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Horror flick 'Paranormal Activity' is scary good

By Rob Thomas
September 25, 2009

The Capital Times

When I was a kid, I remember waking up in the middle of the night and seeing my white shirt hanging in the closet. Except to me, it wasn't a white shirt; I could see perfectly well that it was some kind of evil ghost or something. In fact, even though some part of my brain knew it was just a shirt, I kept seeing the ghost right up until I crept over the closet and felt the polyester blend with my own fingers.

"Paranormal Activity" is "The White Shirt in My Closet: The Motion Picture."

With no money, no stars and virtually no special effects, first-time writer-director Olen Peli has crafted an efficient and very effective horror film by letting the audience's imaginations do most of the work. That may sound tame to hardcore horror movie fans used to ultra-violent "Saw" and "Hostel" brand of horror, but the sneak review audience I saw "Paranormal Activity" with were gasping and shrieking throughout. A couple of teenage girls had to leave the theater midway through and sat huddled on a bench in the lobby, waiting for their friends to come out. It's that freaky.

The film opens without any credits, just an ominous title card thanking "the families" of the two characters in the movie, Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherston). They're an upwardly mobile San Diego couple who have recently moved into a nice house in the suburbs.

Only it's not so nice. They've been hearing strange noises in the night, and the next morning found objects like car keys moved from where they swore they left them. Katie is understandly spooked, and confesses that she's been plagued by disturbing phenomena like this her whole life. Micah, an arrogant day trader, thinks that being haunted is kind of cool, and he buys an expensive video camera to try and capture some of the weird goings-on on film.

"Paranormal Activity" is shot entirely through that handheld camera, sometimes held by Micah as he wanders through the house, other times set up on a tripod in the couple's bedroom as they sleep. It sounds very "Blair Witch," but it's an enormously effective technique; there's something very intimate about digital home video, and when we start seeing strange things happen in the frame as the couple slumber, even something as minor as a door moving a half-inch back and forth, it's deeply creepy.

Peli gradually increases the scares, as whatever is haunting the couple starts growing bolder, as Micah starts deliberately antagonizing It over Katie's frightened protests. It's pretty funny at first to see Micah boasting "Is that all you got?" at some unseen spectral presence, but Micah's total cluelessness was the one thing that kept me from being totally engrossed in the movie. I recognize that the Guy Too Smart For His Own Good is a horror movie staple going back to Dr. Victor "Hey, What If I Built My Own Dead Guy?" Frankenstein, but Micah takes forever to realize that his bravado is a really, really bad idea.

Otherwise, the performances are pretty solid - we buy that Micah and Katie are a real ordinary couple. And it's a smart move to set such a scary movie in a totally ordinary modern house, with hardwood floors and a big-screen TV, rather than in the usual creepy manor or abandoned farmhouse. Peli has made such an auspicious debut because he knows how to make the terror on-screen literally hit home for the viewer.

(Note: Paramount Pictures is distributing "Paranormal Activity" in a very unusual way for a major studio. Instead of opening it nationwide or premiering it first in big cities, "Activity" is being released today in 13 smaller U.S. cities, mostly college towns like Madison. The film is only showing at midnight on weekends and at 9:30 p.m. during the week.)