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Rating: Beyond all the snobbery that hastily dismisses Paranormal Activity as "crap," I liked it mostly because it scared me. That terror generated by supernatural events is what makes a horror film a great horror film.
For many cinema "purists" (snobs), the fluidity of amateur footage breaks the spell, and unfortunately, this is true. The magic of Cinema, before any poetic narrative about the story or the characters, is visually determined by a "slowed" frame rate, just enough to present us with something unreal, enchanted, exotic, absurd, allowing us to watch a movie with all the charm of a fairy tale. Perhaps that is why many found it to be "crap": the frame rate of mockumentaries breaks the magical and poetic dimension of Cinema (as does HD, for that matter), transforming what we see into a "common thing," an ordinary amateur video.
However, I believe this is one of the film's strengths. Addicted to years of horror-pop based on sudden noises, music, and hysterical edits intended to sustain non-existent tension, Paranormal Activity is a provocative jolt without significant novelties. It reminds us why we like horror films: an experience of fear lived by spectators.
"Paranormal Activity" is the story of an invisible demon haunting the home life of a young American couple... The presence of this entity remains unexplained except in terms of a vague "connection" with Katie from the age of eight. We don't know what it wants, why it harasses them, why primarily at night though (well, what fear would it cause at noon?).
As in every respectable horror film, simplicity and a touch of ingenuousness are its winning weapons. No thuds or sudden noises except for small footsteps, shadows, slow and sudden movements (and then the screams of terror from the couple, of course...). It plays with curiosity, with glimpsing, it plays with madness and with unconsciousness. The hidden is what is shown, the invisible what manifests itself. Paranormal Activity is not a masterpiece but a comeback.
A return to the origins. Because what is a great horror film if not the experience of fear while comfortably seated in an armchair?
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Other reviews
By Emi
"It is indeed the footsteps, the scratches on the wall, the bangs, the objects... that give the film a strange ability to unsettle the viewer rarely found in today’s Horror films."
"If you like Mockumentaries, first-person films shot with an amateur camera... and well-made Horror, 'Paranormal Activity' is for you, although it’s not a masterpiece."
By Cornell
Bad, bad, really bad. In a few words.. Bad!
When the film ends, you’re dumbfounded for a few seconds and then you immediately say 'Oh my God, what an immense crap, damn it!'
