Paranormal Activity

Viewer Rating:DaveP has rated Paranormal Activity rating: 3 Star

It's been a few years since [REC], Cloverfield, and Diary of the Dead and it seemed that '07/'08 signalled the height and demise of that sporadic genre, the first-person shocker. But, when we least expected it, along comes Paranormal Activity, and yes, while we can expect that all familiar 'Get that camera out of my face' kind of carry on – the film does have a few tricks up its sleeve.

The story follows a young couple, Katie and Micah, who live together in the suburbs of San Diego. Micah (Micah Sloat) has bought a brand new camera to try to capture some of the 'paranormal activity' taking place around his girlfriend. Since she was 8 years old, Katie (Katie Featherstone) has been experiencing strange sensations in the night, and after a lengthy period of these sensations being absent, they have begun to return with an increasing force – hearing whispers in the night, footsteps around the hall and perhaps most horrifyingly, having her keys moved from where she left them the night before.

Micah is a likable skeptic at first, approaching the whole situation with a boyish curiousity, delighting in the gadgetry and relishing in the mystery waiting to be solved; but as the nightly occurances begin to worsen, and his gadgets and theories lead to nothing, he becomes a boorish, controlling gombeen – feeling demasculated at the prospect of calling a demonologist, he insists that he can fix the problem – 'it's my house, you're my girlfriend'. Katie passively accepts all this nonsense, and nods along between screams.

We watch this bickering by day, and then we are shown the night-time footage. The film unravels in this pattern all the way through. Each night visit becoming more intense, and each day scene becoming less believable. While the pattern becomes predictable, it also adds to the thrill factor. The best recipe for fear, be it in literature, folk tale, or any format, is the patient build up to an inevitable climax. This, along with a brilliant use of sound (the cam footage has no overdubbed music – refreshing, especially in light of the absolutely cringeworthy Diary of the Dead attempt to marry mockumentary with cinema : 'this footage is real, but I have added some music to heighten effect at parts'...) is all Paranormal Activity really has going for it.

But here's the strange thing, it may sound against the grain here, but the film is actually enjoyable. It is tense, well paced and genuinely disturbing. It's definitely one to go and see while it's in the cinemas.You could compare it to a rather long and meandering joke with a good punchline. You will enjoy it the first time around, but I really can never imagine a desire to sit through the entire thing again. As a singular experience, it's a thumbs up – however judging this against what has or could have been done, it falls far short. I've purposefully left aside the budget – it's an great achievement to produce a film on a small budget but I don't think it bears relevance to the quality of the film - it is paper thin. But quite pretty paper.

Review published on the 09 January 2010 17:14