Paranormal Activity (2007, 2009) · 8:36am Mar 5th, 2016
Is it just me or is it strange that there exists an I love you balloon that has Tina Turner singing Simply the Best but to get the song to play you have to smack the balloon? I'm not saying that it's a first I'm just saying that in a store that sells the Mustache Wiggler Love Monkey and Brad's Kale Vampire Killer Chips it's a little unusual. Then again today was a little unusual.
Today there was a bank robbery at one of those banks in the grocery store type places. Interestingly enough the guy and his girlfriend after pulling the bank job drove down the road to this store that I happened to be at. He ran in took a couple of sodas and ran out and proceeded to hide behind cars before taking off. Considering that ten cop cars went in the same direction he was running I don't think he got very far. Why stop for soda in the first place?
Did he really need to do the Dew that badly? Plus he ripped off a grocery story bank. He's lucky if he got enough to even half a tank of gas. Well, at least I can safely say that that moron did something to liven up the day. Something that the makers of Paranormal Activity should have thought of doing.
Paranormal Activity is one of those ultra low budget independent found footage movies. After The Blair Witch Project made the idea popular for a couple of weeks then faded to obscurity there was seemingly a lull in the found footage horror genre. That's not to say they weren't being made, I honestly just don't remember anybody really going out of their way to watch them. Then in 2007 Paranormal Activity began to make the film circuit rounds. In 2009 with the help of a clever marketing campaign it got a wide release. So what was this movie about?
Well, Paranormal Activity is about this couple Micah and Katie. They live the typical boring upper middle class life and do mundane things. They have boring friends and moved into a new house in San Diego. Then "creepy" stuff starts happening and Micah thinks, "Oh golly gosh lets set up a camera and film what happens... in bed!" Nothing happens.
In fact nothing happens could very well be the best way to describe most of the movie. Something bangs downstairs. The door opens and the camera catches it. I'm waiting for the scary thing to happen. Then there's a lot of standing around and arguing and something about a "demon in the house that is attached to Katie" and baby powder. Then the ending has a jump scare and we fade to black.
Honestly, this could have been an engaging movie especially if the leads were likable. Micah and Katie have zero chemistry. They complain and whine constantly. Heck Ike and Tina Turner had better chemistry than these two had and the movie about them is actually good. It's good and stuff happens in it, stuff that makes you feel something for the main subject (Tina Turner) of the movie other than boredom and derision.
Apparently though, Paranormal Activity is a movie that garnered a sizable following and made almost 200 million dollars at the box office and spawned a number of sequels. Someone must have thought that this was scary. I didn't. For me, Paranormal Activity is ultimately a movie about two unlikable people in a bedroom for about 80 minutes and the only one who got screwed was me.
The stats: 1 dead body, 0 breasts, 1 ouija board, 1 swinging chandelier, banging fu, opening door fu, "demon" fu, arguing fu, standing around fu, bath powder fu.
Shoutouts:
MisterNick as the movie watcher for staying awake the entire time and refraining from doing the Buffalo Bill dance in front of the audience (You know something scary).
Mark Fredrichs as the Psychic for getting out of there while the getting was good.
I can agree with your summary. Maybe it was because I saw it at home instead of in the theater that the movie lost a lot of its horror for me. But after watching it I still don't understand all the hype it got.
I lol'd. I showed it to my wife; she lol'd. She disagreed on one point, though; she thought the female lead was likable. I can't opine either way, having not seen it.
3792433
I'm gonna go with Mr Nick on this one. The main characters are very unlikable. It's hard to build tension when you hope the monster will hurry up and eat them so that you don't have to listen to their whiny complaining anymore.
3792346 It's interesting you say that because that's how my mom saw that movie. I'd come over and she was watching it and she immediately turned to me and asked, "When does something happen?" I then promptly replied, "Oh it has. Didn't you hear that feint knock?"
She immediately turned off the movie declaring it sucked and put on something else.
3792433 Actually, I can understand your wife's perspective on that. I mean comparatively speaking she is the more sympathetic character in the movie because this stuff is happening to her. Then again she did marry a dingus and if she knew she had this demon attached to her she should have had it taken care of long ago. I mean do some smudging, get baptized, go out and get exorcised. Do what it takes to get this thing off of you (and I kind of mean Micah too).
3792607 Yeah, unfortunately I was waiting for that too. We can look at other movies like The Conjuring or even Sinister where I like the characters and don't really want bad things to happen to them. It's very important that if you're trying to make your main characters sympathetic that they actually be sympathetic. If they are supposed to be in love we have to believe that they are in love. Finally, if you have a monster in your movie, have it do something other than that which my cat does every night.
3792821
I can agree on what Moosetasm said. Their has been a lot of movies I have seen where I have found myself rooting for the villain just because the main characters are so bland and unlikeable.