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Paranormal Activity

Well, I'm not sure how many of you have or will get to see this in theaters because to my understanding, it's only released in some cities.

Luckily, in Columbus, Ohio, they released it, and it came out at midnight of 10/9/09.

First off, I LOVE horror movies, as some of you may know, hence my presence on the forum, and I am rarely frightened. This movie had quite a few scares. It was creepy as hell. Even the opening was chilling (although it gave away the ending in a sense) because they opened it giving thanks to the families of Micah and Katie for permison to use the footage.

The movie is about a couple Micah, and Katie (played by themselves) who feel they are the victim of a haunting. Micah is a sarcastic, protective, and caring boyfriend to Katie who sort of mocks her beliefs of a haunting. Katie has supposedly been haunted by some sort of ghost or demon nce she was 8 years old, periodically. Katie is an aspiring teacher currently in school, but is quite scared of some of the things she's experienced, saying she's felt breathing of somebody, heard her name whispered, as well as many noises throughout the house.

Micah wants to film everything that happens at nighttime to see if he can uncover the mystery and hear the sounds being made. Of course, as the movie progresses, the noises and creepy things worsen.

*SPOILERS*

At one point in time, Micah wakes up to Katie who disappeared. We see the footage of her standing up staring at him during the night for roughly 1.5 hours before going downstairs. When Micah wakes up, he goes down stairs, and finally finds her outde on the swing with her reluctant to come inde because she's comfortable outde in the cold. As he goes inde to find blankets for her, a loud bang from inde the bedroom occurs upstairs, and he goes up for the TV to be turned on, as he turns around, BAM, right there she is in the doorway. He talks to her the next day and she says that she doesn't remember a thing prior to him turning around to her in the doorway. He goes over the tapes with her, only for them to see that she just stood up and stared at him for those 1.5 hours before leaving down the stairs.

*END SPOILERS*

The movie in itself was chilling and suspenseful. The camera angle is being shot to see the entire room, plus the hallway outde the bedroom, which causes suspense because you're always looking for some indication of a demon, whether it's a door moving, shadows, blankets moving, or whatever. Being in the dark, you just wonder what's going to happen when they go to bed and it moves to a night scene. Is something or somebody going to walk upstairs into their room out of the shadows? Is something going to come out of the closet down the hallway?

It leaves you on the edge of your seat. It's not a gory movie at all, and it's not a slasher flick. It's just a chilling, intense film that in some senses appears realistic. People want to compare it to the crap that was Blair Witch, and even to Rec, but it's nothing like them. With REC and Quarantine (which were the same exact movie, ade from the American veron being more perverted in the beginning), we knew what was happening, that there were people being bitten and turning into creatures, etc. Blair Witch was just too shaky and too big of crap to even be able to watch seriously. There is little, if any camera shake, and it doesn't get dizzy.

I give it a 9/10 and recommend it to anybody that just wants a spine-tingling, goosebumps, and chills down the back adventure. It was definitely worth the 9 bucks to see it.
KeeterZ Friday 10/09/2009 at 05:49 AM | 55966
I think it will end up getting a wide release.

I've vited the webte a few times in the past week and the number of demands has gone up gnificantly.

If it reaches 1,000,000 it will supposedly go wide, and right now it's almost up to 800,000.

I saw a few advertisements for it during Ghost Hunters last night, so hopefully that will help push it over the top.
gummi Friday 10/09/2009 at 06:07 AM | 55968
I think it will end up getting a wide release.

I've vited the webte a few times in the past week and the number of demands has gone up gnificantly.

If it reaches 1,000,000 it will supposedly go wide, and right now it's almost up to 800,000.

I saw a few advertisements for it during Ghost Hunters last night, so hopefully that will help push it over the top.

I think that it will get released as well. People who have already seen it will demand it, I'm sure because you just don't get this sort of thriller/horror movie anymore.

I will admit there are a few cliches, although some people claim there are none.

*CLICHE SPOILERS*

1. Micah provoking the demon. 9 times out of 10 if you've seen what they had already seen, in real life, you're not going to continue to threaten the entity and keep begging for it to come out and blah blah blah. That was sort of annoying, and just told you that something was going to happen, IMO.

2. When he goes back upstairs and the TV is turned on, and he's looking around, anybody that watches scary movies knows that something is going to be behind him and scare him (which in many cases is somebody that is on his de). He turns the camera back to the door to find Katie standing there wondering what had happened.

*END SPOILERS*

Overall, there were very few cliches, and it is a movie that will make some people struggle to sleep.
KeeterZ Friday 10/09/2009 at 06:13 AM | 55969
I hear you.

I'm a little reluctant to see it myself because I know that it's really going to mess with my head, but I just can't rest.

I'm glad I saw your post when I did.

I didn't realize that it had been released in more Columbus theaters.

When I checked a few days ago, it was only showing at Studio 35 in Clintonville and all three showings were sold out.

I was kicking myself for not getting in on that.

Now that it's been expanded in Columbus, I'm going to try to make a trip down to Easton this weekend to check it out.
gummi Friday 10/09/2009 at 06:21 AM | 55970
Yeah and after that, gummi is going to get himself a PAZUZU wall plaque.
SithLord Friday 10/09/2009 at 06:30 AM | 55971
I hear you.

I'm a little reluctant to see it myself because I know that it's really going to mess with my head, but I just can't rest.

I'm glad I saw your post when I did.

I didn't realize that it had been released in more Columbus theaters.

When I checked a few days ago, it was only showing at Studio 35 in Clintonville and all three showings were sold out.

