Paranormal Activity Haunts Arclight Hollywood
Online Buzz is Turning Indie Horror Phenom Into the Next Big Scare
Oct 6, 2009
But is America ready for another first time director, two no name actors, and a handheld camera shaky enough to induce motion sickness in a roller coaster enthusiast? Apparently so.
After opening on a meagre 33 screens nationwide this past weekend, Paranormal Activity brought in a more than respectable average of $16,129 per screen for a total of $532,242. Not too shabby for a fright flick that cost $11,000 to make.
Quite a few of those screens were hosted by the Arclight theatre in Hollywood, a seminal landmark when it comes to unique viewing experiences. After having sat idly by and watched as after hour showings sold out one after the other, it became a mission of this horror film nurtured cinephile to try and secure a seat and see what all the fuss was about before the film's studio, Paramount, gives it a well earned wider release on October 9th.
Marketing to the Masses Through the Internet Hype Machine
In a unique marketing ploy for a major studio, the film's official site supports a "DEMAND IT!" button which allows visitors to vote to have the movie brought to their city. Also making the rounds is an audience reaction trailer to get the campfire chatter of public opinion going. There even seems to be a growing list of "experiences" starting to arise out of those around the film. Now, these are by no means near the level of say, Poltergeist (way to hang in there Craig T. Nelson), but anytime someone has a "Steven Spielberg brought the screener DVD back in a garbage bag because he didn't want to touch it after his door suddenly locked from the inside while viewing it " story, it tends to not only raise some speculation, but the curious imaginings of what may actually await an audience inside the theatre.
For the true believers, perhaps an honest film adaptation of a phenomena that they believe is terrifyingly real? For the rest of us, maybe just a good old fashioned haunted house movie that actually delivers the scares that the horror business has recently been so bereft of?
Can Paranormal Activity Possibly Live Up to Its Budding Notoriety?
Anyone who's traversed east Sunset Blvd. in the wee hours knows there is plenty to be wary of outside the realm of the supernatural. There's the mysterious street urchin who manifests out of nowhere to sing show tunes while he disquietingly massages your girlfriend's arm, the overzealous MC outside Amoeba Records who has nothing but hardened disdain in his eyes when you don't have $5 to buy his demo, and let's not forget the shaky guy in the corner holding conversation with the middle distance (Is it Blue Tooth or is it Crazy?)
As we enter the Arclight and take our seats, the reality outside no longer matters. What matters now is Micah and Katie's house is haunted. Really haunted. Director Oren Peli spends the next hour and a half ratcheting up the tension and sense of impending doom with the patience of a seasoned veteran, rather than a guy taking his first stab behind the camera. The film definitely does not move at a feverish pace, but most of the sold out house seemed to take the intertwining lulls of character development in stride with the shudders of chaotic paranoia that permeate these 90 minute goings-on.
With the house the only locale and only two supporting characters outside of our besieged couple, both sharing a combined screen time of less than five minutes, the weight of carrying the tension falls on its two leads, Micah Sloat and Katie Featherstone. Luckily, they are game.
The initial hesitation that can be felt when a movie relies on the guise of a pair of actors improv-ing in front of a video camera soon melts away as we are absorbed into the mind set of two people living their lives in a state of perpetual fear. Katie, slowly withered away and on the verge of emotional collapse, and her alpha male partner who treats the demonic entity like a jealous boyfriend, manning up at a moment's notice, even against her wishes, to taunt and call out the spirit. Their relationship breaks down, along with their sanity, as the film reaches its chillingly climatic final confrontation.
As the lights came up, there was an overwhelming sense of relief from most of the audience. Never before in a theatre had such a wide swath of emotion been vocalized throughout the feature. A healthy dabbing of screams every few minutes, a tentative laugh here and there, some god awful shrieks far more terrifying than anything on the screen, and a weary acceptance that, somehow, we had all been in this together, for better or worse.
And In the End...
Is it a perfect movie? Far from, but then there are movies with 10,000,000 times its budget that get no where near the intimate grandeur and inescapable terror of two people alone in a dark house at night.
Choosing to not follow the endgame of Blair Witch, Oren Peli and company put it all up there on the screen to experience. The slow burn escalation of what is about to happen becomes almost paralyzing; suspending crucial visual scares to a point that it becomes excruciating to not know what you are about to see next. In the truest sense, this is what horror used to strive to be.
Gore has it's place, big special effects have their function, but it's the shadow in the hall or the footsteps from across the room that creep under your skin, and that is where the best horror has always tried to make a home.
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