Oren Peli
Paranormal Activity

Released on February 5th in Italian theaters, even though it's from 2007, "Paranormal Activity" is an independent Horror film easily defined as a blend between "The Blair Witch Project" and "Poltergeist".

Shot with a budget of only fifteen thousand dollars (In defiance of James Cameron), the film narrates the misadventures of Katie, haunted since childhood by a strange presence, and Micah, her boyfriend. When the two start living together, they decide to film what happens in their room during the night by placing a camera to capture the whole room. What started almost as a game, especially for the skeptical Micah, soon becomes a serious matter as increasingly strange events occur while they sleep. And despite the advice of a medium, who identifies a terrible demon in the presence that follows Katie and advises against any attempt to communicate with the being, when Micah brings home a Ouija board, things begin to spiral into a dreadful (in fact, there are three) ending.

The film does not present any particular innovations in any field, as it inherits, as previously mentioned, mainly from "The Blair Witch Project," although it intensifies the atmosphere, being filmed entirely within the house. In contrast to the aforementioned model, it prefers to eliminate the aura of mystery by providing an explanation for the supernatural events that occur, focusing precisely on the terror generated by them.

It is indeed the footsteps, the scratches on the wall, the bangs, the objects (door, TV, and chandelier) that come to life on their own, and the whispers in an unknown language that give the film a strange ability to unsettle the viewer rarely found in today's Horror films.

In short, if you like Mockumentaries, first-person films shot with an amateur camera (more or less), and well-made Horror, "Paranormal Activity" is for you, although it's not a masterpiece.

Rating: 4.5