MOVIE REVIEW: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
Paranormal Activity
Director: Oren Peli
Screenplay: Oren Peli
TRT: 99 Minutes (R) For Language.
Cast
Katie Featherston as Katie
Micah Sloat as Micah
Michael Bayouth as The Psychic
Peacock Feathers (2 out of 5)
By Marcus Thorpe:
When you start a workout program, after some time what do you want? When you start a job that you don’t really want to take but there is room for growth, what do you want? When you plop down some of your hard earned money for a scary movie, after about 99 minutes, what do you want? The answer to all 3 of these questions is the exact same, you want a payoff. After hearing about plenty of hype, seeing the faces of movie audiences in the previews for Paranormal Activity, you would think the payoff must be huge. It wasn’t and the movie ends up being a huge tease, and huge dissapointment.
The movie happens entirely inside a home in San Diego. We get to meet a happy couple Katie and Micah, and quickly learn that this couple is dealing with much more than just the man that won’t pick up his socks, or the woman who leaves her stockings hanging in the bathroom, this is serious business. Katie has known all her life that she is being watched by something that isn’t human, and won’t take no for an answer. Katie’s boyfriend is the skeptic, there is no way his girlfriend could really be seeing or hearing what she thinks. So he goes all “blair witch” and gets a video camera to try and prove his point. For the first hour we get a chance to see small things, doors closing, noises, but most of all we see a bunch of video of 2 people you really could care less about. Think about going over to a friend’s house and they make you watch their home movies with the cousins you’ve never met. It’s just not that interesting.
After wasting some time, the director Peli finally gets your attention. A fantastic piece of special effects gets Katie from the bed to down the hall in a matter of seconds. Finally there is going to be some reason to be scared. Then more of the same, a woman who is scared, a boyfriend who is buying in, but it’s just not enough. Sure there is an interesting finish, but the payoff is 15 seconds. Sorry, that ratio falls plenty short on the “freaked” scale.
This movie was made for pennies on the dollar, and has brought in plenty of money to make it an instant smash! But if you are going looking for the scare of your life, for a movie that will make you go home and check your closet, something that is just not your normal scary movie, Paranormal Activity keeps you on edge, but leaves you thinking, “was that all?“
MT
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What did you think? Did Paranormal Activity freak you out? How about this review? Leave your comments below.
Posted by
on 10/29 at 08:54 PM
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Comments
I know I hate it when my woman leaves her “stockings” hanging in the bathroom…dang dirty stockings.
Posted by SD on 10/30 at 12:08 AM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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