Paranormal Activity makes you jump at things that go bump in the night.
Paranormal Activity
Directed by Oren Peli
Starring Katie Featherstone, Micah Stoat
***
Nothing kills a movie’s momentum like over-hype, so I want to make it very clear that Paranormal Activity-the much buzzed about new horror film from first-time director Oren Peli-is not the scariest movie ever made. It’s not even one of the Top 5 scariest movies ever made. What it is though, is a very clever, very compelling and very creepy haunted house tale that owes as much to the spooky ghost stories of yesteryear-I’m thinking of black-and-white classics like Val Lewton’s Cat People and Robert Wise’s The Haunting-as it does to more contemporary scary movies like The Blair Witch Project.
Like the latter film, Paranormal Activity is shot entirely from a first-person point-of-view perspective, specifically the perspective of Micah (Micah Stoat) a goofy day-trader who lives with his girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherstone) in a handsome two-story home in a well-off neighborhood. As the movie begins, we learn that Micah has just purchased some video equipment to record some strange goings-on in the house that Katie believes might be supernatural in nature. These incidents always go down after dark, so he rigs up the camera in their bedroom to videotape everything that happens after they fall asleep. At first, very little of note seems to occur; there are a few creeks in the hallway and the bedroom door swings open in the dead of night, but none of these things necessarily indicate the presence of a poltergeist. As Micah continues to film though, his camera captures after-hours activities that seem to defy any logical explanation. Could it be that they are really sharing their house with a ghost? And if so, why don’t they get the hell out of dodge already?
That second question is one that Peli never really answers successfully, which becomes a problem in the third act when events reach a point that would make any rational person would pack up his or her suitcase and make a run for the border. Then again, it’s difficult to think of any horror movie where the main characters did the smart thing and just left the scene of the haunting. (Let’s face it, if they did, none of these films would last longer than twenty minutes.) Given that, it’s a little easier to forgive-if not entirely forget-the movie’s occasional gaps in logic, especially since Peli orchestrates the movie’s scariest sequences so effectively. As with The Haunting and Cat People, much of Paranormal Activity‘s fear factor is derived from what the audience doesn’t see. There’s none of the sadomasochistic gore that’s on display in torture porn like the Hostel movies or the CG-enhanced bloodletting in bigger-budgeted productions like The Haunting in Connecticut. Instead, Peli relies on little details-like lights going on and off in the hallway or a booming crash in a dark room-to put the audience of the edge of their seats. The best compliment I can pay Paranormal Activity is that, hours after I saw the movie, a noise woke me up in the middle of the night and for a split-second, I thought Peli’s ghost had followed me home.
Verdict: See It
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Also In Theaters:
Trucker
Directed by James Mottern
Starring Michelle Monaghan, Nathan Fillion, Benjamin Bratt
**
Hollywood has been trying to turn Michelle Monaghan into a movie star for several years now, but since success has consistently eluded this pleasant, but bland actress she’s now aiming for artistic cred instead. Her chosen vehicle to respect is a cloying indie drama about a rough and tumble female big rig driver whose life is upended when she’s suddenly asked to take care of the son she abandoned years ago. Rounding out the cast is Benjamin Bratt as the boy’s father and her ex-lover and Nathan Fillion as the married man that’s completely under Monaghan’s spell. Impersonally written and directed by James Mottern, Trucker is the kind of movie that longs to be praised for its “realism” and “grit,” but deep down the film is just as phony and artificial as any Hollywood fantasy.
Verdict: Skip It
St. Trinian’s
Directed by Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson
Starring Rupert Everett, Gemma Arterton
*1/2
Originally released in England two years ago to withering reviews and mediocre box office, this update of a popular ’50s British film franchise is crossing the pond only because some members of the large ensemble cast-specifically bad-boy comic Russell Brand-have begun acquiring some name recognition stateside. But even the most devoted Brand fanatic will have a hard time sitting through the film’s witless antics and aggressively annoying performances from such normally reliable actors as Rupert Everett and Colin Firth. Apparently a sequel is already in the works, but don’t expect to see that one on U.S. screens anytime soon.
Verdict: Skip It
Adventures of Power
Directed by Ari Gold
Starring Ari Gold, Michael McKean, Adrien Grenier
*1/2
A feature-length rip-off of…uh, I mean homage to Napoleon Dynamite, Adventures of Power features writer/director/star Ari Gold as a dorky small-town loser with a big dream: to be the best air drummer in the world. That mission takes him from his backwater burg to the bright lights of the big city, where he joins up with a down-on-its-luck air-instrument band and enters the premiere competition for air-musicians everywhere. Imagine a lame Saturday Night Live sketch stretched out to 90 minutes and you’ll have an idea of how painful Adventures of Power is to endure.
Verdict: Skip It
