Paranormal Activity had a brilliant internet campaign that helped it attract audiences, much like its predecessor, Blair Witch Project. Despite the buzz that catapulted this film beyond Saw VI in box office sales, Oren Peli's debut film leaves much to be desired as a horror. The two paramount qualities of a horror are suspense and unpredictability; both of which Paranormal Activity lacks. Furthermore, the two main characters are common garden varieties of the university student and her boyfriend. The screenplay has unbelievable character development, as well as, no compelling twists or turns to engage the audience.
The Hauntings
Paranormal Activity is about a young couple, Katie and Micah, who have recently moved in together in San Diego. Katie has been suffering from hauntings since she was 8 years old in every house she has lived in. And their new home is no different; Katie is once again confronted by these hauntings. In consultation with a psychic, Katie and Micah discover that Katie is haunted by a demon. Thus, the rest of the film deals with the escalation of the demon's interaction with the couple in their bedroom.
Reality Cinema
The film is shot on hand held video, which detracts from its cinematic quality. It is at times claustrophic and repetitive because of the frequent shots of the couple sleeping in their bedroom. In fact, most of the activity in the film takes place in the bedroom; mostly, them sleeping in bed. When Blair Witch Project surfaced in 1999, Reality TV was in its nascent stages, hence there was novelty in the way Blair Witch was shot. However, for that very reason, Paranormal Activity offers nothing new to cinema.
"The Horror, the Horror"
The structure of the story is flawed in the character development, for neither of the characters' objectives change. Through the entire film, Katie wants the demonologist to help her and Micah wants to take care of the demon himself and film his girlfriend. The progression of the demon is also uni-dimensional: it gets louder and more intrusive every few nights, until it finally drags the girl down the hall. The characters, in themselves, are not very engaging either. Katie is a university girl who does bead work with her friend, and is afraid of spiders; meanwhile, her day-trader boyfriend's attitude towards women is straight out of the frat dorm. It is the age-old depiction of the hysterical woman and her protective man who doesn't believe her. Thus, the film is very predictable.
Where's the Horror?
In order to encourage some suspense or concern for our characters, Peli employs psychic and internet research to set the stakes. From these sources, the couple finds out that Katie is haunted by a demon and if she's not careful she'll end up like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. This information, however, does not provide enough stress because it comes in the form of information, not action. The suspense in Paranormal Activity relies on the stress of watching two people sleeping in bed and waiting for the demon to do something.
Finally, the characters are not entirely believable. How is it possible that Katie would wait over ten years to address her problem with the hauntings? Why didn't her parents ever consult someone? And why did it take so long for the demon to possess her? Her boyfriend used the Ouija board and camera, not her. So maybe she didn't need to be possessed to kill him, if it is the case that her boyfriend agitated the demon. As far as Micah goes, why would he endanger Katie's life for the sake of his masculinity? Why would this young man think he could fight a demon? Hard to understand.
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