Paranormal Activity Review (10-11-09)

I have to disagree with the comment that the movie was filmed documentary style. It really wasn’t. It was just a couple trying to catch something happening in their house. But this is a minor point. Your vlog is very funny and your opinions are eloquently put. I agree that the sense of dread in The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity makes them both terryfying. I saw Paranormal Activity at home and I promise you, it’s still scary. You’re alone, your ac makes noise. I’m still sleeping with the light on.

I agree with the most of this review. However I thought the parts where they argue are very effective and I’ll tell you why.

The demon feends on conflict and bad emotions, correct? Well, the power of the demon escalates with their negative emotions. So when he starts recording, its “weak” and it can’t do much, for instance: it opens a door. Not very impressive. When they continue recording and provoking (provoking in a very “shallow” manner I would say where he acts tough but really he’s scared) they get even more scared when they see how it grows in power, which feeds the demon. They turn on eachother and argues, negatve emotions which strengthens the demon. Everything negative and what might be seen as drawn out bickering is empowering the demon to the point where it has the power to “meet his goal” so to speak. I thougt it was pretty nice to see their emotions towards eachother get perverted since it was a sublte way to know that the demon is getting stronger, its getting closer to achieving its goal. For every negative emotion, every argument, every gasp it grows in strength.

To me it was very powerful to feel how the demon used their own emotions and goals against them to achieve its own. I figured it had little power at the begining and, like I said, it escalated with the fears and emotions of the characters.

Saw this one tonight with my wife. Absolutely loved it. SECOND scariest movie of the year next to Drag Me To Hell.
Why? Same reason you mentioned- emotional investment in the characters, and the lack of an explanation as to what actually happened. The cloven footprints in the powder really sent it home for me- unholy cow !!

As per usual, you hit the nail on the head, my friend. Now I have to sleep on the couch, because I didn’t tell my wife how bad it was gonna be… sigh…

A Blair Witch style movie could probably be made to be very scary, but Blair Witch just wasn’t. I consider it really bad, and consider the sequel actually good.

Nothing scary happens in Blair Witch; and no, I do not mean the whole, “we didn’t see anything”, I mean, nothing scary happens.

Some people set up some stones around the tent. Big whoop. Apparently some dicks trying to mess with don’t even have the guts to show themselves and/or attack me while I’m asleep. And they start running away scared from the stones, and I don’t get it. Yeah, it maybe fucked up, but if they wanted to hurt you they would have done so already. If they had guns, they wouldn’t be scared to come out, since they don’t come out, they’re more scared of you, than you are of them. So nothing scary is going on here, and them getting scared if I were there, would just have me say, “Calm down, will ya.”

Going in circles with a compass; there’s a magnetic rock nearby powerful enough to become the dominant magnetic force instead of the North Pole. Big whoop.

And the so-called money shot: There’s a guy standing there. And? What?

So I got no idea whether I should watch this, I’m leaning towards no, but on the other hand it at least showed they showed and let you here something that is actually scary.

@Bumbo, what I thought of the demon, was that it was sorta “jealous”, “obsessed” with that poor girl, stalking it and doing weird shit. But when she finally had a guy, amongst many other provocations, it started to become angry.

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!

For example, the ouija board showing that demon’s last victim’s name, hinting that it didnt like that they would bring any magicians or anything in there. And when the guy got more cocky and angry, the demon got more angry, and showed that in different ways, like scratching only the guys face in an image. And the last straw, which triggered the last night, was when the guy burnt that picture.

Watched pretty much all your stuff for about 2 years, your call that Pandorum was The Decent in space was absolutely brilliant. This however dissapoints me a lot more than anything Ive seen from any reviewer ever.

Thank you for all the entertainment over the last couple of years, but I am in shock that you like this movie, shocked that you thought it was scary and horrified that you would spend so much time talking about how good it was. Feels like one of my most trusted reviewers just told me that Star Wars Part 1 was the best movie in the series. No actually, this is worse :(

Theres currently only one person that could survive this and still have me watching his reviews, and thats you.

I feel like I’m missing something. I didn’t find it scary AT ALL.

I met my girlfriend at the cinema, and saw some of my friends. They told me they had just seen Paranormal Activity and I said that we were about to watch it. One of my friends seriously said “Don’t. Just don’t. Seriously man. Don’t watch it. DON’T. THERE’S NO SOLUTION AT THE ENDING” etc.

At this point I was shitting myself about watching it, literally shaking. Got to it, 45 minutes in and I’m not scared at all. People are jumping out of their seats in fear and I just didn’t find any of it scary. I really wanted to get scared and began thinking I wasn’t in the right mindset.

The only part that scared me was pretty much the end scene. Made me jump, but yeah, I left feeling a bit disappointed.

Maybe I just didn’t get it..

My girlfriend wasn’t scared either. The scariest thing for her was that one bit with the small spider, because she has a REALLY bad phobia of spiders. That’s pretty damn pitiful if you ask me.

I watched this at home a little while ago with my gf, and it isn't more boring at home as it is in the theatre, if you put the volume up and make it absolutly dark=] the fummiest thing was after we were done she thought she heared something, she was about to piss her pants, and then it turned out to be my pet cat. hahaha

Just saw it tonight so sorry this comment is a few months late.
My movie crowd burst out laughing at

(SPOILERS)

the part where the demon dragged her out of bed.

