Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity

CAST
Katie Featherston ... Katie
Micah Sloat ... Micah
Mark Fredrichs ... The Psychic
Ashley Palmer ... Diane
Amber Armstrong ... Amber
Randy McDowell ... Lt. Randy Hudson
Tim Piper ... Richard

Story line: A young couple in love move in together but the girlfriend has a demon stalking her since childhood follow her. The boyfriend tries to capture the thing on camera while they sleep.

Review:

The Good: The movie itself was not too bad. For a low budget film it was decent. I understand it was made on an extremely thin shoe string budget and the TV ads showing mostly audience reaction was a great marketing ploy. Also, doing a grass roots internet demand page to catch people interest was a fantastic way to get people in the seats. A kudos goes out to the people who thought up the idea to promote the movie this way.

The bad: The movie was shot in a very "Blair Witch Project" feel, which I do hold against the movie. Although thanks to the Blair Witch Project hoax the makers of Paranormal Activity knew better than to try and say it was a true story, in fact they didn't say if it was fictional until the very end of the movie credits, which as we all know most people don't stay to watch. The story line was not that impressive and the dialogue extremely clunky and at times tedious to get through.

The Ugly: The overly hysterical people in the audience, specifically ones that purposely acted out during the "scary" parts of the film. It was almost as if those people in the audience thought if they acted that way they would some how be included in the next TV ad for the movie. Maybe I am jaded or expect more from a movie that is called scary but seeing demon foot prints in baby powder is not going to make me gasp or scream in terror. Nor do off camera loud bangs make me jump from my sit and go running down the aisle. I am not kidding this happened in the theater I was in and it was very disruptive and disturbing to know that grown adults would act in such a manner in hopes of getting in a TV ad.

Overall: If you want to see the movie without some stupid person screaming bloody murder behind you because they think that is how they are suppose to react then watch it on demand or on DVD in the privacy of your own home. Also, if you are one of the people who acted like a scared little school girl during the theatrical release of this movie, I hope one of your friends or a stranger punched you in the mouth and gave you something real to scream about.