Dir. Oren Peli, 86mins, USA , 2007
Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Ashley Palmer
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Horror
(hawr-er, hoe-er)
“An overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking , terrifying , or revolting, a shuddering fear .”
[Definition from Dictionary.com]
Paranormal Activity is an exercise in everything that classic horror should be. Just look at the dictionary definition of the genre and the underlined words in particular. It's no exaggeration to say that this will elicit all of those reactions and more in their most primal forms of raw emotive responses from the audience. Forget your torture-porn or Michael Bay produced remakes. This is an onslaught of terror that will silence the giggling oiks in row C and remain with you long after the film is over and the bedroom lights have been left on overnight. Believe the hype.
The premise is a simple haunted house one. A young couple start to hear things going bump in the night and decide to video the evidence in an effort to shed light and debunk the bogeyman theories. What unfolds is their account over a months worth of footage that will have you booking a week in the Blair Witch woods in preference.
The budgetary restrictions ($15,000 and one week to film) may be a marketing gimmick but here they are the most important tool in creating the true genius behind Paranormal Activity; the fear of the unknown.
The “unseen” has without question been the most successful cinematic device for eliciting fear in modern horror. Think the shark in Jaws, the POV sequences from Halloween, being the nearest comparison, the “babes in the woods” audio from The Blair Witch Project. All demonstrating that dependence upon the audience's imaginations via the suggestive threats of the filmmaker's tricks is infinitely more effective than blood splatter and excessive gore.
The way in which Peli achieves this is by opening a box of smoke and mirror sleights of hand to assault your fragile senses. Essentially framing the most important events with a single shot; the bedroom interior, a clock appearing in the bottom right and the wide open door to your mind's eye on the left, it's simplistically effective and whenever it appears onscreen, a hush will descend upon the auditorium that's only threatened to be broken by a shriek or gasp. To reveal any of those scare tactics would be to the detriment of your enjoyment of the film and the OTT marketing campaign appears to be doing its best to accomplish that anyway. AVOID THE TRAILER!
Genre regressing to positive effect, Peli also acknowledges the need to make those being terrorised extremely likeable. Our young Ghostbusters have instantly infectious characteristics. The chemistry between the two is extremely natural and initially they are reflective tools for the audiences opposingperceptions. She is sweet and inquisitive in a wish to explore the supernatural occurrences, an empathic role for those willing to embrace the Derek Acorah aspects of the plot. He is the cocky but agreeable dissident who grounds the action with his scepticisms. By the second night of terror both the audience and characters are in the same, single minded state of fear.
The horror genre moves in cycles and if this is the jump start that the current movement required, then its time to pre-order a bumper pack of clean underpants and look forward to it. Note to producers though; yes this did make over $100M in the US but please, no sequel.
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