Paranormal Activity (2007) ***1/2

 

There's a reason most found-footage films are horror films. Done right, the format pulls you into the action and helps foster that suspension of disbelief that makes a movie scary. Also, the limited field of view of the cameras used allows things to happen just off-screen, and there's nothing scarier than what you can't see. It's also an interesting genre in that it is necessarily modern. The central conceit of a found-footage film is that everything you see was filmed by the protagonists, so these films can only be set during times when people would conceivably have had access to video cameras.

The first found-footage horror was apparently an Italian film from 1980 called “Cannibal Holocaust,” but it was 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" that really put the genre on the map. On a budget of around $200,000, the film made $250 million, and a generation of filmmakers fired up their handheld cameras to make low-fi horror. None of these made much of an impression until a guy named Oren Peli used a handheld camera and $15,000 to make a movie based on his own experience of unexplained noises in the night.

“Paranormal Activity” is the story of Katie and Micah, a young couple troubled by noises and misplaced objects in their home. Micah buys a video camera and a tripod and starts filming their bedroom at night. What he captures is mundane at first, but becomes increasingly horrifying.

“Paranormal Activity” is considered the most profitable movie of all time, based on return on investment, and it spawned a franchise. I haven't seen any of the many sequels, but I will say that the original film is very effective horror. The acting is nothing to write home about, and the dialogue can be annoying, but it's all good enough for a horror movie. The movie works, largely, because of how well it hews to the found-footage concept. Found-footage films usually reach a point where it just becomes unbelievable that the character would still be operating their video camera, and there are usually some scenes where one character is screaming at another to “turn off that f-ing camera!” “Paranormal Activity” checks all those boxes, but for the most part, Peli keeps it believable. The best, and scariest parts are where the camera is on the tripod at night, and we can only see what is visible in that fixed frame. Rather than relying on blood and guts, Peli terrifies us by letting us see only part of what is going on.

I waited 15 years to watch this film, because people told me it would scare the bejesus out of me, and they were right! More an experience than a story, “Paranormal Activity” has its limitations, but it is truly one of the must-see, modern horror flicks.

3.5 stars out of 5