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AS many FilmWeekly readers will no doubt have realised, I love a good horror movie almost as much as I love a good feature-length cartoon.
Paranormal Activity is not unlike The Blair Witch Project (which I really didn't enjoy), yet one of the most exciting things about this film is that while you are watching it, it feels real enough that you feel unsure whether it's a movie or a found-footage presentation.
The whole film focuses mostly two people, Micah and Katie, shot entirely within their San Diego home filmed completely with a fancy digital movie camera.
The charm of this film is that it is not pretentious and it feels very much like what it sets out to be - Micah wanting to capture on camera the weird things that have started happening to them in their home.
Admittedly, there are moments where the low budget effect of the film can become perhaps a little tedious, but on the whole it enhances the desired effect. The performances are believable and the on-screen chemistry between the pair is the most convincing aspect of the movie, from the dialogue to their blood-curdling screams, it feels and sounds very real.
However, the one major complaint I have about this film is the same qualm I had with the Blair Witch Project, whereby the often shaky camera distracts from what you audience is trying to see. Again, I guess this depends on your taste in cinematography.
If you can deal with the shaky camera work, this movie is a very finely crafted, scary movie.
Each element is meticulously crafted and to me didn't seem contrived or attempt to make the audience jump just for the sake of it.
As I mentioned earlier, the film is carefully constructed to offer tension at the optimum moments, often though the use of eerie sounds rather than digital graphics that have been far too overplayed in recent horror films. Anyone can put on a clown mask and scare the daylights out of an unwitting fool, but a strategically placed creek or slamming door can work wonders in a film like this.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that this isn't really a horror film; it's a relationship film with a little scary stuff on the side.
I found that what is happens to the couple, the issues of trust and care that they are forced to face was slightly more interesting than the attempted horror angle.
Showing in:_Cineco, Seef II, Saar Cineplex
