I went to see Paranormal at the cinema last night and I have to say it was the most refreshing piece of Horror film making I have ever seen. It's subtlety in it's build up through it's introduction of the characters as an everyday young couple, through to the haunting's gradually escalating to the big finale was perfect in my opinion. I have read and heard people say that the first half was boring, but I think that shows what the current state of movies and society as a whole is like. If a movie isn't all action from the first two minutes until the end, it's seen as boring. Have our attention spans really become this poor that we can't even focus on 30 minutes of build up anymore?

Without that 30 minutes at the start, we wouldn't have invested anything into the characters of Katie and Micah and therefore wouldn't have felt like we knew them as a couple once they really started to get spooked. Without that 30 minutes, we wouldn't of known that Micah is more interested in capturing footage than the welfare of Katie and this would of rendered the film phoney and unwatchable.

I've even heard someone say that they wish the whole film had been like the last five minutes and to be honest, other than someone saying they walked after 20 minutes this is the most stupid opinion I've heard yet. If Katie had been chucking Micah about and becoming uber-demon within minutes of the film starting then the ending would of literally been yawn inducing, as it is the end really hits you because of whole the rest of the film focused more on being creepy than making the audience jump.

How anyone didn't even find this film even creepy let alone scary is beyond me. You hear film-makers saying all the time about they wanted the film to be a situation that anyone could find themselves in. But in reality how many people are scared about being attacked by a masked serial killer when they leave the house or being eaten by a cannibal family whenever they go on a road-trip. I know I'm certainly not, but I can guarantee you that if I was asleep in my bed and my door suddenly slammed shut or I heard a huge crash, I would quite literally launch myself six-foot in the air I would jump that much.

I have to say I would be interested in watching the other endings, I think on a small screen, the theatrical ending wouldn't be quite so effective so it'll be interesting to see if they give you the option of the other two endings on its DVD release.

As for a sequel, I can't say I'm looking forward to this. If any film could do without a sequel, it's this! Part of it's scaryness is how the actors were so off of the radar that they could of really been real people. Put anyone recogniseable in the sequel and the whole thing is ruined... so in my opinion that even rules out a return of Katie's character. I think the only interesting avenue they could take with this 'franchise' is to perhaps do a prequel involving Diane (the girl from the website) and base a film around her, however the problem there is that the Diane story was supposedly from the 1960's virtually making a realistic hand held movie believable impossible, with the limitations of period technology etc.

All in all, I would say that Paranormal Activity lives up to it's billing as 'the most terrifying of all time...' simply because in an era where anything is possible on film, where we see everything from peoples heads being chopped off to god knows what else, things as simple as shadows, swinging doors and bellowing sheets have managed to effect so many people. This is my mind makes it a modern day classic and a film that will be remembered and still seen as notoriously scary in 20-30 years time. That is if they don't completely rape the formula with endless sequels and spin-offs... we'll see.

Right...

Overated.


Move on!

http://gregae.blogspot.com/2009/10/o...-activity.html


Most over-hyped film in recent years or does it live up to it? Honestly you'll have to see for yourself, but for me personally I'm definitely in the middle. Now not to say I didn't enjoy it, I enjoyed the hell out of it. But when I hear people deem this as the scariest movie made in decades, I have to stop and ponder... and it is rather hard to think of a truly terrifying great movie recently, all I could think about are Drag Me To Hell and Coraline (not really terrifying, but put yourself in Coraline's shoes and view it as a lil' kid, you'll piss your pants!). But yes, this film is a mockumendary directed by Oren Peli starring Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat as a couple who decides to video document strange occurrence in their house. We are presented through this story through the video documents taken by the characters.

We begin the movie with Micah testing out his new video camera then meet his girlfriend of three years, Katie, as we watch them all lovey-dovey on a normal day. As to why Micah has the camera, Katie reveals to us a little later that she's been haunted by a strange entity since childhood. One day while asleep with her sister, she noticed a big black mass standing at the foot of her bed. A few days later her home burned down. A few years later the same entity haunted her and and this time it was happening again now that she was happy with her new wise-cracking boyfriend. The characters are fairly likable which is a plus to have when you make a horror movie, but Micah is definitely the character that gets you irritated watching the movie as he's warned against certain things such as antagonizing the entity and thus making things worse than it could have been. Note to everyone: DO NOT MESS WITH OUIJA BOARDS!

