"Paranormal Activity" - The Movie

[flexy]

I am shocked to see so many good reviews stating how (allegedly) scary this movie is supposed to be and how "real" the actors and the story are supposed to be.

To sum it up (i wrote the same thing on IMDB)...for me this movie is utter gargabe trash and it just proves that you can sell anything to this "youtube generation" - all you need is the hype of the internet and let the hype go viral - and you can make millions with trash.

The acting was very fake, to a point annoying, zero credible.

Do people think it was "scary" because it came in that "shaky cam" package which "looks like its s documentary footage"? (Of course we all know its NOT).

Knowing that its a MOVIE (a documentary of "real events"would actually have been scary!!) - how can people claim it was a scary movie? They were scared of the "amazing" special effects aka "tie a string to a door and move the door a bit?

This movie wants me to /facepalm in so many ways....let alone people comparing it to real scary movies aka "The Exorcist".

Have movie watchers REALLY become so de-generated in the last years?


Add:

While we're at it...i liked Cloverfield actually since i was just blown away by its special effects. It certainly was not an "intellectual" experience but it was a movie which somehow had an impact on me. But P.A. was just /FACEPALM over almost any aspect of it.

 

[trmiv]

Sounds like the crapfest that was "The Blair Witch Project." What a piece of crap that movie was.

 

[swbsam]

i liked it.. i liked it's lack of special effects, and felt like it really did a good job creating a paranoid mood.

you know what's annoying? people claiming that everything is overhyped and people complaining about shaky cam...

 

[JoPh]

i saw the movie and i loved it.

fantastic movie.

 

[Raizinman]

I went to go see another movie and one of the previews before the movie started was for Paranormal Activity. The preview started out: This preview is graphically and audiably disturbing. I thought, great! Anyway, I watched the preview and kept waiting for the disturbing part. It never came! I was curious and decided to see the movie anyway. It was terrible. The only disturbing part of the movie was the disgust and sighs of people in the audience disturbed that they paid for this crappy movie! If anyone wants to go see this movie, hurry, as it cannot be very long before the word gets out.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I betcha a coke the ghost is the cloverfield monster.

 

[MiniDoom]

it reminded me of those stupid shows on tlc like ghost hunter or something. people hear a bang off in the distance and freak out.

 

[OpenThirdEye]

Another vote for the movie sucking. I did find it funny that the 'demon' or whatever it was would turn on the light to go up the stairs and turn it off when it got to the top. Very polite demon if you ask me.

 

[SP33Demon]

My revised review from the other thread:

I also thought "that was it"? 5/10


It could have been 10X better. Here's how:

SPOILER ALERT:

For example, when she left the bedroom and was just sitting outside, wtf? That's dumb and unimaginative. If she was in the bathroom, standing completely still in the dark staring at the mirror with a slightly angry look while holding a pair of scissors, that would have scared me. THAT is creepy to me. Her outside sitting there is dumb, sleepwalkers do that.

They also should have used more props, i.e. the pic in the attic. That was good. If you want to fck with someone, you don't give them direct evidence such as: seeing a real shadow on the wall, or having the demon actually be able touch them. It was dumb and hard to suspend belief for - let the viewers' minds do the work. Ghosts shouldn't be able to cross 100% into the physical realm because that completely ruins the imagination. For example, the fire on the ouija board, dumb - if the piece was just moved onto the kitchen floor where the keys were earlier- good. The loud step noises in the house, slight moving of doors, the audible breathing = all good. Using Katie to get to him, good idea - but they really should have put more thought into it. They could have used living entities like pets or children to also channel the spirit in order to jack up the creepiness level. All they did was have the demon turn on the bedroom TV - uh, ok. At least be original and use the guitar amplifier, or something related to the computer (e.g. have it send out emails making funeral arrangements and have him find them the next day).

Finally, in the end, when he says they should go to a hotel and she objects - any normal person would have DEMANDED that she go and physically make her. Yet he put up zero resistance, even after all that had happened. Any normal person would have been hysterical. Even after he knew it meant to kill him and could cross 100% into the physical realm. Corny, corny, corny and not believable at all. Also, either of them not contacting a demonologist earlier - not believable at all. If your loved one is getting physically harmed/molested at night you're going to explore all possibilities to make it stop.

