Paranormal Activity is a Blair Witch style horror film, filmed entirely in the first person about a couple who find themselves experiencing odd things in their house.  It’s being sold as one of the scariest movies ever.  We’ll with a bold statement like that I had to check it out for myself.

What I found was not a scary movie.  Simply a very dull Blair Witch wannabe that was lacking on every level.

The entire movie rests on the shoulders of the two actors who are the only people onscreen 99% of the time, Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston.  The problem with relying on two actors for your entire movie is that if they’re no good, the movie is going down in flames.  And unfortunately that is the case here.  My big complaint about them is that they’re obviously acting.  Every single scene is like watching bad improv.  Also by the time you get to the end you wind up hating both characters (also named Micah and Katie).

Then we have what’s supposed to be a scary movie.  There’s nothing even a little scary.  There was no atmosphere created, and everything that happens in the movie is a super easy effect.  Things like doors shutting and opening aren’t scary, especially when not surrounded by the proper atmosphere of fear.  I have absolutely no problem with a simply executed effect, in fact I prefer practical things to CGI by far and usually applaud movies for it, and I’m not saying that’s what was needed here.  It’s just that you could generally figure out how something was done without much thought.  It didn’t help things any that you could always tell when something was going to happen as the shot would be static and wide from a tripod.

One thing I did like about the movie was it’s attempt at a plot.  They tried to inject an actual bit of backstory and make it a part of a bigger story but not really enough.  I did appreciate what little bit that was there though.  But mostly I found myself bored out of my mind and not terrified or even a little excited.

Also apparently whoever wrote the IMDb keywords was obviously a little upset that Kate & Micah weren’t married:

That gave me a good laugh.  Personally my favorite IMDb keyword listing comes from my own page on there though:

Yep that describes my film career pretty well.

Anyway this movie was made a lot better and was more original the first time around when it was The Blair Witch Project.  I’d skip this one completely unless you scare really, really easily.  Like way more easily than a normal person.