(END SPOILERS)

I also found it hilarious. I, honestly, think that some people are just not scared by this kind of style. I know when I wasn't laughing I was bored shitless. I was not drawn in because the boyfriend and the girlfriend were unbelievably stupid, and the scares were all jump scares (never jumped either, mainly because it was all predictable BS).
And why would the guy keep on provoking the demon? I don't get why he keeps provoking it after the first few times. It's obviously not helping. Not that I was cheering for the demon, but I think the couple was fully aware after the first few days the camera, ouija board etc… was DEFINITELY not helping. They were asking for it. Basically, the movie was like a boy poking a beehive, a girl telling him not to poke the beehive or else she'd leave, even though she never left, and of course, they both get stung in the end…LEAVE AND STOP PROVOKING IT MORONS!

(SPOILERS)

I felt no sympathy for them when the demon kicked Micah's ass into the camera and possessed Katy's, dumb, dependent ass in the end.

(END SPOILERS)

I love your videos Spoony, but you shouldn't get on your high horse and criticize people for liking movies like Transformers (yes, even though it's a pretty mindless flick) because there are people who are into that. You liked this movie and some people will enjoy it and will genuinely be scared by it, and some people will just not like it and won't connect to the types of scares this movie has to offer. Not because they don't get it, but because it's just not to their tastes.

i am usually scared of every horror movies, like mouths of no sleep scared but when i saw this i was bored after 30 minute i started to find it funny. and the end (i saw one of the alternate endings only) was retarded she kills the guy and then herself? (sorry about the spoiler)

I think you saw a different movie.

I agree with pretty much everything you said (especially about horror movies today and the difference between revulsion and fear) except for one thing: being genuinely scared is not fun. At all.

It's fine if you can walk out of the theater, shake it off and go home. I can't do that. By the time I've cared enough about the plot and characters to become really, truly terrified, it does not go away. I've got an unusually overactive imagination and I just can't seem to shake this dread after I've watched a horror movie.

This all reminds me of this one time my whole family was out of town and I was alone at my parent's place. Big place. Mansion in the woods, old building, not too many other houses around. So, naturally, I rented a movie, got a pile of snacks (thank god I did) and settled down to watch a horror movie, The Ring. I know, not a very scary movie, but you'd be surprised how pants-shittingly terrified you can get when you're alone in a huge creaking mansion at night in the woodsy asscrack of rural Belgium. Once the movie was over I was so freaked out I didn't have the balls to get off the couch. I basically camped out on the couch with a blankie over my head surviving on snacks and coke for the better part of two days. I'm not even kidding, that's how terrified I was.

So, yeah, I'm a major pussy. I've been terrified a lot and it was never fun. And the weird thing is, I absolutely love old-school horror movies, but I can't watch them on my own, I haven't got a boyfriend anymore (and he didn't like movies anyway) and my friends don't like horror. I'd love to see Ringu and Kairo and Rosemary's Baby and the Exorcist and a slew of other movies, but it's sooo not worth camping on the couch for.

Gotta say I loved The Blair Witch project, may favourite horror movie of all time, though it loses most of the effect after the first viewing. Though I've showed it to various friends and girlfriends and they just get bored. Maybe I'll have to check out Paranormal Activity .

My idea on the whole fear verses gore thing is that, over time, people have got use to having these things shoved straight down their throat and are not willing to think about what is going on. What I love about the Blair Witch is that you need to use your head and it's not the movie that scares you, but your own mind

Funny should mention Day of The Dead, cause I always thought you looked like the Evil dude (at least when your hair is right)

Evil Spoony: 'I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE DOING WITH MY TIME!'

The board and, especially, that audio recording ruined the movie for me.
I'm actually surprised that you let those 2 off the hook. I mean, come on! Those were pure Hollywood cheese!

My dear Spoony, good analysis, I concur.

You're thinking of “Paranormal Entity”. It was a “Paranormal Activity” rip-off essentially, but told a different story. “Paranormal Activity” deals with a girl and her boyfriend.

paranormal activity = worst movie i've seen

I think im gonna watch paranormal. But utill then the scariest movie i've seen is probably Dead Silence, That doll gave me nightmares xD

I can only agree with you on two points: most horror films are in fact pieces of cinematic shit, and that movies like Hostel are more gross than scary. Horror movies are rarely, if ever, actually fear-inducing unless you can switch off the part of your brain that can distinguish the difference between You and The Movie. In the main, a film cannot actually put you in any danger, and the fact that I am aware that I am watching a movie makes it hard for the film to do more than just startle me with loud noises, orchestral stings or things suddenly flying at the camera. Some movies can work tension very well, and can definitely creep me the hell out. I stand at the back of elevators ever since watching The Eye. Some Alfred Hitchcock films can work my nerves over pretty good, like Vertigo (although to be fair that’s not actually a horror film) or the original Psycho. I have a creepy film called Session 9 in my collection; it’s not scary, per se, but it is certainly eerie.

On the other hand, the “new” trend of gore-porn movies like Hostel or Saw aren’t scary either – they’re just gross, and in the case of Hostel, disturbingly boring. I fell asleep watching Hostel in theaters only to be startled awake by a stupid loud noise the director used instead of a genuinely creepy moment. Gore-porn flicks aren’t exactly new, but they’ve reached lavish new lows as of late that spatter the screen in gallons of viscera during excessively long, lovingly crafted torture scenes that make me queasy but not particularly frightened.

I just found both The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity mind-numbingly *boring.* (Actually, I found Blair Witch to be irritating on top of boring.) They had a few good moments in the latter; the footprints in the powder for instance. But the ending was just retarded and I hated both of the characters almost on sight. Claiming that not being able to get into the film makes you a “stick in the mud” isn’t fair – it’s not really a personality flaw that I find little difference between a fake documentary horror film and a Yet Another Slasher horror film – neither one is scary, both are boring, but at least I can make fun of slasher movies.