That Girl's Site

Current Mood: Worried

I went to go see Paranormal Activity the other day, well, it was closed to ‘forced’ because while I love horror movies I fear the realistic ghost ones.  I had heard about the movie because even though it’s just not hitting theaters  it was filmed 2 years ago and had made its rounds around many movie festivals. After seeing the trailer this was pretty much my reaction when asked to go see the movie:

Paranormal Activity was written and directed by Oren Peli, the movie had a budget of $15,000 and was shot in Peli’s home in one weeks time. The movie is presented through shaky-cam which gives it that ultra-realistic feel.

Warning: Rest contains spoilers

The movie follows Katie and Micah and begins with Micah testing out his new camera, one that was purchased in hopes of catching recent ghostly events on tape.

At night they set up the camera in their bedrooms to record anything that might happen while they are asleep, that turns out to be when most things happen.

The camera would record weird door movements, they would wake up to noises and find things knocked on the floor. Micah had found these little things to be silly, and would call out to the being and mock it for moving the doors.

Katie calls in a psychic for help, she tells him about how shes had these ghostly experiences since she was a child. The psychic, who was not there for long informs them that their house is not being haunted by ghost and that it is Katie herself who is being haunted by a demon and it will follow her everywhere. He warns them not to call out the demon, to try not to acknowledge it, and to in no way should they try to communicate with it. He gives them a number to a demonologist and goes on his way.

Micah, being a non-believer was a bit openly rude to  the psychic and disregarded his warnings and continued to tape their time spent in the house and their bedroom while they slept.  Katie had very genuine fear of what was going on, and the actress relayed that fear very well, she was extremely believable through-out the movie. Micah also acted very well in the movie, but his character seem to have no regard for Katie’s feelings going so far as to use word games in order for him to bring a Ouija into the home though Katie was clear that she did not want one there.

While there was a lot of humor in the first half of the movie it does take a turn and become much more eerie, especially after a while of Micah antagonizing the demon. Loud noises are heard, pictures are broken, lights going on and off on their own, bedsheets move on their own, and even some possession as Katie can be seen getting out of bed only to stand still and stare at Micah for hours.

It takes some pretty horrific shit to get Micah to finally stop trying to contact the demon, or prove that it’s his house and he can take care of the situation such as one evening waking up to Katie being pulled out of bed and dragged down the hall by an invisible being.  When Micah finally becomes scared enough he asks Katie for them to leave the house, the camera placed on the bed facing her she tells him that she wants to stay and everything will be fine. Micah for some reason doesn’t notice that Katie is not blinking, at all! (Which is really creepy)

The movie ends with Katie waking up and standing staring at Micah for hours before walking out of the room only to scream which wakes Micah and causes him to go running after her. You then see what  is in most of the trailers, Micah’s body flying at the screen but the scene extends a little more as they show Katie walking into the room bloody and obviously possessed. I didn’t see what happened right before the screen went black and the movie officially ended because I had closed my eyes. While the movie did frighten me, it did not seem to scare my friend so if you are easily frightened then make sure to watch this movie with a friend because there is a high chance that it will scare you.

I suggest you watch this movie as it has an interesting concept, a good execution, and some genuinely freaky scenes.