Paranormal Activity

[Ryan]

Good grief... just because you "don't believe in paranormal" doesn't mean that the plot is bad.

I'm not sure if that's aimed at me or not but my problem isn't with the premise but the plot. At one point they have the psychic say filming everything will only make the demon more aggressive. Think about that. Rather than giving a reason to keep the camera rolling they're giving one to turn it off as the haunting gets worse. Why the hell would they put that in their movie?

Katie herself says it's about her, not the house...remember, it burnt down her childhood home?

Yes, it was another plot hole. The demon manifested itself while the sisters slept and burnt down their house. Then they moved and it did very little besides making bumping noises. Despite what the psychic said the demon wasn't consistent in its haunting.

When a movie's low budget I'll give it a pass on camera work and SFX but I won't give it a pass on plot and acting.

 

[Admiral2]

I'm not sure if that's aimed at me or not but my problem isn't with the premise but the plot. At one point they have the psychic say filming everything will only make the demon more aggressive. Think about that. Rather than giving a reason to keep the camera rolling they're giving one to turn it off as the haunting gets worse. Why the hell would they put that in their movie?

Because when he doesn't stop filming, having said it helps Micah to develop into the stubborn, d-bag character he was apparently meant to be. It's called character development, one of those writing rules you went on about earlier.

Katie herself says it's about her, not the house...remember, it burnt down her childhood home?

Yes, it was another plot hole. The demon manifested itself while the sisters slept and burnt down their house. Then they moved and it did very little besides making bumping noises. Despite what the psychic said the demon wasn't consistent in its haunting.

Except in that she was always a target of the haunt, whether the haunting was intense and in rapid succession or mild and stretched out over years. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

When a movie's low budget I'll give it a pass on camera work and SFX but I won't give it a pass on plot and acting.

This movie doesn't need your pass. The actors did perfectly fine with the material they were given and the effects were solid enough. If neither satisfied you, it's your problem, not the movie's.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Well, plot problems aside, Paranormal Activity went on to gross $22 million over the weekend, putting it at #1 at the domestic box office. The film has the chance to become the most profitable film of all time for Paramount Pictures, the film's distributor, which only spent $10 million in advertising.

Paranormal Activity was independently financed and produced by writer-producer-director Oren Peli for about $15,000. It has earned over $60 million since hitting theaters, and the L.A. Times is projecting it will reach the $100 million benchmark.

The film beat horror mainstay Saw VI, which earned $14 million, less than half of the previous openings for the four installments (Saw V opened at $30 million last year). It's the first sign of diminishing returns for the juggernaut horror franchise.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm going to agree with Spoony and say that "Saw" isn't a "horror" movie.

 

[JacksonArcher]

It's torture porn. I think true horror movies are films drenched in atmosphere and a slow burn sense of dread a la John Carpenter's Halloween or Alfred Hitchcock's Pyscho (which is admittedly more of a thriller, but has many horror genre components). The first Saw was actually very atmospheric with a clever premise. Every subsequent sequel since then has devolved to just plain formula.

For all its mistakes and amatuerish traits, Paranormal Activity is drenched in atmosphere and a slow burn sense of fear and dread. To me, that's categorically a classic horror movie. It might not be on the level of Halloween or Pyscho, but I'll take true genuine scares over cheap shock thrills and gore any day of the week.

 

[Trekker4747]

As Spoony said in his PA review Horror movies should play on fears and make you jumping at the noises of your own house settling, not make you root for the "bad guy."

In this repect Saw and other "torture porn" movies fail on every level as they're not scary. They're just nifty ways for audience members to wack off to pretty scenes of people dying. That's not horror.

Blair Witch Project? That was turer "horror" it made it made people fear the woods and isolation, PA does the same thing with your own home, fearing simple noises in a household and prying on out fears of things going on in the vulnerbility of sleeping in the safety of our own beds.

Poltergeist is a another great example of a "horror" movie.

Horror doesn't have to be about blood and guts and gore and slashers and the umpteenth spin on Ed Gein's story.

Paranormal Activity is way more "horror" than Saw.

 

[Trek4Ever]

For what's it worth, this film despite its flaws stuck with me long after I left the theater (in fact so much that I had a difficult time sleeping that night, damn my overactive imagination). That to me is a mark of a true horror film, where illogical fears are fired up by such a film. Give me that than any tepid torture porn film that dominates the marketplace these days.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Best ghost movie since Poltergeist. I'm happy to see a horror movie go beyond a loud noise and something jumps at you for scares or even a superloud cellphone. I don't scare easily by movies and this honestly spooked me.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Not just loud noises in your own house to be scared of, but the whole thing about your spouse being possessed and standing over the bed rocking back and forth for hours is enough to freak you out. I'll never look at my girlfriend the same because of that part in the movie. Holy lord was that shit creepy!

