Paranormal Activity (2007)

Directed by Oren Peli

Viewed on Amazon Prime

Summary: This massively influential found footage horror film did a lot with a tiny budget and crafted some memorable characters and genuinely creepy moments, even if it took me the better part of a decade to recognize that.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is to rewatch/reread/relisten to a piece of art that you’ve already experienced. It is tempting to always move on to new things, and that is a good way to get a wider range of knowledge, but taking the time to re-examine something that you thought you had a good grasp on could lead to discovering a whole new perspective on this thing in question, revealing sides of it you weren’t previously aware of. What does this have to do with Paranormal Activity? Well that’s the boat I am in right now with this film, I saw it close to a decade ago, didn’t enjoy it, and only decided to rewatch it after a discussion of found footage movies spurred by my Blair Witch retrospective. I just finished watching Paranormal Activity a short while ago and, as much as it pains me to say it, I was wrong about it.

I probably don’t need to give Paranormal Activity too much of an introduction, it had a great ad campaign and was an incredible box office success, revitalizing the found footage subgenre for a new generation, spawning countless imitators and knockoffs that continue to this day. The plot is pretty simple, a young couple, Micah and Katie, suspect that they are being haunted so Micah buys a camera to film around the home and see if they can spot something unusual. Katie has been dealing with this for a long time and is less enthusiastic than Micah about trying to record these things. While filming they manage to capture several concerning moments on film, leading to disagreements between the two on how to proceed with fixing their issue.

The story that follows is very simple at first glance but is surprisingly relatable and pretty clever in how it utilizes being a found footage movie. On the surface, this is a movie about a young couple plagued by some sort of evil presence but immediately underneath that is the story of a collapsing relationship that forms the real emotional core of the movie. The main question that drives both of these plots is, “there’s an evil presence bothering us, what do we do about it?” The disagreement between the two of them about how to proceed in solving this problem is key to the story, because Micah and Katie have two completely different plans for how to solve this haunting problem. Katie wants to call in experts on this issue but Micah is incredibly resistant to getting any sort of outside help with the matter, insisting that he will fix the problem himself.

Now that we’re getting into the characters a bit let’s talk about Micah. I hate Micah, but it feels like I’m supposed to hate him. Micah is the embodiment of everything you could do wrong in a situation where you and a loved one disagree how to solve a problem. Instead of listening to Katie’s concerns, accepting that she has more experience with these problems than he does and working together with her to figure out solutions, he does whatever he wants. Micah always wants to be in control, takes charge of situations that he really shouldn’t be taking charge of, deliberately misleads Katie to setup his own attempts to solve these problems and stubbornly refuses to admit that he might be in over his head and should accept that someone else may know better than he about these issues.

Katie repeatedly tells Micah how she wants to proceed, what she thinks should be done and how, but Micah rarely listens to her, except in the most dire situations. What is especially tragic is that the haunting focuses almost exclusively on Katie, causing her to have terrible nightmares and experience disturbing sensations, like feeling breathing on the back of her neck when no one is behind her and hearing whispers at night. These all wear on Katie pretty harshly, making it difficult for her to sleep and straining her relationship with Micah. Though Micah seems pretty adept at straining that relationship without the help of their visitor.

The status of their haunter is pretty vague, there aren’t any scenes where someone goes on the internet and learns exactly what is haunting them or how to stop it and that was probably for the best. Most of the actual horror comes from the feelings of helplessness that Katie and Micah experience while they’re being tormented, with the added layers of tragedy of the fact that maybe someone could do something but Micah just refuses to accept that anyone else could possibly be able to do something that he can’t do. Things get spookier and spookier as the movie goes on, which makes sense because of one brilliant plot point about the evil presence. The presence feeds on negativity (how could that come up in a house with a relationship so perfect?) and it also is seeking some form of contact. So by Micah filming the happenings, trying to analyze for EVP, screaming at this thing, he is just constantly making things worse by empowering whatever it is that is there. It is a really clever way to get around the problem of escalation in movies like these and I appreciate how well the characters drive the story, even if there isn’t that much story here.

Being a microbudget found footage movie everything takes place at one house and with the same few characters but they manage to use this to the film’s advantage, casting the space as almost more of a prison than a home. What’s a little strange about the one location is that it is clearly established that it isn’t the HOUSE that is haunted, but rather it’s Katie who is haunted and they never mention anything strange happening outside the home. In the grand scheme of the movie it isn’t a terribly important plot point but it seems like a bit of a missed opportunity to not even talk about how this is affecting her life outside of this home.

One thing that was very different than I remembered it being was the nighttime paranormal activity sequences. I remembered them being a large part of the movie but they don’t happen super frequently and they’re pretty short when they come up. I may have been conflating the original with the sequels, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is that these scenes are quick and effective and do present frightening situations. It really highlights just how scary being in this situation would be and it is easy for anyone watching to imagine how they would feel if they were there.

Paranormal Activity is much more of a success than I remember it being, and I’m thrilled about it! This reversal of my feelings on this movie makes me want to go back and rewatch every movie I’ve disliked in the past, which could maybe make a neat review subseries. Back to the film though, it’s a relatable and emotionally involving ghastly story and even though it is a bare-bones production it succeeds at everything important. The characters are realistic and well written and the found footage gimmick is utilized extremely well. Really this is exactly what you would want from a microbudget film and I would recommend Paranormal Activity to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet who enjoys movies about hauntings.