It’s finally time for Halloween and that means that you’ll probably be spending most of this weekend eating candy and getting the pants scared off you. Hollywood, as always, is more than willing to oblige, with movies ranging from a Twilight knockoff with John C. Reilly to Saw MCCXXXVIII. Far more interesting than those options is Paranormal Activity, a Blair Witch-inspired found footage piece that rode into town on a wave of extreme hype and an advertising campaign that encouraged potential fans to “demand” it play in their town.
Paranormal Activity purports to be footage recently released by the San Diego Police Department and shot by a young couple of the events that transpired over a month in 2006. Katie and Micah are dating (“engaged to be engaged” as Micah puts it) and living together in a boring apartment. Katie has heard demonic voices and weird sounds in the night off and on since she’s been eight, so Micah decides to buy a camera and film what’s happening, hoping for evidence of ghosts or specters. He approaches the venture with the excitement of someone who has seen one too many episodes of Ghost Hunters and, when he starts to taunt the malevolent sprit, the couple gets more than they bargained for.
The movie isn’t as pants-shittingly terrifying as the hype would make you think, but it is effectively creepy. Director Oren Peli avoids the sort of cheap scares and loud buses that most lazy Hollywood horror films traffic, instead going for more atmospheric frights punctuated by chillingly subtle moments of low-tech horror. The movie works best when it contrasts the scary events with the bland, prefab residence of Katie and Micah. Rather than having the action take place in a clichéd haunted house, Peli makes the movie scarier by setting it in a much more recognizable, mundane setting. This plays well with the film’s handheld video camera conceit; a lot of the horror comes from the fact that this could be happening to you.
Borrowing from the George Romero playbook, Paranormal Activity wants to Say Something about Humanity, and that’s where things start to break down. The haunting brings to the surface issues of trust and compatibility in Katie and Micah’s relationship, showing that the foundation for their seemingly happy coupling is much less sturdy that it appears on the surface. But said relationship is way too shallow to seem realistic, a problem for a movie where verisimilitude is as important as this one. The screenplay trades on lazy, Men are from Mars-style tropes that feel way too paint-by-numbers. Given how much screen-time is allotted to just showing Katie and Micah arguing, you end up essentially spending half the film watching a couple argue over whether or not to stop for directions; and Peli doesn’t have more to offer than observing that women want to ask a gas station employee while men think they can find the route themselves.
Peli also critiques the Internet Age, suggesting that we’re too busy documenting our lives on YouTube and Facebook to actually experience them. After all, its Micah’s dogged determination to film everything that’s happening as much as anything else that seems to anger whatever force is after them. But as the movie goes on it underlines, italicizes, and bolds this point to the extent that it stops being subtext.
Then there’s Micah and Katie, who are both frustratingly one-note. She’s scared and he’s excited and it pretty much plays out that way for the entire 99 minute running time. Micah’s personality is much more problematic, since his obnoxious behavior becomes less and less believable as the threat they face gets increasingly serious. There are points where there is absolutely no way any human would still be carrying the camera around or refusing to get outside help like he does. The film can’t paint a compelling relationship dynamic between the two of them, since they’re mannequins to start with.
Paranormal Activity had a lot of potential, thanks to a great concept and effective execution. What is perhaps most frustrating about the movie is how it can be so subtle and minimalist when it comes to horror, but so broad and unrealistic when it comes to everything else. Paranormal Activity is a film of great ambition, and an exciting debut for a filmmaker with a bright future, but it lacks the humanity necessary to become a fright night classic.
My score: 48
Mike’s Score: N/A
Tangled Up in Wires Grade: C
Michael
ulyssesworkman