Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity Review



No spoilers here to haunt you.


Paranormal Activity is a found footage horror movie directed by Oren Peli and stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat.

The story follows our two main characters as they are haunted by a spirit that may be a sinister entity that means to cause them harm.


I'll never forget the first time watching this movie. It was 2009 when the DVD was released and I decided to pick it up for watching alone at my Grandmother's house.

For some reason I decided to watch the movie in the dark, all alone. I thought I was tough because I'd seen so many other horror movies and this one couldn't be any different. Boy was I wrong.

My first clue should have been a list of ways to calm yourself down after watching it that came with the disc. So long story short, once the movie was over I refused to sleep without the light on, any little noise scared the shit out of me, and I could not bare to go outside the bedroom to look down the dark hallway out of fear that something would drag me into the darkness.

So yeah this movie pretty much scarred my psyche at that point. I obsessed over the movie and even took it into school one day when every class was showing movies for the end of term. I may have caused quite a few nightmares that day.

So after watching it again, how does it hold up? Well after dozens of viewings the scare factor does fade, but that would happen with any scary movie. I can guarantee that if I hear any bumps in the night, I will be hiding way under the covers.

Anyway back to the movie.

Let's start with the characters. I would say that Katie could be called the main character as the story mainly focuses on her. There's not much to her but she's likable enough in the role and can be unnerving when in creepy mode which I won't spoil. She is a bit too dependent on her partner Micah for my liking and never seems to take the action in her own hands.

Micah on the other hand is anything but a likable character. He's the only real gripe I have with this film as he spends the entire runtime acting like a douche to Katie, idiotically taunting the demon, and is so far up his own ass he can see his breakfast stuck between his teeth. No doubt a few of you will end up shouting at him to shut the hell up at some point.

There aren't any other characters in the movie aside from Katie's friend who says and does nothing and the Psychic who I'm just gonna call Mr Exposition.

Without trying to spoil any plot points the movie is fantastic at pacing itself as it starts off quite slow with not much happening and by the end ramps up the tension and scares to an insane level.

I do like the symbolism in the movie as it does seem to represent what can happen in a disintegrating, sometimes violent relationship. Although all of this symbolism is basically ruined in every sequel going forward.

The scares are excellent with no pointless jumpscares (well maybe except from a really pointless spider scene) and they will stick with you after the feature is finished. They're so simple and put anything with a Hollywood budget to shame with how effective they are. The film-maker clearly understands that the scariest thing is always the thing you can't see or understand. I still have no idea how the filmed the fantastic dragging scene. It's just frightening how real it all seems.


Overall, this is a fantastic horror movie and one of my favourites. This is one to bring out every Halloween for some real scares. Just be sure that you can deal with the nightmares that may come afterwards. Aside from an annoying main character, there's nothing I can really fault here. A horror masterpiece.


Grade: A