 

[purbeast0]

i saw it friday in the theatre and when it was done, i thought "that's it?", and i'm also a HUGE horror movie fan.

but the more and more i think about it, i liked it a lot. it was a pretty freaky movie that tried to scare you and get emotions in you that normal horror movies don't.

and there was nothing "bs" about this movie, in the sense that there were scary looking creatures, monsters, etc, stuff like that.

i also thought the acting was REALLY good and believable. everything in this movie felt kind of "real" and i think a lot had to do w/the acting.

my wife had trouble sleeping that night, and im not gonna lie, i was thinking about it when i went to sleep but was not scared.

all in all i loved the way it tried to scare you and made just watching a couple sleep in time lapse video tense, and having some chick standing for a few hours next to her boyfriend kind of freaky. no other movie has done stuff like that.

also, OP, in a serious note, i know there was a DVDSCR that was released, and i'm curious if you watched that or saw it in the theatre. the first thing i thought after i saw this movie was 'this movie would not have the same effect if seen at home on dvd as it does in the theatre' and i'm wondering if you did not get the theatre experience.

 

[JoPh]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

also, OP, in a serious note, i know there was a DVDSCR that was released, and i'm curious if you watched that or saw it in the theatre. the first thing i thought after i saw this movie was 'this movie would not have the same effect if seen at home on dvd as it does in the theatre' and i'm wondering if you did not get the theatre experience.

i actually the same thought u had. u need to watch the movie at midnight in the complete dark in the theatre.

watching this on dvd around 2pm in daylight or even with lights on would make this movie meh i feel.

u need to submerse yourself in the entire experience.

 

[meltdown75]

pretty much every movie that ATOT says sucks is at least decent. it's almost how i know which movies to check out. i really can't remember anything - anything at all - that ATOT thought didn't suck. so yeah, i'm still excited to see this, and i will probably enjoy it.

 

[swbsam]

Also, the dvd sc ending and the theatrical ending are different. [SPOILERS]
What I liked most about the movie was that it tried to prove the existence of demons/the paranormal by tying paranormal events to real life ones. Sleepwalking IS really weird.. Maybe it's also paranormal... Houses burn down all the time... People hurt each other every day, seemingly happy people - maybe the darkness that makes people do this comes from unexplainable places. People hear voices in their heads.. We call these people crazy but what if some of them are haunted? Creepy stuff if you ask me.

 

[Spooner]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
My revised review from the other thread:

I also thought "that was it"? 5/10


It could have been 10X better. Here's how:

SPOILER ALERT:

For example, when she left the bedroom and was just sitting outside, wtf? That's dumb and unimaginative. If she was in the bathroom, standing completely still in the dark staring at the mirror with a slightly angry look while holding a pair of scissors, that would have scared me. THAT is creepy to me. Her outside sitting there is dumb, sleepwalkers do that.

They also should have used more props, i.e. the pic in the attic. That was good. If you want to fck with someone, you don't give them direct evidence such as: seeing a real shadow on the wall, or having the demon actually be able touch them. It was dumb and hard to suspend belief for - let the viewers' minds do the work. Ghosts shouldn't be able to cross 100% into the physical realm because that completely ruins the imagination. For example, the fire on the ouija board, dumb - if the piece was just moved onto the kitchen floor where the keys were earlier- good. The loud step noises in the house, slight moving of doors, the audible breathing = all good. Using Katie to get to him, good idea - but they really should have put more thought into it. They could have used living entities like pets or children to also channel the spirit in order to jack up the creepiness level. All they did was have the demon turn on the bedroom TV - uh, ok. At least be original and use the guitar amplifier, or something related to the computer (e.g. have it send out emails making funeral arrangements and have him find them the next day).

Finally, in the end, when he says they should go to a hotel and she objects - any normal person would have DEMANDED that she go and physically make her. Yet he put up zero resistance, even after all that had happened. Any normal person would have been hysterical. Even after he knew it meant to kill him and could cross 100% into the physical realm. Corny, corny, corny and not believable at all. Also, either of them not contacting a demonologist earlier - not believable at all. If your loved one is getting physically harmed/molested at night you're going to explore all possibilities to make it stop.

This definitely sums it up rather nicely, and while I agree with everything above I walked away thinking I got my money's worth... I like things that are 'different' or at least tries to be...

 

[aleckz]

I didn't research the movie before I saw it... so I went in blind. The movie was very scary for me, mostly because I don't like scary movies at all, but this movie was entertaining. I really liked how they didn't use many special effects, kind of left the human brain to wonder what was happening.

Spoiler

The end ruined it for me though... the last scene should of ended with her just standing with the blood on her chest, then proceed to walk out of the house. That would have been a better ending in my book :/

On another note, that sleepwalking thing really creeped me out... I woke up the next morning freaked out because my girlfriend was standing over me getting dressed, I thought I was going to have to fight for my life.

