” attached to it. Ponyo is not yet available on DVD in the United States.

Adventureland - 3 ½ stars (out of four)

Greg Mottola’s follow-up to 2007’s Superbad isn’t as funny as its predecessor, but it’s not intended to be. Adventureland is more heartfelt and arguably the better film. That’s not to say Adventureland isn’t funny – Mottola’s autobiographical take on summer jobs, trashy amusement parks and young romance are all the funnier in their true-to-life honesty. The movie stars Jesse Eisenberg as James, essentially a matured version of the Michael Cera character, and Kristen Stewart as his romantic foil (I promise, she only makes the Twilight-mope face in a few scenes). Along with a number of great supporting roles, including SNL-ers Bill Hader and Kritsen Wiig, Adventureland pulls off a rare feat: it is an emotionally resonant and memorably hilarious movie. Adventureland is now available on DVD.

Angels and Demons - 1 ½ stars (out of four)

2006’s The DaVinci Code was everything the book was: hokey, full of plot holes and largely mindless in spite of its lofty ambitions as a thinking man’s action film. Angels and Demons is all that and more: a disastrous example of what happens when the talents in front of and behind the camera are only in it for the paycheck. Tom Hanks has gotten a haircut, but his performance is almost entirely camp. As director, Ron Howard does little to make the hackneyed script bearable, although the script does remove author Dan’s Brow’s final absurd twist (where the Pope is revealed to have a child). The movie would be tolerable if it weren’t for the film’s stubborn insistence of credibility. Its scientific storyline about anti-matter is as ridiculous as its attempts to provide historical and religious insight. I’d recommend it as unintentional entertainment if it weren’t an interminable 140 minutes long. But if someone puts together a good YouTube compilation like The Wicker Man, by all means, check it out. Angels and Demons will be available on DVD November 24.

- Steve Avigliano, 10/12/09