Paranormal Activity (2007)
Get ready for my version of a semi-scathing review…
My boyfriend says horror movies tend to get low
ratings on IMDb, so the fact that most of the movies we are watching this term
get in the 6-7 range out of 10 is impressive. Paranormal Activity (2007) is
advertised as a horror/mystery movie, but I would put it more as a thriller.
There is a lot of suspense and build up, but only in the very last night do I
ever get scared, and that’s because it’s a jump scare. I normally get
nightmares from horror movies, but I found myself not scared to sleep after
watching this. It was tense, it was interesting, but it wasn’t scary. As
a thriller it was great, or a mystery because of the clues given in doses along
the way. But I actually looked up to see why everyone said it was such a
groundbreaking horror movie. I found a very long
and dull article from 2009 that said the following:
As Paranormal expands
into even more theaters, it seems likely to hit at least $100 million. All of
Hollywood is watching. “What they did was very clever,” says a rival marketing
exec. “I keep hearing it’s the scariest movie ever. When something generates
that kind of word of mouth, you can be creative. And they were. They turned it
into a movement.” (ew.com)
So apparently a low-budget horror film became a box office hit. Good for
them honestly. I thought the pacing of the story was well done, and the
structure of the nights with the timer in the corner was very clever. Even the
found footage style was fitting and interesting even though found footage films
generally make me motion sick. The line about the monster feeding off negative energy
and Micah saying, “We shouldn't let your mother come over anymore,” was
hilarious. I laughed aloud and made my boyfriend pause the movie so I could
have a moment.
But the characters were where this movie lost me. I know we are supposed to
hate Micah. They purposely make him the macho man asshole, but a lot of his
lines made me so angry. He’s emotionally manipulative, says Katie should have
told him about the demon before they moved in together, found a loophole of ‘borrowing’
not ‘buying’ an Ouija board, and literally told her to “pop a pill” at one
point. It was very reminiscent of some emotionally abusive people I’ve known in
the past. Micah is classic toxic masculinity, thinking in terms of his
girlfriend, his house, he will solve the problem. So if that’s
what the writers were going for, bravo. It was a good plot device to have them
fighting after explaining that the demon feeds off negative energy.
But where Micah made me angry, Katie made me exhausted. The classic pushover
girlfriend. She lets him do what he wants, says she wants to call the
demonologist the next day after the ghost guy and Micah has her put it off
unless it gets worse. And it gets worse. So then she threatens calling the
demonologist again rather than just calling whether Micah approves or not. She
doesn’t leave the house to call though, so he can stop her from doing it. And
it yet again gets worse. She didn’t call and instead let Micah put down powder
after the Ouija board literally caught on fire and moved! She finally calls the
demonologist on the third threat and it’s too late because he’s out of town. Both
the characters are classic stupid horror stereotypes, the man who wants to
fight something out of his control (and eggs on the monster even) and the useless girl who thinks logically but does nothing.
And so we circle back to the ending once more. The jump scares. I was happy
that Micah was finally dead. I wasn’t surprised that Katie was finally fully possessed.
And then lights out. End scene. This movie left me so disappointed. After the
credits came on I said aloud, “Wait, that’s it?”
Overall: I objectively see why Paranormal Activity is a classic, famous, and beloved horror movie. But it just didn’t do it for me. I wanted more demon and less boyfriend. It was good, it just didn't live up to the hype. 3/5 stars
I will have to argue this movie has absolutely no business in thriller and does belong strictly in horror. Thrillers are heavy on suspense and an outcome. Think of the movie Se7en. Generally, there is a massive police entity and an ongoing investigation in Thrillers to ramp up the tension. This film captures a demon, jump scares, priest, possession, and many more characteristics of supernatural horror. Outside of the original ending (which still fits perfectly in horror), we see no police presence or criminal investigation to ramp up the viewer's suspense.
ReplyDeleteKatie is an extremely exhausting character. Watch the rest of the series if you have time. You'll learn more and more about the demon Toby, the deal made, and the characters' development grow much better as you watch through the series. Katie is much less exhausting in the second film. The third one has some great moments of terror as well. If I remember right, it does end up swinging witches and Satanists together in one of the later films to provide an excellent eye-roll for people who know the difference between the two ;)
Maddie, you said, "The line about the monster feeding off negative energy and Micah saying, "We shouldn't let your mother come over anymore," was hilarious." I'm so glad you mentioned that. It was a funny moment, and one of the few that made me grateful for Micah's constant snark.
ReplyDeleteI thought having Micah and Katie grow more irritated with each other as the film went on was an effective device. It increased the audience's frustration--"stop fighting, you two, and figure out how to stop that demon!" It makes the story more fun when the audience knows something that the characters don't. In this case, we know their bickering is a sign of the increasing demonic infestation. It's also caused by Micah being uncomfortable with his fearful feelings, and Katie being overwhelmed by hers. They lose sight of the ball, and we know things will go wrong as a result. There's a sort of deliciousness to that.
The film scared me while I watched it, but didn't keep me up or make me sleep with a light. That might have been because I kept stopping it to jot down notes, though. I remember the advertising for Paranormal Activity. They billed it as so terrifying that people were screaming in the theater. I wish I had seen it with lots of other people to have seen if that was true. I went to an early showing near the end of its run, and I was the only person in the audience. Now, that was scary!
– Glenna
p.s. I have to side with Alexis. It is horror!
ReplyDeleteScaredy Cat, here. My husband, the ever erudite cinephile whose life mission is to introduce me to art films by "auteur" directors (ack!), was required to watch Paranormal Activity with me. Not because I thought he'd enjoy it. Because the first time I tried to watch this movie (about 12 years ago?), I didn't make it past the Ouija board argument. (1) What kind of a moron brings a second-hand Ouija board to a demon fight? and (2) Yikes! Demons are freaking scary.
ReplyDeleteWe were both pleasantly surprised this time, both by the movie itself and that I did not have nightmares from watching it. I think all of the reading/research I did before sitting down to watch the film for a class helped leech away most of the terror. But I still think the movie is horror.
After it was over, my husband asked, "What message do you think the director was trying to get across with this movie?" My knee-jerk response was "Don't f*** with demons." His was, "Before asking your girlfriend to move in, make sure to discuss any history of demonic manifestations." After much giggling, we settled on, "Dysfunctional relationships are hell, especially when the demons show up."
So, while I don't disagree with your assessment of both characters' weaknesses, I also believe they needed to be every bit as annoying and irrational as they were portrayed. The dynamic between them is what cracked open the door for Toby. (Thank you, Alexis for sharing his proper name)
PS - "I wanted more demon and less boyfriend." Yeah ... sadly, that pretty much describes all of the romantic relationships from my 20s and early 30s.