This film is scary. Shit scary. I like to think of myself as a fairly hardened horror fan, but I still nearly crapped my pants watching it. Throughout the film is a constant atmosphere of complete tension.
If you haven't heard anything about Paranormal Activity before, it's a horror film shot using the cinéma vérité style à la Blair Witch and Cloverfield. Rather than acting as a window through which the viewer observes, the camera is a device within the story itself. This technique has appeared more and more frequently in the horror genre and personally, I welcome it. It creates a far more immersive experience and allows the viewer to truly connect with the characters. This makes for far scarier films than the slashers currently saturating the market.
Much unlike slasher films, Paranormal Activity contains very little violence. The tension instead comes from the fear of violence. Much of the film is taken up by expositional dialogue, revealing much about the couple's relationship and history. They are not one-dimensional archetypes, but real people. Their reactions to the increasingly frightening events are similarly real and believable.
I found myself empathising with them entirely. I really cared. With most horror films, I can distance myself from the action and tell myself it's just a film. That was impossible here. I was scared out of my mind, but also compelled to keep watching. That is the mark of a great horror film.
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