Paranromal Activity

I can tell you why Paranormal Activity works as a modern scary movie

So Ive heard nothing but mixed reviews about Paranormal Activity since it came out. Some say it's scary, others just plain out a waste of time. Well I saw both the original screener and the theatrical releases and I liked the movie.

Synopsis: Couple starts to hear strange noises at night and have nightmares, boyfriend is a techie and records everything, aggrevates spirit, suffers consequences.

Now the best and most popular comparison I can think of is Edgar Allen Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" or the "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" books. The idea is to engage the audience on a level that they can emotionally place themselves in the charaters situation. This is what ancient Greeks did in their stories of Zeus or Hercules. Zeus had male weaknesses that men could relate to and Hercules had trials that people had to deal with daily, yet on a much smaller scale. Greek Mythology

PA presents you an average looking couple, then slowly starts building up these spooky happenings. We've all heard a house settling at night or scratching from mice and maybe even a door closed from an unfelt breeze. The acting is superb also. The visual emotional qeues from the actress make you think its actually happening to her. It forces empathy for her down your throat because of the relatability, she looks like everyones ex-girlfriend or neighbor that you don't want to see anything bad happen to. What I alo noticed is the use of language used by the popular Ghosthunters show that will let a new fan to the phenomenon understand easily.

I wasn't suprised at all to hear that this was a master-planned movie that uses intense psychological techniques and subliminal visuals to try and scare you. I like it. If I remember correctly, the biggest difference was the ending; they show the dude getting thrown into the camera in the theatrical version, but in the screener, she kills him downstairs, comes into the bedroom with the bloody knife and sits there until the cops show up and they kill her.

8.5 outta 10

Positives: Good actress, decent visual effects, well written dialogue between the couple
Negatives: Poor actor, couple seems to not leave house for 3 weeks, unexplained emotional baggage from female character, needed more build up to finale. Paranormal Activity 2 was produced and being release Halloween 2010