I would recommend this movie as long as you didn't research it.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: JoPh

Originally posted by: purbeast0

also, OP, in a serious note, i know there was a DVDSCR that was released, and i'm curious if you watched that or saw it in the theatre. the first thing i thought after i saw this movie was 'this movie would not have the same effect if seen at home on dvd as it does in the theatre' and i'm wondering if you did not get the theatre experience.

i actually the same thought u had. u need to watch the movie at midnight in the complete dark in the theatre.

watching this on dvd around 2pm in daylight or even with lights on would make this movie meh i feel.

u need to submerse yourself in the entire experience.

Joph,

we always watch movies "late at night", and i have a 52" plasma, so the experience is really rather "movie like". I dont know, maybe i am just from "another generation". The movie was corny and cheesy. The method of making such "semi documentaries" which are SUPPOSED to make us believe its true using shaky cam doe not work for me.

Also, i pointed out that "shaky cam" does NOT necessarily mean bad or good....eg. Cloverfield was ok, although in another sense.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: swbsam
Also, the dvd sc ending and the theatrical ending are different. [SPOILERS]
What I liked most about the movie was that it tried to prove the existence of demons/the paranormal by tying paranormal events to real life ones. Sleepwalking IS really weird.. Maybe it's also paranormal... Houses burn down all the time... People hurt each other every day, seemingly happy people - maybe the darkness that makes people do this comes from unexplainable places. People hear voices in their heads.. We call these people crazy but what if some of them are haunted? Creepy stuff if you ask me.

You know, i used to be interested in such stuff, and yes i know stories...and i know friends of friends who say they experienced such things. That's why i also said that a REAL DOCUMENTARY would have freightened me way more.

 

[Soundmanred]

Another vote for "just plain horrible".
Maybe if I was weak minded and actually believed this stuff could be real in any way it might be scary.
I remember when Blair Witch came out, people came over saying how scary it was and how freaked out they were.
I actually sat through that piece of crap too, and this "movie" gave me the same feelings - disappointment and sadness that people could actually enjoy it.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: flexy

Originally posted by: JoPh

Originally posted by: purbeast0

also, OP, in a serious note, i know there was a DVDSCR that was released, and i'm curious if you watched that or saw it in the theatre. the first thing i thought after i saw this movie was 'this movie would not have the same effect if seen at home on dvd as it does in the theatre' and i'm wondering if you did not get the theatre experience.

i actually the same thought u had. u need to watch the movie at midnight in the complete dark in the theatre.

watching this on dvd around 2pm in daylight or even with lights on would make this movie meh i feel.

u need to submerse yourself in the entire experience.

Joph,

we always watch movies "late at night", and i have a 52" plasma, so the experience is really rather "movie like". I dont know, maybe i am just from "another generation". The movie was corny and cheesy. The method of making such "semi documentaries" which are SUPPOSED to make us believe its true using shaky cam doe not work for me.

Also, i pointed out that "shaky cam" does NOT necessarily mean bad or good....eg. Cloverfield was ok, although in another sense.

ok so you did watch the screener then?

so yea, i could see why it wouldn't seem as good to you as it did t some of us, caus the theatre experience is just completely different.

hell even the presence of others in a packed theatre, and people getting scared around you, enhances the experience.

while i do know home theatre systems are pretty damn good now a days, watching a dvd screener at home on a 52" plasma, which probably was in stereo sound as well, the experience you had, whether good or bad, is not as good as the experience you would have had at a theatre.

EDIT:

and if you did see the screener the ending was different than the theatrical version.

 

[swbsam]

Piracy's bad, mmkay..

The pacing is also different - the movie is cut in the theatrical version to speed up the build a bit, so there's less dead time. Remember, 2 years of extra work went into the version you saw and the version released in theaters.

I couldn't sleep after seeing the movie, and I still have weird thoughts about secularism... I'm not a bible thumper but, 20 years ago, those characters would have been praying to god for help ... Or calling a priest instead of a psychic. it's striking that, in the face of the paranormal, these guys had no one to turn to.

 

[SP33Demon]

Just off the top of my head, here is some stuff that they could have added (following up my other post) - spoilers again -:

1) Plant that seed early that Micah screwed over some clients who are out to get him.
Start the noises in the beginning on the OUTSIDE of the house. Have noises that sound like something is tapping the glass in the bedroom at night. Leave stuff on the lawn like mangled mice - was it their cat that killed 5 mice or was it someone who was out to get him?? Show dead insects (like a ton of crickets) floating in his backyard pool. Banging at night should be coming from the outside of the house. Have him call the cops and have him ask them to patrol his street if possible because someone is playing pranks on him. This will throw them for an early loop that also ties in nicely with his fiance having the demon problem.