So yes, the movie documents about two weeks of strange occurrences that includes load banging sounds and creaking doors and lights flickering. Each night is a lil' more and a lil' more and tension grows as you're not sure what to expect next despite quite a few scenes being fairly predictable. The slowness and gradual build-up really grasps you until things really start unfolding finally. The director did a wonderful job growing suspense and using time and quietness to his advantage. It's really refreshing to see how a low-budget movie done in seven days can get you uneasy with hardly much special effects. I also see this as a way of getting into "horror fans" heads who only believe that a good horror movie should be rated R with a ton of gore and tits. If this movie had eliminated all the cursing, it could have definitely been a PG-13 movie and still frighten the viewers it's been frightening. And speaking of, I enjoyed hearing girls scream their asses off and panic through the movie. Now some scenes I felt weren't too strong to fully get me to jump or be fearful, but I did have a hell of a good time watching this film. I felt it was well made and may not be a top favorite of mine, but it's good money spent and good to watch with some buddies. Hell, bring your girl friend. I shoulda done that. Heh... there's always next week or so... But yes, in the end I could have done without the final second or two of the movie as I felt it was a tad cliche but a way of Peli having some fun. So go have some fun with Peli and others and allow yourself to enjoy this good horror film. Don't put too much thought about if this will live up to the hype. Just go see it.

But I do have to ask, though... people really threw up watching this movie?

it looks a load of crap to me a bit. not scary at all. and sorry if i affended any one. maz

I saw this movie and I have to say this movie is overrated. I didn't find it to be a terrible movie but after watching those moviegoers' reactions and rave reviews, you would think it was the scariest movie ever. I didn't find it that scary at all but it had some good parts. I did find the ending predictable. It was an ok movie.

Totally. Caught this last night and thought it was great. I dug the more realistic
feel of the film compared to [REC]. I'd like to see it with the more graphic ending I've read about... but this sort of film is only effective the first time around.

I would have enjoyed it if the cunts in the cinema could keep quiet for 10 fucking seconds..

Totally ruined the atmosphere of the film..

Normally I ask ppl to keep the noise down but this time it was the whole cinema..

Happened to me too. What is WRONG with people?? :mad:

Lame that totally would've totally killed it.

A lot of people didn't share my opinion but I thought this was creepy as fuck.

Exceellent movie! this one outdoes Blaire Witch Project and as good as Cannibal Holocaust or REC in terms of handy-cam horror.

I agree with all the most recent posts. I watched it at home On Demand. I'm glad I didn't have it spoiled by morons in the theatre.

I'm fascinated by the whole life as video image metaphor thing and I think this one was one of the best examples. The scenes where she getds out of bed and just stands staring at her husband for 2 hours at a time were very creepy, IMO. And if you put yourself in that situation and say you wouldn't be scared, you're lying.

One of the best modern horror films, IMO.

Ditto. :)

Although over hyped & may not be the best for me but as a POV Horror feature I think it's a pretty decent one.

This movie shares some similarities with one of yoyr favorites- The Haunting- and the way that it builds its atmosphere impeccably, and it's the UNSEEN which is terrifying, along with those horrible SOUNDS.

What gave the night vision scenes great creepy and scary atmosphere is the low dull humm that is in the score. As soon as the camera switches and that sound starts getting louder you know something bad is gonna happen. i thought that was great usage of a simple sound but didnt notice it in the theatre. I have surround sound and a big ass TV at home and it made the movie a lot better. Plus no annoying kids talking the whole time.

I noticed this in the theater and totally agree with you. Knowing something bad is going to happen creates this awesome tension. Even though you expect it you don't know when it's coming and it makes the jumps that much better. I think I'm gonna re-watch this soon.

Ti Wests The house of the devil also does this almost better than any movie ive seen. Something about knowing the upending doom that the characters are going into make movies like these very enjoyable to watch. I guess there is something to be said about that

paranormal activity
 

i saw this so called hyped movie yesterday, and to me it was nothing like people said it was. it was not scary at all. this type of movie was done before aka.. blair witch. nothing was original. even a 5 yr old kid can watch it without being scared. to me it did nothing for me. it was boring.although the ending was a little different, but that to was not a surprise. You could tell by that woman when she wanted all of the sudden to stay at the house, something was up.Now their making a pt 2, oh brother.:mad:

First of all- the only similarity between PA & BW is the fact that a video camera was used. So, no, this film wasn't made before, and it wasn't called Blair Witch.

Next, if you can put yourself in that situation and tell me you wouldn't be scared, I say to you you're either lying or too stupid to know when you're in danger.

Also- don't start a new thread every time you watch a movie. Use existing threads.

Agreed, scared the hell out of me for a while.

paranormal activity
 

Hi what did people think of this movie ?

I really enjoyed it.

http://horror.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52394

:rolleyes:

I've just published a review of 'Paranormal Activity' on my new horror review site:

http://cinematichorrorarchive.wordpr...activity-2009/

PLUG! PLUG! PLUG! PLUG! ;)

I've had a break from watching horrors for the past few months, so got Paranormal Activity for some scares to get me back into the spirit of things...

Had an entertaining 90~ minutes, thought it was paced nicely and built up the atmosphere well using basic video cam and audio effects during the sleeping scary scenes. I watched the version with the throat slash ending, which i prefered. The inclusion of different endings has easily left it open for a sequal, along with the small initial budget and huge payback in cinema takings, I'd be happy to watch a sequal that isn't full of big budget effects.

I rented this movie just to see, I was pretty creeped out about the idea of going to sleep for about 4 days. Scary Shit Man. Otherwise it was a really good documentary on this kind of stuff.