Brains, Blood, Boomsticks, & Broods

Some dude props up a home video camera in his house and films a movie that has people screaming across the nation. I couldn’t avoid it. The allure was too strong, and I was hoping to make up for the teen tragedy that was the newspaper spoiler of The Blair Witch Project. So I didn’t read anything about it, and the only trailer I saw was the same one you probably have of audiences across the nation screaming.

The preview could have been me. I screamed like a little girl… with a sailor’s mouth.

Spoiled or not Paranormal Activity left me satisified and questioning the noises in the dark… at least for a night. It was successful to me for lots of reasons. While we all suspend belief a fair amount walking into the movies this one didn’t require it. Nothing on screen was that far-fetched except for the ending (which was about 15 seconds too long). It actually made me wonder if it was a similar experience to seeing The Exorcist back in the day. The pacing was really nice, and the characters were pretty believable except for the usual horror movie hubris. However, what drives most of the movie is the audio. If you don’t have a home theatre, surround sound, X-74V Dolby, Ear Massager then stop reading this review and go see Paranormal Activity while it’s still in the theatre, which brings up the downside.

I’m not sure this one will translate on DVD, and I’m really sorry I waited until there were only 15 people in the theatre. This movie is one of those rarities that is actually an experience, and the more you can suspend your disbelief and immerse yourself (leave the cynic at home) the more fun you’ll have. Your nerves will stand on end in anticipation and you’ll definitely stay up later that night questioning whether that noise was the cat.

What it has (no spoilers): a demon, spontaneous combustion, a douchebag day-trader boyfriend, a girlfriend he should have left, lots of sounds you hear every night, and lots of annnnn-ticccccyy-pashun

What it doesn’t have: a big cast, credits, gore, or a reason it should have cost more than $45 to make

It’s definitely a lot of fun, but there probably isn’t a lot or replay value.

3.5/5 swinging chandeliers

This entry was posted on 12/24/2009 at 00:48 and is filed under 3 Brains with tags American Horror, Apocalyptic, B-Grade, Blood, Campbell, Campy, Chainsaws, Cheesy, Comedy, Demons, Directors, Flies, Fucked up, Fulci, Fun, Gore, Graphic, Grave Digger, Guns, Guts, Headless Corpse, Horror, Japanese Horror, Knives, Machetes, Massacre, Monsters, Movie Reviews, Movies, Nightmares, Raimi, Romero, Schlock, Sex, Silly, Special Effects, Strippers, Tequila, Transgender, Troma, Undead, Vampires, Virgins, Zombies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.