Paranormal Activity – DVD Review

Published on March 19, 2010 by Martyn Conterio · View Comments

Oren Peli’s little horror film came out of nowhere and it’s not even a particularly ambition effort. By keeping within the confines of space (a single house) and budget it reaped great results. To begin with, the film was making the festival rounds and probably destined for a bargain bin near you. Somebody gave a copy to Steven Spielberg and it went on to become an international sensation and a new ending filmed, which was more nightmarish than the ambiguous original.Paranormal Activity became global success story and entered the unholy canon of genre classics.

The successes are achieved through its low-fi aesthetic. Its pseudo-amateur angle plays well, but leaves a multitude of questions unanswered. They are usually called “holes in the plot”. But we needn’t bother with issues, because hey guess what? It’s only a movie. Ah, the great caveat!

Whether you believe in ghosts or not is immaterial (geddit?) because Oren Peli situates the spooky goings-on with a demon and not the usual old ghost who doesn’t like the new occupiers. Demons are infinitely freakier because they’re not human: they’re distinctly malevolent and unstoppable! It won’t be a Catholic priest you’ll need, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Its silliest excesses can be ignored such as pretending its real “found” footage (misleading term), Paramount thanking authorities for letting them have the material; pretending its real.

Micah and Kate are haunted by a demon who has, well, haunted Kate on and off since childhood. Why? Don’t ask stupid questions! It’s only a movie remember? Anyway, none of that is important…it adds mystery.

So once the idea that a ghost is jettisoned, Peli’s movie takes on an insidious quality. Although its mythology is confused, Paranormal Activity stills works. Why? Because it plays its audience, to quote Penguin in Batman Returns, “like a harp from Hell”.

One of the strongest elements is the locked-off night camera conceit. There’s very little jerky Blair Witch-style blurriness. It allows for suspense and strange tableaux to be set up, the best one involving Kate waking up in the middle of night and staring at her sleeping boyfriend – for two hours.

Paranormal Activity doesn’t really ever lift off into the stratosphere of ultimate horror and its occasional low budget origins are heavily pronounced, but it manages to get by on sheer charm. The ending, yes, is well executed after all the bafflement. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a treat, but upon repeated viewing its effectiveness diminishes.

Much of the film is a two-hander between Micah and Kate, and it is to their credit they manage to sustain our interest. And for once look like everyday, middle class Americans. Maybe the sequel will have at least a couple of hot babes playing ordinary, i.e. wearing glasses.

The DVD features an audio commentary, original ending (they call it the “alternate ending” here) and several short films inspired by Peli’s flick. Hardly riveting stuff.

Paranormal Activity is a well-made haunted house movie and is just as effective on the small screen as the cinema release. For once, the hype seems just about justified. If things go bump in the night, remember it’s not necessarily a ghost, could be a demon instead. Sleep tight.

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