Film review: Paranormal Activity

Dec 17 2009 By Richard Evans

I’m going to keep this review short and sweet so I don’t spoil this movie for anybody who enjoys being totally spooked.

Paranormal Activity (cert 15/86mins) is the most frightening movie you are ever as likely to watch.

Following in the footsteps of the Blair Witch Project the low budget horror flick steers away from the by numbers gore-fest often embraced by the genre and instead plays on our basic human anxieties and our fears of what’s lurking under the bed.

The story follows a young couple, Katie, a student, and her boyfriend, Micah, a day trader. After a series of strange happenings at their suburban San Diego home, Katie reveals she has been haunted since childhood by a frightening entity.

Treating the problem as an exciting adventure, Micah responds to the problem by setting up a camera which is moved around the two-storey house documenting everything the couple do.

The events start off in typical fashion and spiral out of control becoming more and more sinister. But it is the voyeuristic scenes which unravel as the couple sleep which will unnerve even the staunchest of unbelievers.

This is a brilliantly crafted movie in a genre famous for its succession of duds. Expensive props and costly special effects are shunned in favour of gritty, eerie camera angles and the realism of home video.

Terrifying as it comes.

9/10