Review: Paranormal Activity
Nov 27 2009 By The Journal
Length: 1 hr 25 minutes
Certificate: 15
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs
Director: Oren Peli
Star rating: 4
HOW do you turn $15,000 into $100m?
If you’re enterprising Israeli-born film-maker Oren Peli, you write and direct a low-budget supernatural horror movie, shoot it at your own house in your spare time and watch as that modest vision becomes a 21st-century Blair Witch Project.
The film is a phenomenon, scaring the bejeezus out of audiences with its deceptively simple narrative and grainy camerawork, captured by characters as they hunt for an evil spirit in their home.
Various cuts have been screened at festivals around the world, but the version set to terrorise British cinema-goers is a genuinely creepy encounter with things that go bump in the night.
Unlike the recent glut of torture porn thrillers, which slather the screen in blood and entrails, this exercises restraint to the heart-stopping finale. The suggestion of unseen evil is far more unnerving.
Micah (Sloat) lives in San Diego with girlfriend Katie (Featherston), who senses a spirit watching over her.
She reluctantly agrees to let Micah capture evidence on his new video camera by setting up a tripod in the bedroom while they sleep.
Micah doesn’t take his role seriously, goading the spirit, while Katie desperately tries to prevent him making a bad situation worse.
The film almost lives up to the hype from across the Atlantic, effectively tapping into universal fears.
If you thought you were too old to be afraid of the dark, think again.
