Paranormal
Activity
Paranormal Activity
made headlines because it became one of, if not the most, profitable
movies ever produced. It had very low production costs, and was highly
successful in attracting punters to the cinema. For a movie that was for the most part in competition
in the shocker/horror genre, competing against movies with large production budgets
for SFX, gore, and computer animation, it is remarkable to think
its budget was $15,000. Some word of mouth would have it that
it was a "new" Blair Witch Project,
a movie that will be remembered as blazing a trail for low
budget movies. Alien is often classified as "horror" in DVD-rental shops. If there was
ever a movie that relied on its SFX for it scary monster punchline, it was that. However,
small children and animals excepted, I don’t believe that Alien frightens the viewer to degree that BWP or PA do. Nonetheless, all three films work in their own ways, even if their labels don't.
A classic “horror” (let's categorise PA that way, for now) movie scenario involves the viewer
screaming advice at a character, vainly urging them not to open a cellar door,
light a match, or whatever. There types of moments abound in PA (so maybe we could label it a
"screamer"?). There are two principal characters, a guy and his recently-moved-in
girlfriend. It’s usually the guy that we want to advise, although his
pigheadedness also kind of wears us down, and the more
impatient among us wouldn’t mind if he spent some time as a
demon’s punchbag. The screenplay is set in 2006, some years before the movie's eventual
mainstream success. A possible explanation for this is
that the writers wanted to explain the guy’s determination to do things his
way, and made him a successful self-made day-trader, an industry that came to the fore
around that time. There might even be a sub-text here : the apparently arrogant day-trader meeting a
scary demon, symbolising the modern financial system “meeting” a
scary wave of sub-prime mortgage defaults. (As it turns out, this theory is not as perfect as most of those found
on dandyspoke, as the movie in fact
debuted in 2007, receiving its mainstream release in 2009 .)
PA has its own
kind of demonic circadian rhythm. During daytime scenes, the foundations are
set for that night’s, em, paranormal activity, which, the screenplay has it,
Micah (the day trader) films on his movie camera, obtained specifically for the purpose.
The overall is suspenseful and tense, and this tension builds up to a
single alarming moment of surprise which might perhaps discourage repeat viewing, on the grounds that it would be too predictable.
However, there are some details and enigmaties that would be worth seeing again.