Paranormal Activity

[The Evil Dead]

^
That is the theatrical ending and what most audiences should be seeing, the "police" ending is on the DVD screener that leaked online over the past couple of days. It sounds better than the theatrical ending so I may actually have to Youtube it just to see it.

 

[Trekker4747]

Just came from seeing it tonight with my girlfriend and here is our review as we both had basically the same opinion. A caveat before I give my opinion is that this review is based mostly on how the film sounds as we had our eyes closed most of the time. That is not an indication of how scary it is, but how prone to motion sickness we both are. The Blair Witch Syndrome kicked in big time at about 15 minutes in and both of us were heavily nauseous for the rest of the film. If you are prone to that I'd recommend taking some Dramamine, siting way in the back, or waiting for the DVD to come out.

Considering the camera was sitting on a table or the tripod most of the time you and the GF must be really prone to motion sickness. How on earth do you watch a Michael Bay movie?

 

[Trekker4747]

Here's the Spoony Experiment Review.

It's pretty long (about 45 minutes) and rambling but worth listening to as Spoony gets into his feelings of the "horror genre" overall.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Just came from seeing it tonight with my girlfriend and here is our review as we both had basically the same opinion. A caveat before I give my opinion is that this review is based mostly on how the film sounds as we had our eyes closed most of the time. That is not an indication of how scary it is, but how prone to motion sickness we both are. The Blair Witch Syndrome kicked in big time at about 15 minutes in and both of us were heavily nauseous for the rest of the film. If you are prone to that I'd recommend taking some Dramamine, siting way in the back, or waiting for the DVD to come out.

Considering the camera was sitting on a table or the tripod most of the time you and the GF must be really prone to motion sickness. How on earth do you watch a Michael Bay movie?

Uhhh, don't. Haven't seen a one since the Rock.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I saw the original film online (I know that's frowned upon these parts) and I guess that was the copy of the film they had. I want to see the theater version which I read was suggested by Steven Speilberg.

 

[Trekker4747]

I saw the original film online (I know that's frowned upon these parts)....

Yes, seeing movies that you're not paying for is going to be frowned on. Being that it's illegal and immoral and all.

 

[stueyross]

illegal okay. Immoral? Behave yourself. If I watch this online and then go and see it at the cinema would that pacify your moral sensibilities?

 

[backstept]

I heard there was an ending involving pine trees?

I saw the ending Dark Journey saw

 

[Lookingglassman]

It sounds interesting, but what I dont understand is why dont they just leave the house? I never understood that about folks who live in a "haunted house".

I own a home, but if creepy stuff started happening, the bank can have it. I will live out of my car before I stay another night in it.

 

[Trekker4747]

It sounds interesting, but what I dont understand is why dont they just leave the house? I never understood that about folks who live in a "haunted house".

I own a home, but if creepy stuff started happening, the bank can have it. I will live out of my car before I stay another night in it.

I'm guessing you haven't seen it.

Spoiler: Why they don't leave the house

The demon is attached to the girlfriend and has been since she was six. Leaving the house would do no good, it'd just follow them to wherever they go.

 

[Starbreaker]

Night 20 scared the crap out of me. I rarely get scared, but I had chills all over my body.

 

[Ryan]

It sounds interesting, but what I dont understand is why dont they just leave the house? I never understood that about folks who live in a "haunted house".

I own a home, but if creepy stuff started happening, the bank can have it. I will live out of my car before I stay another night in it.

I'm guessing you haven't seen it.

Spoiler: Why they don't leave the house

The demon is attached to the girlfriend and has been since she was six. Leaving the house would do no good, it'd just follow them to wherever they go.

Somehow Paranormal Activity gets away with some incredibly amateurish scripting because it doesn't look like it's a movie.

Spoiler: Paranormal Activity

They never question the psychic's claim that leaving won't help because they need to keep the action in the house. Katie never stops Micah from antagonizing the demon because they need the haunting to escalate. The couple never bother looking for another demonologist or priest for an exorcism (even though The Exorcist is explicitly mentioned at one point) because they need their ending. And they record everything - even Micah apparently watching the hours of previous recordings - despite the psychic telling them it will only make things worse because it's the only way they can have a movie.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Actually according to stuff I've read...much like Blair Witch Project...there wasn't a script for the actors...they had cues and notes from the directors and that's pretty much it. I am planning on seeing the film in theaters by the way.

It's explained why leaving the house would be pointless...in the spoiler code provided a few posts ago, they talked about that with Amber and concluded it would have just followed her to her house and caused problems there. In some ghost haunting cases I've read and heard about people have had similar situations like Katie where the entity for several years and changing the location doesn't do anything to help the situation. I do agree that searching for alternative help would seem logical, although I think there was a scene where Katie is looking for a demonologist in the phone book and says that they one the pyschic told her to call was the one closest to them. Micha also points out that finding these types isn't like searching for another doctor...

 

[Ryan]

Actually according to stuff I've read...much like Blair Witch Project...there wasn't a script for the actors...they had cues and notes from the directors and that's pretty much it.

It's got a screenplay credit though I can believe it wasn't much of one. The whole thing is a meandering mess.

It's explained why leaving the house would be pointless...

