Get Spooked With “Paranormal Activity”

By Sarah Matheny on October 23rd, 2009

When I told my husband I wanted to go see a “horror movie,” he wasn’t sold. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Busty bimbo has sex with dumb jock boyfriend, both get slashed by some psycho who has an over aggressive detective and a nosy reporter hot on his trail. Throw in some gore, dramatic music, a few blood curdling screams…you get the idea. It’s not a genre we usually are fans of, but hey, it’s almost Halloween. A good scare could be fun.

The buzz about “Paranormal Activity” was that this movie was not your typical horror flick. This movie has been covered by CNN, Time and The Wall Street Journal because of the unusual and amazing behind the scenes story: first time filmmaker Oren Peli put forth $15,000 of his own money, cast an unknown actress and actor as the leads (newcomers Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat) and shot the movie in his own house. The joke is that they couldn’t afford new names for the characters so “Katie” and “Micah” are the young couple that is terrorized by a demon in their home.

The film is shot in a style similar to that of “The Blair Witch Project,” wherein the lead characters are documenting their strange, other worldly experiences. And while the film is scary, it is not gory or over the top. Peli builds suspense and dread throughout the film with a terrifying climax that left me thinking about this movie for several days.

Word of mouth has made this movie a hit, but I don’t think it is just because it’s an entertaining film. Like the movie “Julie and Julia,” wherein a blogger/bored cubicle worker becomes a successful author based a simple idea of documenting her year of cooking Julia Child recipes, I think we as Americans root for the everyman. If a young man can turn $15,000, a couple of “wet behind the ears” actors and his own bedroom into a movie that is making millions, maybe we can make our own dreams come true too. That is, if the demons don’t get us first.