Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity

Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Oren Peli

Many people have heard of all the hype surrounding this newest release. Along the lines of Blairwitch Project, it was supposed to create confusion as to whether or not the story and video footage is real; that wasn’t as much of a wonder, however, as to the claims that it was a truly, truly horrifying film. And because of this, I’m sure my obscurely small amount of readers might wonder why I’m reviewing it on a gender-based blog. So let me get the gist of this story out of the way.
A couple (named Katie and Micah, the same names as the actors) are being terrorized by some “paranormal activity.” Because of this, the boyfriend, Micah, comes up with the idea to buy a video camera and set it up in their house. During the day, he carries it around recording their usual home going-ons, and at night, he props it up in their bedroom to record what happens when they sleep; that way, he reasons, they will be able to see and identify their haunter. The first half-hour of the movie is relatively calm, only having a couple spooky movements or misplaced items; but the second half, I guarantee, horrified me. I tried to leave the theatre quickly because I felt like the “enemy” of the movie knew I had watched it, and was going to kill me.
Well, that’s as much of it as I can safely say without spoiling this movie for other watchers. I try to view this as fairly as I can, but keep in mind that I’m a horror film junkee, and that I adore being scared. So this movie was perfect for me.
Now on to the important part. The enemy of this movie, which haunts and terrorizes the couple, is focused entirely upon the woman. It has some hints of sexual desire for the woman, constantly attempting to “get” her late at night when she’s sleeping. It even smashes a picture of her boyfriend’s face, showing obvious contempt for his “claims” of her. As many horror films (and films in general), the boyfriend refuses to find help in the ways the woman wants because she’s “his” girlfriend and he feels like its his responsibility as the “man” to help her. Any outside forces that try to help, he hates. Despite the horror of this movie, it was uncomfortable the amount of “this is MY woman,” “no, this is MY woman!” and leads to the ultimate sad ending of the movie.
Despite all that, it’s needless to say I slept with my lights on last night.
I give this five vagenises.
The Goods: extremely scary and inventive.

The Bads: the woman has no power and is tossed between two angry outside forces.