I know and I stand by opinion of it: it's a stupid, flimsy excuse. The filmmakers put it in there because they needed to keep the action on their set (understandable) and they couldn't think of any interesting way to do it (lazy).

In The Shining they're snowed in at a hotel. In The Blair Witch Project they're lost in the woods. In [Rec] they're quarantined in an apartment building. And in Paranormal Activity they don't leave because some crazy guy told them it wouldn't help (even though Katie's own dialog contradicts that). Hell, they don't even think to invite anyone - friends, news crews, ghost hunters, skeptics, whatever - over.

In some ghost haunting cases I've read and heard about people have had similar situations like Katie where the entity for several years and changing the location doesn't do anything to help the situation.

Doesn't mean much to me since I don't believe in supernatural phenomena.

 

[Trekker4747]

I know and I stand by opinion of it: it's a stupid, flimsy excuse. The filmmakers put it in there because they needed to keep the action on their set (understandable) and they couldn't think of any interesting way to do it (lazy).

It's called suspension of disbelief. They needed the characters to stay in the house so they came up with a reasonable reason why they couldn't leave, or why leaving wouldn't serve them any good. It's a reason that makes sense in the context of the movie we're even given an "expert" in the movie to verify it for us (it doesn't matter that they didn't check with other "experts" the movie served us one and we're supposed to take what he says as gospel.)

Sometimes when people watch movies they take it too much into real life. In real life, yes, one would probably call other psychics or "experts" to fix their situation we don't have that luxury in a movie. All the movie needs to do is present its audience with a reason why the characters cannot leave, this movie did that. They told us right out why leaving wouldn't be of any help to them and they gave us an in-universe "expert" to verify it. The movie did its duty to suspend the disbelief.

If it didn't work for you then maybe you expect too much. I, for one, wouldn't have enjoyed this movie as much if it was more about them talking to various "psychics" to solve their problem or felt that if they left now the "demon" for the first time in 20 years would leave the girl alone.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I know and I stand by opinion of it: it's a stupid, flimsy excuse. The filmmakers put it in there because they needed to keep the action on their set (understandable) and they couldn't think of any interesting way to do it (lazy).

It's called suspension of disbelief. They needed the characters to stay in the house so they came up with a reasonable reason why they couldn't leave, or why leaving wouldn't serve them any good. It's a reason that makes sense in the context of the movie we're even given an "expert" in the movie to verify it for us (it doesn't matter that they didn't check with other "experts" the movie served us one and we're supposed to take what he says as gospel.)

Sometimes when people watch movies they take it too much into real life. In real life, yes, one would probably call other psychics or "experts" to fix their situation we don't have that luxury in a movie. All the movie needs to do is present its audience with a reason why the characters cannot leave, this movie did that. They told us right out why leaving wouldn't be of any help to them and they gave us an in-universe "expert" to verify it. The movie did its duty to suspend the disbelief.

If it didn't work for you then maybe you expect too much. I, for one, wouldn't have enjoyed this movie as much if it was more about them talking to various "psychics" to solve their problem or felt that if they left now the "demon" for the first time in 20 years would leave the girl alone.

In real life there'd probably be a carbon monoxide leak somewhere in the house causing them to have delusions and the camera would have videotaped hours and hours of nothing but them sleeping. I agree, I didn't have any problem with the explanation and it made perfect "scary movie" sense.

 

[Ryan]

It's called suspension of disbelief.

It's not suspension of disbelief. It's a horrible, clunky plot device. I don't have any problem they had to keep them in the house. I have a problem they did it so god awfully.

You can advance a plot without resorting to a completely transparent character. The second time we see the psychic the guy comes in, gets Katie and Micah worked up into a complete lather about the presence (even though he said not to feed it negative emotion earlier), then promptly runs away.

The scene is all to prove THE SITUATION IS REALLY SERIOUS, in case you hadn't noticed that from the Ouija board spontaneously bursting into flames. It's silly and violates one of the most basic rules of fiction. The movie has a good premise that just can't escape its lousy writing and poor plotting.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I agree with you Ryan that it was a flimsy excuse to keep them inside the house...in some ways I wouldn't have minded if Katie and Micah had agreed to go to Amber's house anyways just for one night and have the hauntings continue there. It would have changed the complexion of the film i think but proven the psychic was right in his assessment.

I have this idea for a post Paranormal Activity one shot that focuses on the police investigation and they interview the pyschic and ask him if he feels any guilt in his part in this, for not helping them further when they practically begged him (or at least Katie did on the last day).

 

[Starbreaker]

Good grief... just because you "don't believe in paranormal" doesn't mean that the plot is bad. That makes no sense. I don't believe in transporters, but Star Trek plots don't bother me. There are documented cases of ghosts following people from house to house, so the fact that they used that scenario makes sense. And also, do you not realize how stubborn Micah is during this whole movie? It's his house and he wants to fix things and be her savior or whatever, and that's eventually his own undoing.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Katie herself says it's about her, not the house...remember, it burnt down her childhood home? Remember Micah getting pissed at her for not mentioning this before she moved in? Remember the burned photograph of her when she was 8? Criiiiiipes. Cut the $11 000 dollar movie an ounce of slack.