Paranormal Activity (2009)

Film: Paranormal Activity (2007)

Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

Director: Oren Peli

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

Where to end our series, particularly given that it's now Halloween?  That's a great question, and weirdly going to get a similar answer to what we did last year.  In our first round of 1960's-1990's horror, we ended with The Blair Witch Project, which was a new level of marketing for the internet age, with fake websites, found footage independent cinema, & complete unknowns making an absolute blockbuster (and terrific) movie.  This year, we're going to go with a different found footage movie that changed the game for the industry as our final film of the month...and again, maybe the best movie of the bunch (I'm torn between this and The Thing)?  Paranormal Activity would become a phenomenon, if not on par with Blair Witch at least of a similar influence, and is possibly the most profitable film in terms of cost-investment in the history of American cinema.  It's also really, really good.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place entirely in the home of Katie (Featherston) and Micah (Sloat), who have just moved into a house in San Diego.  Katie claims there is an evil spirit of some sort in their house, which Micah (initially cheekily) wants to document using a new camera that he's bought, which is used as the audience's point-of-view the entire film.  They hire a psychic to come to the house, who claims there's a bad energy in the house, but that it's from a demon (not a ghost, his specialty), and gives them a colleague of his who can help them.  He warns them, though, to not anger or provoke it.  This isn't advice that Micah, who refuses to let Katie hire the other guy, takes.  He continually prods it, wanting to invite it to come out and "fight" him, and this leads to more aggressive interactions from the supposed demon.  It goes from shaking doors & turning on lights to starting fires over a Ouija board & eventually possessing Katie.  When it starts to drag Katie across the floor, Micah begins to believe its danger, but the demon expert is out of the country...and Katie has a change of heart about staying at the house (it's implied with her grinning at the camera which Micah can't see that this might be the demon saying this).  On the 21st night, Katie, now clearly possessed, initially hovers over Micah, and then offscreen we hear them having a fight, with Katie suddenly throwing Micah's dead body into the bedroom with a superhuman strength...and then her attacking the camera with a snarl, the film cutting to black as a title card informs us that the police eventually found Micah's body...but Katie is still at-large.

I'll totally own that, unlike Blair Witch, this was not the movie I was most excited to see this month, but it's definitely the movie that hit me the most.  On advice of my friend Cody, I made a point of watching this at-night, in a darkened room, no cell phone (I'm trying really hard to kick the cell phone habit while watching movies-this is as good of a reason as any as it totally enhanced the experience), and just immersing myself in it.  And I was terrified.  It didn't help that I was alone, especially afterward, in a house with an attic door near my bedroom (exactly like the one in the movie), as I attempted to sleep while turning off anything that made noise in the house so I didn't have a heart attack at 3:15 AM.  But Paranormal Activity is smart-it gets a lot of its scares not just from jump scares, but from the silence.  As often as you're seeing a moving sheet or shadow on the wall, you're also seeing nothing...wondering how much of this is real or not.  And the ambiguous ending helped; I hear they try to create a mythology for the film in the sequels, but I don't need that-I'm good with it just being a random nightmare that could happen to anyone, as it's far scarier.

It also is a clear metaphor for an abusive relationship.  Micah is an ass, regularly doing things (like buying the camera or using a Ouija board) that Katie expressly asked him not to do, and it makes things worse.  She's interested in solving a problem, he's interested in how it will make him look.  The entire film really focuses on her wanting to study, wanting to solve the issue...while he's continually focusing on how pretty she is, whether he'll get laid, how he'll look on a camera that is just a narcissistic reflection of himself.  As the film continues, and the audience begins to understand that for them there's no escape (any rational person would've sprung for a hotel at least one of these nights to see if it made a difference, but Micah's not rational and Katie doesn't want another fight), it also shows that their relationship was also doomed.  If it wasn't the demons from outside, it was the demons within that were going to destroy it.

And with that, I'm going to bid you a Happy Halloween.  Enjoy some candy, eat some caramel apples, and watch out for what lurks in the shadows...

Past Horror Month Reviews

1920's: The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera

1930's: The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Mad Love, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London

1940's: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Cat People, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Invisible Woman, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Phantom of the Opera, She-Wolf of London, Son of Dracula, The Uninvited, The Wolf Man

1950's: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space, Revenge of the Creature

1960's: The Devil Rides Out, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead,Village of the Damned

1970's: The Amityville Horror, Black Christmas, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Look Now, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, The Omen, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, The Wicker Man

1980's: Child's Play, The Evil Dead, The Fly, Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Thing

1990's-Present: Arachnophobia, The Blair Witch Project, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Candyman, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scary Movie, Scream