Paranormal Activity 2007

 Pretty much everyone who is a fan of horror movies has at least heard of Paranormal Activity.  This is the first movie in the series (the third chronologically if you want to get technical) and everything and I do mean everything was done by Oren Peli.  He wrote, directed, produced, filmed, and edited the entire thing with just a $15,000 budget.  The film went on to make nearly $200 million globally.  Paranormal Activity concerns a couple who think the house they moved in to is haunted so they buy a video camera to record the unexplained happenings. 

     As much as I love anthology horror movies, I usually do not like "found footage" type movies.  Why do I say I don't like them?  Because hate and despise are such harsh words but you now have an idea of how much I do not like this genre.  There is, of course, the exception.  The Blair Witch Project is such an exception.  The actors and actresses use their real names in the movie which is interesting.  Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat star as Katie and Micah the aforementioned couple who are responsible for the documentation. Mark Fredrichs plays Dr. Fredrichs a psychic who tries to convince them to consult with a demonolgist as he thinks there in an entity following Katie.  Amber Armstrong and Ashley Palmer who play the couples friends round out the cast.

 The film was shot in just seven days with Micah, at times, acting as both actor and cameraman.  The entire film is shot with a home video camera to give it a realistic feel.  Due to the fact that there was not a script the dialogue also feels genuine with only retro scripting being used.  While it was originally planned to be an independent film Paramount Pictures ended up buying the domestic rights to the film.  Producers at Paramount made a few changes to the film with the biggest of which being they scrapped the original ending and made a different one

Let's be honest with nearly no special effects and no gore to speak of this movie is basically held together with jump scares.  Now that's to say it's a bad thing but if that's not your thing you're not going to like this movie.  Also after a few viewings it does begin to loose it's effect as you know what's coming and when so it doesn't hold up for re-watching.  This was the third time I have seen it and it definitely wasn't as enjoyable as the first time I saw it in the movie theater.  If you like being scared by the things that go bump in the night then this is definitely for you.  With all that in mind the rating for me is a little tricky.  I originally reviewed this movie when I first saw it back in 2007 as a 4 out of 5.  After the most recent viewing I was more apt to give this a 2 or 2 and a half out of five.  So I will split the difference and I will even be generous about it and I will give it 3 Ghostly Apparitions out of 5.  Denise, my Horror Honey, felt about the same way and gave it 3.5 out of 5.