 

[Awesome Possum]

Not just loud noises in your own house to be scared of, but the whole thing about your spouse being possessed and standing over the bed rocking back and forth for hours is enough to freak you out. I'll never look at my girlfriend the same because of that part in the movie. Holy lord was that shit creepy!

Spoiler: Scary Stuff

When she's possessed at the end and talking to him is the worst bit. That creepy smile still haunts me.

 

[Ryan]

I'm not sure if that's aimed at me or not but my problem isn't with the premise but the plot. At one point they have the psychic say filming everything will only make the demon more aggressive. Think about that. Rather than giving a reason to keep the camera rolling they're giving one to turn it off as the haunting gets worse. Why the hell would they put that in their movie?

Because when he doesn't stop filming, having said it helps Micah to develop into the stubborn, d-bag character he was apparently meant to be. It's called character development, one of those writing rules you went on about earlier.

Calling that "character development" is beyond generous. By the time we've had the footprint experiment Micah's as much a believer as Katie and ends up so broken and beat down by the haunting he's ready to flee their home. Things have gotten so bad they're being terrorized in the middle of the day.

Yet Micah's still filming, feeding into what we're told is exactly what the demon wants (and Katie - who always took the whole thing seriously - only ever makes, at best, a half-hearted attempt to stop him).

Except in that she was always a target of the haunt, whether the haunting was intense and in rapid succession or mild and stretched out over years.

I don't really think we're disagreeing here. Katie's location has changed the nature of the haunting. They can leave their home and go back to the entity throwing Katie's keys on the floor while they wait for the only demonologist in California to return.

This movie doesn't need your pass. The actors did perfectly fine with the material they were given and the effects were solid enough. If neither satisfied you, it's your problem, not the movie's.

My real problem is I paid crazy theater prices for a movie that's worth a rental at best.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

The only thing that haunted me about the Saw movies was wondering what kind of chemo they had this guy on. For somebody who was supposedly dying of cancer this guy got more major construction work done, with all those elaborate torture devices of his, then half of the construction crews in New Jersey.

 

[Cutter John]

I think Wolvermouse nailed it. Thats the reason I dislike so much of what passes for horror these days. A good horror film should stick in your head and make you uncomfortable when you crawl into bed that night.
For example, BWP, The Descent, and The Mist are all recent ones that I've enjoyed a lot.

Okay, I know it was wrong, but one of the live video channels I follow shows the original version of the movie a little while ago. Very well done and creapy, but I thought the ending was weak. Found the theatrical ending on Youtube and oh yeah, thats much more like it. A real punch in the gut ending. I'm just glad my door has a lock.

 

[Mike Farley]

Do locks protect you against spontaneously erupting fires?

 

[Admiral_Young]

The scene described in the spoiler code freaked me out as well. I thought to myself, okay yep this thing has already managed to attach it's self to her at that point. For me all I'm saying is that despite this movies flaws which Ryan has pointed out (I'm not disagreeing with you dude I'm just saying that I really enjoyed this film maybe more than you did our opinions can differ on that) I thought it was great and it scared me really badly lol. I might be going this weekend to see the theatrical film so I can see the alternate ending everyone else is talking about. I'm not much a fan of the gore stuff or films like Saw...

 

[archeryguy1701]

I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a very entertaining movie that kept me engaged the entire time. It didn't really scare me until the very end, but the rest of it was intense. I think this movie highlights what is wrong with most modern "scary" movies. I think scary movies should be more psychological thrillers than "Make you jump every 30 seconds" movies or "How many different ways can we kill everyone in 2 hours?" movies. This didn't really make you jump, but it was intense and it really got into your head. I will admit that it stuck with me afterwards and had a tough time sleeping that first night. I would give it an A.

 

[Garm Bel Iblis]

Paranormal Activities <SPOILERS>..I LOL'd

I saw this this afternoon with my wife. I laughed out loud HARD at this movie. It was so hilarious to me. The over macho boyfriend, the girl who'd been tormented all her life by demons.

I was lucky it was an empty-ish theater, because the scene with the powder had me rolling. Here comes the demon, it's coming in the room...and apparently its a giant CHICKEN! All i could think of was Peter Griffin fighting it throughout the city.

The ending was so predictable, from the moment Katie didn't want to leave and "everything's going to be all right now." we knew the dude was dead and she even had to "ATTACK THE CAMERA" at the very end to cut to black.

My God this movie was great!

 

[Supreme Admiral]

Re: Paranormal Activities <SPOILERS>..I LOL'd

Looking forward to see this film!

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Merging threads.

 

[MPH]

Just seen this and it was very creepy, the ending I saw however was better than the theatrical one. The way she just rocks back and forth for almost a day was very eerie.