Paranormal Activity

Did the hype kill the movie? I watch a lot of horror movies and normally I would really have liked this one. In the endless stream of b-movies and even expensive crap, this movie really stands out. Paranormal Acivity is a scary and straightforward movie and it isn't boring. But of course there is the hype. After I heard this was the scariest movie ever, expectations evidently went up. Eventually resulting in a slight disappointment. This movie would have been much scarier, creepier if I hadn't had any expectations, if I hadn't read any reviews. I guess Public Enemy was right about the Hype.

The movie is scary indeed. After watching Paranormal Activity I noticed that the nightly sounds of my 200 years old house were louder and creepier than ever. But I did not let my good night's sleep for it.

The acting was good but sometimes slightly overdone, which made it difficult for me to connect with the characters. I understand that Micah, the bf, had to be annoying, the character was written that way. But their is something wrong if you start imagining in the middle of the movie gruesome ways he could die. The movie should have been scarier if I had had more empathy for the characters.

Anayway I enjoyed watching this film, but the hype made me expect more.

Katie and Micah move into their new home, but instead of domestic bliss, the couple share several sleepless nights, prompting them to set up cameras during the night. The nights become more and more eventful.

I didn't exactly fall in love with this film when it was first released, people were apparently collapsing with fear in the cinemas, I never bought that, I didn't find it scary, looking back, I find it original.

It always felt as though the found footage genre took off after, and because of this film, not my favourite type of film, but I can appreciate what went on behind the scenes here.

I actually think the followups did a better job with scares, they took it much further, but when it came to originality, this one is the winner.

Later films seem more scripted, and are definitely more heavily produced, this one feels a lot more raw, more naive in a way, that's where this film's charm comes from, that and the snappy running time.

7/10.

That's what I get for believing the hype. Yes, it was a good movie, but not much more. Having watched movies for 40 years, I can think of others that disturbed me more. The most disturbing part was what the characters DIDN'T do when they had evidence. No one would react the way they did. If you had video evidence of a presence in your house, wouldn't you tell just about everyone? If you bore the marks of being attacked by an invisible presence, wouldn't you have them checked out? If you were one of the few friends that they did tell, would you really let them stay in that house another two weeks? If you were the girl and your boyfriend lied to you as much as this guy did, would you still stay with him? I was glad to see a movie acknowledge the existence of demons, however.

Finally, the ending was cheesier than my nachos. It's worth a watch, but I have seen better and scarier.

Have not commented on anything in a long time. But after reading all the overly positive "scariest movie of all time" and overly negative "two hours of my life I'll never get back (hour and a half actually)", I had to comment. I heard about this in Entertainment Weekly and was waiting patiently for it to come out in wide distribution. All in all, it's a good movie for what it is. A low budget horror movie using the faux documentary premise. Compared to The Blair Witch Project, where you couldn't see a damn thing to be scared of, and Cloverfield, which just made me nauseous from the jerking camera, this film at least has steady camera work most of the time. If you are a die hard horror movie fan, will this movie terrify you? Probably not, except on a psychological level possibly. The notion of a demon haunting a person as opposed to a haunted house, while nothing truly original in the sense it hasn't been done elsewhere, is still not seen to much in horror (except in possession films), least these days in the days of Saw and Hostel and other crap. There are a few startling moments in the film. They are comparable to a friend sneaking up on you from behind and shaking you. But honestly, that's what I want from a horror movie. To be in suspense and have something shock me and get my heart pumping for a few. I can't remember the last film I saw to do that so at least Paranormal Acivity got my blood flowing a couple times. But mostly its disturbing. Some of the night scenes would be slightly shocking, others would just be creepy to watch. But in each something different happens. In terms of acting, nothing spectacular but hardly as terrible as some are whining about. And while the film suffers from all other faux documentary films with the "'WHY ARE YOU STILL FILMING? TURN THE CAMERA OFF!' 'I WOULD BUT THEN THERE WOULDN'T BE A MOVIE TO SHOW.'" moments, there are actually times when the boyfriend gets yelled at to turn off the camera and does so. And his character is shown from the beginning to be stubborn, frat boyish, and egotistical. So, while his stupidity starts to wear on you, its a slightly more plausible reason for the continual filming than say Blair Witch Projects "THE CAMERA IS ALL I HAVE LEFT!!!" moments. To sum up, is this the scariest film of all time? No. But it is without a doubt the scariest film to be shown in the mainstream theater in the last few years. Its more terrifying then the endless remakes and sequels we have been plagued with. One thing I hope for with all the hype is that horror fans want more genuine shock moments than over the top gore.

I watched this movie in the cinemas since i wanted the full effect and to be horrified like never before as the youtubevideos suggests. The movie was so hyped i hoped it to be that scary movie I've been waiting for since my experience with Rec.

The setup is a house, two people in it and a camera. Starts off promising with fairly good acting. It almost seems they are a couple in real life, that would be my guess. Micah(Micah) does what you would expect from a boyfriend after his girlfriend tells him she hears noises and sees things after midnight - he sets up a camera in the house and starts taunting. As texts in the middle of the screen shows the process, day1..day12 etc. things escalates from day to day. People in the audience are getting nervous and i feel the tension rising and building up my expectations. However the movie is never really kicking off and nothing is ever happening, its like Scream without the guy with the knife. Its like your lover giving you a lapdance and leaving in the middle of the show. Its like i pay 15bucks to get scared but i get angry instead. The whole movie felt like the first 30 minutes of a good horror movie, then all the sudden texts start running down the screen and the cinema is lit up - the movie is actually ending after 30 min? oh well my clock tells me I've been sitting here for 1½ hours.

Taking the budget into consideration i would say its a great horror movie. I guess i was just expecting something more frightening. Want to know how the audience was reacting? They reacted like me, laughing and complaining when walking out.

I could almost promise you the hype is mostly made up and the videos you can watch online are promotion and bullshit. I cant imagine anyone leaving the cinema or getting freaked out. OK, maybe if they are bored and leave or angry and freaked out.