2) Take out the scene where it scratched his pic. Put in an early scene where someone from his family calls and is shocked to hear his voice. That they just wanted to hear his voice one more time on the recording since they thought he was dead. Inform the audience that his family received a call from *someone* 15 minutes ago who claimed to be the police, informing them he and Katie had just died in a boating accident where the bodies hadn't been found yet. He thinks it's a sick person that's out to get revenge on him and the same people fcking with the outside of the house at night.

2) Let that idea (people out to get Micah) breathe til the middle of the film. That is until stuff starts happening that a human PROBABLY couldn't do without a lot of effort. Like changing the temperature of the house when the thermostat is already set (alternate from high heat to the AC turning on) and the house being completely secure from the outside (show Micah installing a high tech ADT alarm system with motion sensors during the day). Make the noises start from the inside of the house now instead of the outside, just like the movie did. Have him call ADT and ask if any of the sensors had been tripped the night before for a breakin and they say no, there was no motion detected.

3) Make pets start doing crazy stuff like not eat for a week. For example, have the cat in the attic hiss at Katie and stare/glare angrily at both of them at random times during the day. In the scene with the pic in the attic, put the cat there and make the couple wonder how the hell the cat got into the attic when it's completely sealed?? Make the cat do strange things in the bedroom, like stare at them for long periods of time before SHE starts to do it too... WITH the cat. Make fish start dying in the fish tank slowly but surely. Have some of the fish on the kitchen floor dead, and have him think at first that it's the cat. Have them find dead groups of ants in different parts of the house during the day.

4) Have trick or treaters (kids) stop by and act very jovial and lively. Except for one kid. Have him stare at Katie with a hint of malice on his face but not say a word to contrast with the other happy kids. Afterwords, have her ask Micah if he saw this (of course he'll say no...)

5) Cut out the scene where he finds here sleepwalking outside on the swing. Cut out the scene with her cutting herself with the cross. Instead, have him find her in the downstairs bathroom in the dark staring at the mirror with scissors in her hand. Make her stare at him through the mirror with the same hint of malice look the trick or treater kid had toward her. Make him respond with terror because he's never seen this look from her. Then all of a sudden, she's back to normal and acting like she just awoke. Show a slight crack in the mirror that they notice hadn't been there before. Then show that she had cut a very small, intricate pattern in her leg that no human could have done with scissors.

6) In the ouija board scene, don't have him record it. Just show that it's on the kitchen floor when they got home and be in shock.

7) Cut out the stupid powder scene, as well as any scene where physical contact is made aside from something that could have been caused by air blowing (door moving, sheets blowing). Keep all of the footstep noises in the house though.

7) Cut out the scene where she does the demonic voiceover to the camera. Don't give away that she's going to kill him at all. This will tie into my new alternate ending.

8) In the scene at the end: have her screaming downstairs and him running down like before. Have her scream again and have him scream in terror right after she stops. Have the door in the bedroom blow slightly/halfway closed just enough so you can't see the hallway. Have one human pair of footsteps RUN up the stairs very fast and into the upstairs bathroom or bedroom followed by the demon sounding footsteps running right behind them. Have the sound of glass shattering, but you don't know if it's the bathroom or spare bedrooms. End the movie and say on the screen that they were both missing to this day and that police found the house untouched with no sign of how the couple could have left.

What do you think? Anyone on ATOT want to produce a movie like this?

 

[FoBoT]

i thought it was "The Blair Witch Project II" sequel

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

It's definitely a love it-or-hate it kind of film. I found the movie fairly remarkable, actually. I don't think it's the greatest film ever made, but I admire the way the filmmaker, for $11,000, made something so genuinely suspenseful and scary. I thought it was very cleverly conceived, in the way the exposition was done fairly organically through the discussion with the psychic, and the way they crafted fairly plausible explanations for why the entire thing took place in the house and why they never left. It's definitely kind of minimalist, but in some ways the long stretches of mundane day-to-day life made the moments of terror stand out that much more.