I was kicking myself for not getting in on that.

Now that it's been expanded in Columbus, I'm going to try to make a trip down to Easton this weekend to check it out.

Wow, I had no idea you were in Columbus!

I went to Easton. They only had one screen, but it's at Lennox and Easton that I saw for tonight's showing.

I'm planning on going again in a few days with a few new friends who haven't seen it.
KeeterZ Friday 10/09/2009 at 06:43 AM | 55972
Wow, I had no idea you were in Columbus!

I went to Easton. They only had one screen, but it's at Lennox and Easton that I saw for tonight's showing.

I'm planning on going again in a few days with a few new friends who haven't seen it.

I'm actually about 45 minutes from Columbus.

I lived in Columbus for about 6 years before moving.

It looks like the movie is playing on a few screens at Easton starting tomorrow.

Yeah and after that, gummi is going to get himself a PAZUZU wall plaque.

Yeah, I have a really bad feeling that this is going to be The Exorcist all over again.

If you guys don't hear from me for a few days, you'll know that I had a bad reaction.

gummi Friday 10/09/2009 at 07:37 AM | 55973
I think it'll get a decent showing here in Toronto. I am psyched to see this. Looks creepy as hell. I hope it's as good as "Rec" was.
Captain Howdy Friday 10/09/2009 at 02:24 PM | 55977
I think it'll get a decent showing here in Toronto. I am psyched to see this. Looks creepy as hell. I hope it's as good as "Rec" was.You thought REC was good? I thought it was ok... I think this kicks REC's ass.
KeeterZ Friday 10/09/2009 at 05:26 PM | 55989
Well, I just saw it.

It feels so good to finally be scared by a movie, not just startled.

I can't remember the last time I literally felt a chill rn down my spine.

It's not the scariest I've ever seen, but its up there Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already.
chubacabra Tuesday 10/13/2009 at 02:24 AM | 56197
Hey guys, I've got HorrorBid's Official review up if you'd like to check it out (and comments are always welcomed LOL)

http://www.horrorbid.com/blog/blog1.php/2009/10/16/movie-review-paranormal-activity
DaShape Friday 10/16/2009 at 06:37 AM | 56338
Well, I finally saw it, and it didn't disappoint.

Like has been said a million times before, this was one of those rare movies that sent many, many chills down my spine.

It's terrific how mple yet effective a movie like this can be in these days of CGI and over the top gore.

While it didn't trump The Exorcist on my all-time "freak out" list, it did do a damn fine job of rattling my cage and keeping me on the edge of my seat.

I found myself nervously scanning the screen during every night scene trying to find the smallest movement or shadow like I was watching a crime scene video.

It's really great to see the movie getting such a warm reception and making the big bucks.

Hopefully everyone involved will see a nice chunk of change from this, and it won't all go into the studio's pocket.

As far a comparisons to The Blair Witch Project, it's easy to see the milarities; however, where the Blair Witch gave me the creeps, Paranormal Activity literally scared me.

It taps into that primal fear that all of us have about what could posbly be out there waiting for any one of us . . . Let's just hope that it's not.

In other words, go see this movie!

;)
gummi Sunday 10/25/2009 at 03:57 AM | 57011
Saw this tonight with some friends. I went in hearing that is was everything from excellent, to just OK. In my opinion, it's neither.

I thought it pretty much sucked. I'm generally fairly easy-going about my movie experiences, but that's because I usually come out of the theater having been at least slightly entertained. The fact that this movie got so much hype is baffling to me. Alright, so the ending segment wasn't terrible (actually it was the only solid part in my mind, and even it wasn't great), and there were a few times where something was actually happening and I didn't feel like sleeping. That's all the credit I can think to give this movie. The acting was so bad, it had the entire audience laughing at times (no joke... it was something I've never experienced during any other movie in a theater), it was extremely repetitive, there were too any dumb, unbelievable moments, and there was nothing about this film that was convincing enough to make me believe it was authentic for even one second (which the effectiveness of this film kind of relies on).

Like I said before, the ending segment (probably like the last 25 minutes), was really the only part of Paranormal Activity that I thought was solid. Had the rest of the film been as intriguing as this, you could be reading a completely different review right now.

I think a shorter running time would definitely help this movie out. The filler scenes would have been more effective with better actors and a better storyline, but nce this film doesn't have either of those, I'd say cutting it down would make it far more watchable.

3.5/10 for the ending segment and a few spooky bits
Myers31TKD Tuesday 10/27/2009 at 06:32 AM | 57122
By the way... I'm all for suspense in movies. I love it. I wish more modern films used it... but showing two people in bed bede an open door frame doesn't have the same effect the 20th time you see it.
Myers31TKD Tuesday 10/27/2009 at 06:39 AM | 57123
i havent seen it yet, we plan on doing it on halloween but yo is everyone divided on this flick. im not sure what to think goin in. guess ill see.
joelsparks Tuesday 10/27/2009 at 07:36 PM | 57146
My friend Lisa brought over the bootleg last night and we watched it. I thought the movie was okay. I wouldn't say scary but it didn't suck either. It did drag some in the beginning I almost turned it off and said fuck it but decided to stick it out. The ending I agree was the better part of it although it in itself wasn't so scary. I'm sticking with okay...it could of been better condering all the hype but it still wasn't as bad as alot of other horror movies I've seen.

kweandee Friday 12/04/2009 at 04:16 PM | 58789
I think it's a movie that's best suited for theaters. I probably won't purchase the DVD as it won't have the same effect, TBH.
KeeterZ Friday 12/25/2009 at 07:19 AM | 59496