The found footage genre is one that can probably be overly forced for a simple reason: there needs to be an in-story reason to get everything on camera. There are good reasons for it, such as the characters making a documentary or they just happened to be filming when something happened. The genre probably isn’t that different than how some older books, most notably Bram Stoker’s Dracula, were written in the style of letters and journal entries written by the characters and not the standard POV of a speaker or an omniscient third person narrator discussing events.
Well, if it was good enough for Stoker, maybe it can be good enough for Paranormal Activity.
Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherston) are a young couple that have just purchased their new home. Micah likes to film his life apparently, and various security cameras and other feeds pick up odd things at night. These things start off small in the form of moving shadows, odd lights, or even the bedroom door moving back and forth, but they escalate quickly. The couple even has a psychic investigator come in, and he seems a bit worried. What’s going on? Well, Katie claims she’s been haunted by a demon since her childhood, and Micah is determined to find out what’s really going on even if it seems like a really bad idea. And it is, but the cameras keep catching weird things going on.
I wasn’t sure what to make of this one right away. I knew it spawned multiple sequels, but horror wasn’t my thing when it came out, and found footage has a reputation of its own. I honestly didn’t think I was going to go for this. It clearly didn’t have much of a budget, but for a movie like this, it doesn’t really need to. Heck, casting unknown actors playing characters with the same names as themselves actually helps. I wouldn’t say Sloat or Featherston are unattractive or anything, but neither looks like a Hollywood movie star either. Little things like that help create a sense of realism that found footage generally needs to succeed.
Plus, writer-director Oren Peli really knows how to build tension. The supernatural attacks come in gradually, and at least one effect shot–a sudden fire striking an Ouija board–was actually very well done. The script even makes sure the audience knows why these two don’t just move out of the house: the demon or whatever it is in there is attached to Katie and not the house, at least as far as Katie is concerned. Micah comes across as not so much a nonbeliever as someone used to doing things himself. That he is woefully inadequate for the task doesn’t seem to matter much to him. But honestly, this movie had some of the best tension-building I’ve seen in a long time. You don’t really need a big budget to accomplish that, just a good sense of timing.
Now, the movie does rather frequently have characters reference bringing the camera everywhere. It makes sense why they would do that because, well, they obviously are. It’s one of those things where the movie can’t really win either way: either point out that the camera is there and make it obvious, or don’t and make people think about why they’re filming everything anyway. It’s not a terrible thing here, but it can be a bit much at times. Otherwise, this was a tight, suspenseful, and spooky movie. But no, I don’t plan on checking out the sequels any time soon.
Grade: B
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