Paranormal Activity : Movie Review
November 17th, 2009 | by Ridhima Suri |
If you’ve read any of the other reviews for ‘Paranormal Activity’, you will notice that many reviewers talk about ‘not sleeping’ at night after watching it.Yes it is true. If you have not watched this movie and have an appetite to digest strangely creepy movies you must watch it. If you are scared of horror movies easily please do not watch it.
I waited for almost 2 weeks before writing this review. Not only was I scared to write about ‘Paranormal Activity’ but even thinking about the movie made me feel the creeps! Yes..that’s the word! The movie was ‘unusually creepy’ not ‘horrifying’. I’d prefer to use the word ‘horrifying’ for other scary movies. This movie will not let you forget it. When you think about it, you are scared all over again.
Here’s my take:
We went for this movie in downtown San Jose. I had no clue what to expect. I did not even read any reviews. A friend said,’Let’s go! It has great reviews on IMDB’. ‘Let’s go!’ it was..:)
Initially I was pissed off with the shaky camera and really low profile opening of the movie. I am not a big fan of shaky camera work (I know it’s the ‘in’ technique..doesn’t work with me. I am old-school) so I tried to make the best of the situation. Oh my God! Was I wrong…hell yeah!! First, I had no clue the movie was about a couple with a hand held camera. Second, the movie is about tracking ‘paranormal activity’ (read ghostly happenings) with a camera. Last, overall the camera work was great and I have no complaints about the shaky beginning.
The movie builds up very well and portrays the life of a young couple who are haunted by the ghostly happenings in their home and are able to capture the ‘paranormal’ events on their hand-held camera. With each passing day the dark events scare the couple. I will not discuss the climax of the movie here.
Why does ‘Paranomal Activity’ deserve a thumbs up?
- Well for one it is unusually creepy. The actors have done a great job. The director must be very imaginative.
- The movie is so ‘real life’ that it captures the essence of simple camerawork, great imagination and amazing acting. It is as though the actors are not acting but living the horror!
- There is nothing fancy about the movie which actually adds to the suspense and storyline. You watch through the eyes of the couple’s camera.
- The climax is hell scary!
- It aims to give you creeps n goosebumps. It succeeds in doing so in a budget of under $15,000
Yes the movie deserves a thumbs up!
What to do after watching ‘Paranormal Activity’?
After watching the movie, go to the restroom…:) Have water. Do not let anyone scare or boo you (my husband and our friend did while we were coming out of the restroom!!) Gather your nerves and do not read the reviews of blog posts of the movie for some time. It will definitely scare you. Wait for dawn to go to sleep. I waited for daybreak to sleep the night we watched the movie!
For many days the status line on my Yahoo IM, Gtalk, Facebook & Orkut read ‘Paranormal Actitivity will scare the #$%$^% outta you!’ This is not the first time I have seen a scary movie but this is the first time I have actually had to gather strength to write about one. ‘Paranormal Activity’ is an unusually scary movie and worth every dime of your ticket money. Watch it to scare the wits out of yourself!!
The opinion in this post represents my opinion only. This does not reflect how my husband or friends felt about the movie. I will invite them to share their own tales! 
Tags: movie review, Movies, paranormal activity, scary
5 Responses to “Paranormal Activity : Movie Review”
By Vipul Sharma on Nov 17, 2009 | Reply
Just reading this brings back all the thoughts. My God it was the scariest movie I had seen!!! I was so scared that I yelled at my wife when she got up to get water at night
)
Nice post, it sums up everything.
By Ridhima on Nov 20, 2009 | Reply
Thank you!! For me it was one helluva creepy movie..:D but yeah some folks (I hope my husband reads this) were not scared at all…:) We went to a hall with only 6-8 people..and the hall was on the fourth floor (Century 12 in San Jose downtown)….so the private viewing kinda bumped up the experience…:D
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!!!! Its always good to know both sides of a story..:)
By Priyank on Nov 21, 2009 | Reply
The movie was quite uniquely made & not much moolah spent on it as well but frankly it was not horrifying or scary at all. During the entire movie, there was not a single scene which sent shivers through my spine. May be as I saw this movie in the hall with all the people around me, and if I were watching the movie alone at home, I would have been feeling quite differently
. Also, when the movie was actually reaching the climax, it just ended abruptly, may be the director/producer will make the sequel soon with all the money they made from this movie so far 
.
I will call this movie the best scary movie during halloween season of this year but definitely not the most scary movie ever made. All the social networks, esp. twitter has contributed a lot for the success of this movie.
my two cents,
-Priyank.
By vaibhav on Jan 3, 2010 | Reply
I have not seen the move but can someone let me know when do we expect this movie to release in INDIA???