I saw Blair Witch Project a total of one time. At the time I was amped up to see it, but was quickly disappointed after finding out there was absolutely no truth in it. Now, at this point I can look back and say that it was a decent movie, and good for being the first of it’s kind. The creators took a chance and did well for it. There’s a certain charm to the move and the scary parts are scary in a way that your average horror movie isn’t. There’s no real jump scares or gore of any kind. There’s a lot of little nuances that pick at the viewer and the movie in a whole is a more psychologically scary than anything else. The movie is good in it’s way, but I only saw it once and don’t really plan on seeing it again. I don’t regret seeing it, in fact I’m glad I saw it. I’ll just probably never watch it again.

Jump to 9 years later and another movie in the same horror movie sub-genre is released called Cloverfield. The marketing for this movie was phenomenal. The audience is left wondering what the heck is going on, but given enough information to be curious for more. The problem with this is that it was hyped up beyond belief and when I actually went to go see it I left the theater trying to convince myself that the movie was better than what I just sat through. I was on the fence but as time progressed I began to not like it. After TF:RotF came out I now realize just how bad a movie can be and now that I think about it Cloverfield wasn’t bad. In fact, it’s a movie I wouldn’t mind watching again.

Which bring us to the present and the movie in question is Paranormal Activity.

More like Paranormal CRAPtivity. Am I right folks?

I’m just kidding, the movie isn’t that bad. The marketing technique was similar to the one used for Cloverfiel. It gave you a taste but no real information. The movie itself shared more resemblance’s to Blair Witch. Very small cast to begin with only two of the characters are faced with the actual trials of the movies plot. I won’t go into budget for any movie, because I believe the only real elements you need to tell a good story is a person who is able to tell a story and tell it well, but also, maybe more important, is a person willing to listen. For me, budget doesn’t matter.

That being said; This movie is eeeh ok, but could have been better. They did a good job of letting you get to know the characters before anything major happen but they took a bit too much time doing this. Also, it almost hurts the movie in that. By the end, it turns out I didn’t really like the character of the bo friend. He’s just an unlikable guy. I get that he reacted in a way that a real person may act when being put into this situation, but it is still a movie and it’s important to like the characters, especially when there are prominently only two characters in the whole movie. Also, through his actions the story line was able to progress, so I guess he can be forgiven.

Every horror movie needs some way to get across the rules within that movie. Something that says “this is how things work” and “this is why things are happening.” In Blair Witch, it was done through interviews from the town folk and through some research, which worked because it was about some kids investigating the lore of the Witch. In Cloverfield the rules were revealed as the story progressed, which also worked because the people in the move were finding things out as we were. In this movie the rules were literally expounded by a hired psychic .. and that was his only purpose. He told them what was going on .. and that’s it. Well he told them what they should do, but only so that when they did the exact opposite the audience can scream at the screen “No don’t!”

Non of the really good parts happen until the end and even then they aren’t that really scary. I was expecting to see some kind of apparition but, nope. A lot of the scares really on jump scares, which is kind of a cop out, in my opinion. When I was a kid I used to sneak up behind my grandma and go “BOO!” and startle her but I never considered myself scary. To really be scared by this movie you have to be of the mind set that this could possibly happen. Which I believe it could. But again, there are things they could’ve done in the movie, but simply didn’t. The ending itself is almost predictable but also pretty sad.

Would I recommend it? Wait for it to come out on DVD, and watch it late at night. Alone. With all the lights off.

At this point I don’t really care about it. I don’t dislike it. I just don’t care. A few years down the road I may feel differently about it.

Tags: Halloween, Movies