By Joe Leibovich

In the decade since The Blair Witch Project’s release, there have been a number of efforts to recapture the lightning in a bottle that small budget horror film produced.  These have been mainly disappointing efforts (Cloverfield, anyone?).

Paranormal Activity, however, not only matches Blair Witch on every level. It destroys it.

The set up for Paranormal Activity is fairly simple.  A San Diego couple is dealing with some kind of apparent haunting.  We learn very quickly that Katie (Katie Featherstone), an English major, has been sporadically dealing with these issues throughout her life. Her slight jackass boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat), a day trader (!) decides to buy a video camera to try to capture the phenomena.

The film plays out strictly on the tapes that Micah’s ever present camera picks up.  In other words, the entire movie is seen from the perspective of a camcorder.

The movie starts off with relatively minor occurrences…a noise here, some keys that fall off a counter there.  And, it’s clear that Micah finds the whole thing to be kind of fun.  But, as you might expect, things escalate and we watch the horror grow and the characters break down over the course of the movie.

Paranormal Activity is genuinely scary.  This is a low budget movie – $16,000 – and it does not rely heavily on special effects.  It also doesn’t feature a musical soundtrack or score.  What it does feature, is a series of overnight time elapse shots of the couple’s bedroom with an open door to a hallway.  We watch this footage in abject fear of what may or may not be outside that door.  And when things do happen within the bedroom, the events can be riveting and terrifying.

Both of the lead actors are unknown (well, until now), and both turn in terrific performance. Katie Featherstone is the emotional center of this film.  Whatever is (or isn’t) happening in the movie is centered on her.  It is made clear very early on that the two simply can’t get out of the house to avoid danger, as the danger is following her.  Featherstone is terrific, and conveys a wide range of emotions and horror.  If there’s one distracting thing about her performance its that she is a dead ringer for The Office’s Jenna Fischer, and at times that takes away from what’s going on.

Micah Sloat is also convincing in his role.  He starts out as bemused and obnoxious, but over the course of the movie he clearly is seeking safety behind the camera.

Paranormal Activity is a well paced, well made, and at times genuinely horrifying movie.  It’s something different, and is a real treat for folks who like to be scared.

Yes, there is some hokey stuff in the movie.  Why would a certain piece of physical evidence be available to appear?  Yeah, there are times when the acting is not 100% natural. And, then there is the ending.   Steven Spielberg took an interest in this movie, and reportedly suggested a new ending to director and screenwriter Oren Peli.  It’s kind of unfortunate that Peli listened to him.  I am not going to reveal the ending here or the original ending.  Suffice to say, from what I have read, the original ending was more true to the movie as a whole, instead of the more “pat” ending that is now on the film.

Paranormal Activity has some real scares of both the “sudden bump” type and those of psychological nature.  The Paranormal Activity is not a great work of cinematic artistry. But it is well made and different from what we usually get in horror films. It’s a testament to the film’s effectiveness is how scary a simple shot of a character standing still is.

Paranormal Activity is an original, scary movie. It will create a lot of sleepless nights and nightmares. It’s well worth seeing. If you can take it.

On the movie report card, I give Paranormal Activity a B+.

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