(Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures)
The hype around “Paranormal Activity” has been building for a while now, and though the movie was enjoyable, it lacked the true terror promised in the trailer.
The film is about a young couple that has recently moved in together. The girlfriend, Katie (Katie Featherston), tells her boyfriend that a creature has haunted her since she was little. Fascinated, the boyfriend, Micah (Micah Sloat), buys a video camera to record them sleeping. The idea is to see if it’s all in Katie’s head or if there really is something haunting her. Every morning they play back more action on the video camera, captivating Micah and terrifying Katie.
The movie felt like a bad remake of 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project.” Both movies are supposed to be live footage found after the death or disappearance of the filmmakers and they share the theme of the fear of the unknown.
Conor Mills-Currie, an 18-year-old freshman psychology major, said he liked that “Paranormal Activity” uses amateur camerawork to give it a homemade feel.
“The camerawork was very well put together in that you could only see what the camera saw,” Mills-Currie said. “The perspective was very interesting and moved the movie along at a good pace.”
Though the movie was enjoyable and gave the audience a good scare once in a while, it failed to generate the true horror of “The Blair Witch Project,” or imprint itself as a terrifying memory for the audience as it left the theater.
“I didn’t think it was scary,” said Kayla Laufer, a 19-year-old sophomore pre-communication major. “None of the images really freaked me out.”
Another problem in the movie was the plot. Like many horror movies, it started out believably and lost credibility when the couple didn’t seek outside help as the terror escalated.
Mills-Currie said he felt that the boyfriend was the plot’s weak point.
“The man in the movie was a little too heroic for me,” Mills-Currie said. “I feel like if all that kind of stuff was going on in my house without a logical explanation it would freak me out, especially if I could see all of these things on tape.”
Though the movie has its flaws, it’s a good fallback for a boring night.
“It was a quality film; it took a little while to get good but it kept you interested throughout,” Mills-Currie said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Brigid Igoe at Brigid.igoe@colorado.edu.
