Film Review: Paranormal Activity

Film Title: Paranormal Activity

Year of Production: 2007-2009

Director: Oren Peli

Genre/Genres: Supernatural Horror

Brief Plot Outline: Two young adults Katie and Micah move into a home together. Katie claims that she is being haunted. The pair decide to film their bedroom and paranormal activity is caught on film. The hauntings then become more physical and the couple become very distressed.

Which two scenes impressed you the most? Why?

The first scene which impressed me the most was when Katie gets out of bed and stares at Micah. The timer in the bottom right corner goes by very quickly. This could be seen as collision cutting as the time is going slowly and we are just seeing the pair asleep up until that point. The she goes down stairs. The reason why i liked this so much is because of how eerie and strange it is. It makes you feel very uncomfortable. This is due to the lever manipulation and contrast of quickly moving time, yet a slowly moving character. The second scene I was very impressed with was when Katie slowly dragged out of bed and then dragged away. The sounds are parallel with the scene and no sound is actually added to the scene. This creates an emotion of suffering and the viewer wanting to help.

How has watching the film helped you understand this genre of film making? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? When? How?

Watching this film has helped me to understand that lots of special effects and expensive editing/producing isn’t necessary. The film has a psycho killer, female screaming victim and a male hero all integrated into just two characters. Low key lighting was used which created shadows around the corners of the frame making the viewer feel un easy as they can’t see everything in the shot. Restricted narration is also used as we know no more than they do. The reason behind this is because it has all been captured on a video camera which they set up. This creates a creepy, enclosed location. Slow editing and collision cutting are both used to change our heart beat and make us feel on edge. For example, when Micah is thrown at the camera at the end of the film. The expressionist skewed angles used also help add to this effect. The fact that the whole film is shot on a hand held camera is important as it puts us right in the action. Violence, unhappy endings and sadism are al used as well as we can see that Katie enjoys hurting Micah. The room, the edit and the demon all add to the fear factor.

Which aspects of the film would you like to include in your own trailer? Why? I would like to include the idea of the supernatural and ghost in my own trailer. The idea is very simple but extremely effective and can be far scarier than excessive body horror. The low key lighting and montage was also extremely effective. The slow to quick edits creates strong collision cutting which makes us jump. Restricted narration also appears to be extremely useful. I like the idea of the viewer only knowing as much as the people in the film do, as it effectively maintains both realism and suspense.

Which aspects of the film would you like to avoid in your own trailer? Why?

I would like to avoid the use of the handheld shots. They don’t present as much of an atmosphere as it would like. Lots of movies use this technique now and it is almost becoming predictable. At the start of a movie it works well but then can grow boring and even irritating as the film goes on. I would also like to avoid the idea of just using a house because it isn’t as creepy as it could potentially be. If it were in the woods it would be scarier as a viewer can relate to the woods being scary s they are normally stereotyped in that way.

What was the best/more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? Can you create this in your own film? How? I really like he part when Katie is dragged out of bed. It’s shocking and frightening. This would be extremely difficult to use in my film as what is pulling Katie is invisible and special effects and editing was used to get this effect. However something similar could be done without the ghost necessarily being invisible. A rope could be used hidden under covers and mise-en-scene could be taken into account.