Paranormal Activity
The relentless bone-cracking offered by gory films has proved itself to be a particularly mindless form of horror, and anyone seeking something less predictable will find that Paranormal Activity is the perfect antidote.

Good films about haunting have been a little scarce in the past decade; when it comes to modern horror, it has been a boom time for competent but unoriginal rehashes that can only shock the uninitiated (The Ring, The Omen 666, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The Last House on the Left). Generally, gore has dominated any remaining scary movies (Saw I-V spring to mind). The relentless bone-cracking and gut-squelching offered by gory films has proved itself to be a particularly mindless form of horror, and anyone seeking something less predictable will find that Paranormal Activity is the perfect antidote. Made in one week in 2007 for a budget of $15,000, the film has now grossed over $97,000,000 in America – and for good reason.

The premise is very simple: a wealthy young American couple, Katie and Micah, live in a house that appears to be haunted. Katie is frightened, having recognized the signs after being similarly haunted as child, but for Micah, a goofy day trader, the experience is novel. He sets up a camera in their bedroom to record any nocturnal supernaturalism, and the scene is set. This DIY cod-vérité approach creates an obvious parallel to 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, with one crucial difference. The Blair Witch Project succeeded in proving that any fool can make a night in the woods seem like a distinctly unappealing prospect; Paranormal Activity manages something much trickier: it makes a night tucked up in your own cosy bed seem downright nightmarish. The haunting in question is not mischievous (as in Poltergeist) or cheesy (see the most recent attempt at genre stalwart The Haunting). Instead, it takes a much more malevolent and relentless form. Since I would rather not spoil the surprises in store for you, I will simply confirm that this is an exceptionally effective horror.

Of course, you may be wondering whether I am perhaps too delicate a soul for the stimulating business of watching films intended to frighten. To the contrary – I flatter myself (perhaps a touch liberally) that I have a good head for horror. Most films from the genre leave me unmoved, at least once the most visceral shocks are dispatched. Ghostface and Damien “666” Thorn do not exactly stalk my dreams. When I see a film described as ‘spine-tingling,’ I take that endorsement with a generous pinch of salt. But Paranormal Activity plays upon the classic fears – fear of the dark, fear of being attacked while sleeping (even in your own home), fear of the unseen – with a minimalist aplomb. Special effects are deployed sparingly, and Peli ingeniously creates an atmosphere of rising dread within the most banal of settings – a newly-built suburban house. This banality initially seemed deeply unpromising, and I forecasted an hour and a half of slightly amateurish wobbly camerawork in an effort to manufacture the impression of being scared. Happily, I was disappointed in my expectations, and even the usual “We should leave…,” “No, let’s stay!” horror film conversations failed to slow the overall momentum. Thanks to the improvised nature of the acting, there were even a few incidental jokes thrown in to leaven the tension.

Paranormal Activity, like most horrors, will likely seem scariest when seen in a cinema. Things that go ‘bump’ in the night are especially discomforting when the ‘bump’ is deafeningly surround-sounded, and your fellow audience members are involuntarily flinging their popcorn every which way. However, by virtue of its resolutely everyday setting, the film will also preserve its eerie charms when viewed at home. If you are looking for some thrills that don’t involve people in dank cellars chopping up their own bodies in a ludicrously baroque fashion, then Paranormal Activity will be perfect for you. At the very least, it reinvents a neglected sub-genre of horror with spirit and integrity. It also made me realize that the existence of a film actually possessing ‘spine-tingling’ properties may not be so outlandish after all.