I am a horror buff and watch way more than my share of horror films, despite the fact that so many of them suck (it's particularly frustrating to me that the genre was, for a while there, almost monopolized by awful torture porn movies and even worse PG-13 Japanese horror adaptations). This movie stands out as something different. To me it was more memorable and more genuinely frightening than 99% of all horror films, without any graphic violence. I give it a big thumbs-up and 4/5 stars.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Just off the top of my head, here is some stuff that they could have added (following up my other post) - spoilers again -:

1) Plant that seed early that Micah screwed over some clients who are out to get him.
Start the noises in the beginning on the OUTSIDE of the house. Have noises that sound like something is tapping the glass in the bedroom at night. Leave stuff on the lawn like mangled mice - was it their cat that killed 5 mice or was it someone who was out to get him?? Show dead insects (like a ton of crickets) floating in his backyard pool. Banging at night should be coming from the outside of the house. Have him call the cops and have him ask them to patrol his street if possible because someone is playing pranks on him. This will throw them for an early loop that also ties in nicely with his fiance having the demon problem.

2) Take out the scene where it scratched his pic. Put in an early scene where someone from his family calls and is shocked to hear his voice. That they just wanted to hear his voice one more time on the recording since they thought he was dead. Inform the audience that his family received a call from *someone* 15 minutes ago who claimed to be the police, informing them he and Katie had just died in a boating accident where the bodies hadn't been found yet. He thinks it's a sick person that's out to get revenge on him and the same people fcking with the outside of the house at night.

2) Let that idea (people out to get Micah) breathe til the middle of the film. That is until stuff starts happening that a human PROBABLY couldn't do without a lot of effort. Like changing the temperature of the house when the thermostat is already set (alternate from high heat to the AC turning on) and the house being completely secure from the outside (show Micah installing a high tech ADT alarm system with motion sensors during the day). Make the noises start from the inside of the house now instead of the outside, just like the movie did. Have him call ADT and ask if any of the sensors had been tripped the night before for a breakin and they say no, there was no motion detected.

3) Make pets start doing crazy stuff like not eat for a week. For example, have the cat in the attic hiss at Katie and stare/glare angrily at both of them at random times during the day. In the scene with the pic in the attic, put the cat there and make the couple wonder how the hell the cat got into the attic when it's completely sealed?? Make the cat do strange things in the bedroom, like stare at them for long periods of time before SHE starts to do it too... WITH the cat. Make fish start dying in the fish tank slowly but surely. Have some of the fish on the kitchen floor dead, and have him think at first that it's the cat. Have them find dead groups of ants in different parts of the house during the day.

4) Have trick or treaters (kids) stop by and act very jovial and lively. Except for one kid. Have him stare at Katie with a hint of malice on his face but not say a word to contrast with the other happy kids. Afterwords, have her ask Micah if he saw this (of course he'll say no...)

5) Cut out the scene where he finds here sleepwalking outside on the swing. Cut out the scene with her cutting herself with the cross. Instead, have him find her in the downstairs bathroom in the dark staring at the mirror with scissors in her hand. Make her stare at him through the mirror with the same hint of malice look the trick or treater kid had toward her. Make him respond with terror because he's never seen this look from her. Then all of a sudden, she's back to normal and acting like she just awoke. Show a slight crack in the mirror that they notice hadn't been there before. Then show that she had cut a very small, intricate pattern in her leg that no human could have done with scissors.

6) In the ouija board scene, don't have him record it. Just show that it's on the kitchen floor when they got home and be in shock.

7) Cut out the stupid powder scene, as well as any scene where physical contact is made aside from something that could have been caused by air blowing (door moving, sheets blowing). Keep all of the footstep noises in the house though.

7) Cut out the scene where she does the demonic voiceover to the camera. Don't give away that she's going to kill him at all. This will tie into my new alternate ending.

8) In the scene at the end: have her screaming downstairs and him running down like before. Have her scream again and have him scream in terror right after she stops. Have the door in the bedroom blow slightly/halfway closed just enough so you can't see the hallway. Have one human pair of footsteps RUN up the stairs very fast and into the upstairs bathroom or bedroom followed by the demon sounding footsteps running right behind them. Have the sound of glass shattering, but you don't know if it's the bathroom or spare bedrooms. End the movie and say on the screen that they were both missing to this day and that police found the house untouched with no sign of how the couple could have left.

What do you think? Anyone on ATOT want to produce a movie like this?

No offense but I don't think any of these ideas would have made it a better movie, just a different and more conventional movie.

 

[Chrono]

I saw it this past Sunday. Thought it was pretty shitty at first but when I think about it, it does give me this odd eerie feeling in the back of my mind. Kind of freaky in a way. Hmm... so the movie did its thing, which was instill paranoia within a person's mind.