Mood:
a-okTopic: Entertaining Insights
This movie is a rather scary thing...
Not to be an elitist snob, or anything, but unless you live in certain select cities (for now) then you probably won't get to see this thing for some time (although, given all the hype so far, it's bound for wide release soon enough).
"Paranormal Activity" is being billed as the 'scariest' movie of all time by many critics, and fan reaction, so far, is quite energetic.
Shane saw a certain screening (at the seaside shanty in Shropshire-upon-Steewick... uh, sorry...) at midnight yesterday (...well, today... you know what I mean). Man: the auditorium was packed!
And my verdict?
Yeah: it's scary.
However, in the final analysis, that's not all a film can be about...
Bottom line on the visceral stuff? This is one of the 'scariest' films I've ever seen in my entire life. It is not (by far) one of the best films I've ever seen (or even seen this year). It's very good, but it has some problems.
If you don't know the background (or haven't bothered reading my Wikipedia link... slacker) the film follows the 'handy-cam' footage of a couple haunted by what turns out to be a demon (and, technically, only one of them is 'haunted', but let's not quibble on semantics).
The main draw of this movie (and its absolute reason-for-bein') are the aptly titled "NIGHT" segments (of which there are 21 in total, although fewer than these are actually shown). These detail (via a static, grainy-infrared nightvision filter) various... well... 'happenings' at night while the couple sleeps with their handycam pointed at their bed and showing part of their dimly-lit hallway beyond the room. If you go see this film that grainy image of their bed (and hallway) will quickly etch itself into your brain.
These 'happenings' start very benign, and then quickly... escalate...
...yeah...
The "slow build" of suspense throughout the film works well, and the eventual escalation of events, all through that creepy 'no-color' nightvision camera mode, is chilling to the core.
If nothing else it makes you take note of things when you go home at night to your familiar bed, in your familiar room, with your familiar hallway leading into other familar places...
...but when you turn out the lights... well, for some, it makes that darkness seem a little less 'familiar', and all those usual 'bumps' in the night a little less... routine...
By that I mean I didn't get to sleep quite as fast last night (well: yesterday morning) as I usually do...
So, what's all this about 'scares' not being the whole part of a film? Well: they're not. Interspersed throughout these 'NIGHT' scenes are, of course, the couple filming themselves during the day: routines, banter, consultations with an awkward 'psychic' who gives them rather specific advice...
It's the human factor that's this film's weak link: the movie takes the tone of 'realism' overall (I mean that this is what it might be like if REAL people were beset by a REAL demon), however the boyfriend is a candidate for an Academy Award for Most Ridiculously Clueless and Stupid Character of the year. Everything he does (from continuing to film after suggestions that it is 'escalating' the situtation to buying a Ouija Board after the psychic warned that such a thing was literally 'inviting' the entity in) is counterintuitive foolishness at its absolute worse: you find yourself thinking that there can't POSSIBLY be someone this dementedly moronic in reality.
The scene where they find three-toed footprints (THREE-TOED!) in babypowder beside their bedroom door and he decides to crawl up into a hole in their attic to investigate a loud banging would make you laugh 'till your face turned blue... if your knuckles weren't already WHITE from gripping your armrests, of course...
Here's my quibble: I don't find that kind of action 'realistic'. After two nights in a row of going through that kind of activity I can guarantee you that I'd be spending ALL of my sleep sessions inside packed homeless shelters and crowded subway terminals, probably for the rest of my natural life, at that.
I think you would, too. And that's where the film loses me a bit: the boyfriend's actions are so unbelievable (and, honestly, the acting on both ends isn't stellar either... although that's supposed to be the way it is, I think). The girlfriend, meanwhile, could be replaced with a tape-recorder looping the phrase "Turn the Camera Off" in meek tone (which she does about two-dozen times, I think).
So, bottom line? The "Paranormal" side of this film is undoubtedly one of the scariest movie moments I can remember (and a good reason for goin', at that)... it's the human "Activity", however, that I can't abide.
It keeps the film from being too 'real' for me, but then again the film keeps me from being too cozy under my own sheets, too...
...I think we have a draw, then...
