Review: Paranormal Activity (2009)

Scariest Movie of the Year, If Only by Default

A few years ago, I wrote a screenplay that was, at its core, very similar to "Paranormal Activity". Seriously. It followed a couple who lived in a haunted house, where things would only happen to them at night. Then, during the day, they would go through the monotony of their every day lives, until nighttime would come again. Even the way the hauntings were constructed very similarly, with barely noticeable sounds the first night, leading up to nerve-jangling noises, bangs, and footsteps. The whole movie was event to take place entirely in one apartment, to cut back on the need for added locations.

I mention this not to insinuate that "Paranormal Activity" has stolen my idea. After all, it's essentially the most basic idea in the horror movie pamphlet. I merely mention it because I know of the difficulties in making such a film simultaneously believable and scary. After all, it's not easy to find ways to keep a severely distressed couple in the same house for a month, or find ways for them to avoid getting help. And in my attempt to have some sort of character development, I added far too many daytime scenes that took the momentum from the previous night's hauntings.

Oddly, these are the main things that haunt "Paranormal Activity", a film that's widely being touted as the scariest movie of the year, if not of all time. While I find the latter to be a little far-fetched, I simply must agree with the former statement: Not necessarily because I want to, but because it has to win by default. What else has hit theaters this year with even half the chills and thrills? Hell, what has hit theaters, or even gone direct-to-video, with even half this many scares in the past DECADE? Sadly, there haven't been many, with Hollywood's commitment to an endless barrage of half-assed remakes, not to mention the obvious "quantity over quality" mantra they have lived by over the years.