Paranormal Activity

[gryeyes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074

My interest is piqued, but it appears to have a very limited release. Seems they are taking requests and if they receive enough it will be put out in more theaters. Good deal of the reviews I have read all agree its a pretty good Blair Witch style horror movie.

[jason]

I saw this at a midnight screening in Atlanta on Thursday/Friday.  Very much like the Blair Witch, slow build up and all.  And like the Blair Witch, the more hype this gets the worse the reviews are going to be as more people go in expecting "the scariest movie ever" and end up being bored through the first half or so as the film lays out the groundwork.

I loved it.  It totally freaked my wife out, especially since we live in a house that sometimes makes odd noises.  But we also has a couple of complete jackasses at the screening who either bored and decided to make jokes to liven it up, or they were so piss scared that they started making jokes in order to keep from screaming like wee little girls.  Personally, I don't care if someone wants to whisper something to their friends, but when they take it upon themselves to decide that everyone in the theater must feel exactly like them and start shouting out quips, it makes me want to punch people in the face.  And texting.  Christ people, if you are that bored with the movie, just leave.

[Riggswolfe]

The marketing for this is brilliant with the alleged night vision view of the preview audience mixed with clips from the movie. I am intrigued and suspect this could creep me out. Hell, the Blair Witch creeped me out with that last shot at the end that had been built up pretty well through the whole movie.

[UnSub]

That was the only good bit of that movie.

I completely respect that it was a student film with the mother of all hype machines behind it, but "Blair Witch" was pretty disappointing as a film.

[gryeyes]

Besides the waves of nausea that forced me to look down at my feet every so often, Blair Witch for all its faults caused more of an emotional response than a vast majority of horror movies ive seen in the passed decade. Even the "good" more recent horror movies really are not scary. At least in the way Exorcist,Alien and even Poltergeist (Saw it when i was 7 and traumatized).

[TheWalrus]

As we left the theatre after Blair Witch, one of my friends asked the best question ever.

Hey guys, I don't get it. I mean, I get the witch part and all. And that that guy killed the chick or whatever.. but why was that one dude pissin in the corner?

[Riggswolfe]

As we left the theatre after Blair Witch, one of my friends asked the best question ever.

Hey guys, I don't get it. I mean, I get the witch part and all. And that that guy killed the chick or whatever.. but why was that one dude pissin in the corner?

Is this supposed to be in green or is your friend a moron?

[Teleku]

So anybody else have opinions of this movie?  The hype had me excited, but a friend went and said it was completely not scary at all (in his words, Zombieland was scarier than this movie).  Seems to be getting good reviews though, so I'm torn if I should bother.

[gryeyes]

Was going to catch a local showing at 12 last night but ended up not going, plan on seeing it later today. It appears to have been given a largely expanded showing.

[Falwell]

Just got back from it and I thought it was fucking brilliant. Also, I'm not a Blair Witch guy either. I thought it was one of the most overrated movies of all time. This, however, is the real deal. A touch slow to start, but once it gets going, it's off to the races.

[gryeyes]

Just got back from watching it, the 12pm showing was sold out so the theater opened another screen. Scary but for some reason I really wasn't synced up with the tension that was slowly built (everyone else was gasping and flinching). Felt a heavy dose of dizzy for the interludes, actors worked well together. Im not certain if they are a couple in reality but they played the roles well.

[Velorath]

My theater finally got it in.  Watched it with one of the other managers and while some parts were creepy, we were laughing at other parts which I don't think was the intended reaction.

[Bunk]

As we left the theatre after Blair Witch, one of my friends asked the best question ever.

Hey guys, I don't get it. I mean, I get the witch part and all. And that that guy killed the chick or whatever.. but why was that one dude pissin in the corner?

Is this supposed to be in green or is your friend a moron?

I had friends who saw it with me who reacted exactly the same. Only I think two out of the six of us there actually put the whole standing in the corner thing together.

[Riggswolfe]

As we left the theatre after Blair Witch, one of my friends asked the best question ever.

Hey guys, I don't get it. I mean, I get the witch part and all. And that that guy killed the chick or whatever.. but why was that one dude pissin in the corner?

Is this supposed to be in green or is your friend a moron?

I had friends who saw it with me who reacted exactly the same. Only I think two out of the six of us there actually put the whole standing in the corner thing together.

*boggle* Maybe this is why movies are so dumbed down. I mean, it's not like this wasn't explicitly mentioned at least once as part of the serial killers M.O.

[jason]

What?!?  You mean, you have to actually pay attention to follow along?  When did this happen?

[SurfD]

I think the creepiest thing about watching the Blair Witch Project was that I could swear that as the movie progressed, the temperature in the auditorium got steadily colder.  I mean, to the point where by the end of the movie, I was physically huddled in my seat because I felt like something was sucking the heat right out of my body.  Then, literally as soon as the credits rolled, I felt warm again.  Like someone just flipped a switch, and everything was fine.    Of course, what REALLY creeped me out, was that when I asked my sister about the movie (she watched it with some friends about a week after I did), she offhandedly mentioned feeling that the theater she watched it in was unusually cold too.....

[SnakeCharmer]

Absolutely loved it.

[AutomaticZen]

Decently filmed, but not all that scary for me.

Then again, I'm one of those who watches all those haunted shows on A&E and such, so this was pretty much par for the course.

[Ratman_tf]

Necro for DVD release.

This movie scared the crap out of me. Much more effective than the latest blood and gore fare like Saw. The DVD ending turned me into a pussy who had to stop the DVD and grab a smoke before finishing it up.

And while I was smoking, I thought how this movie taps into the primal fear of all guys that their new GF is going to turn out to be a psycho. 

[schild]

You lose that fear when you think all women are already psychotic.

[Rendakor]

Wait, there's a different ending on the DVD? Mind spoilering it for me? This was good, but I wasn't going to buy it.

[Ratman_tf]

Wait, there's a different ending on the DVD? Mind spoilering it for me? This was good, but I wasn't going to buy it.

There are apparently three endings. Which kinda miffs me. I think a movie maker should have the balls to stick with one ending.

[gryeyes]

That is the ending I saw in the theater. Also is the ending that was completely ruined by the trailer.

[Ratman_tf]

The DVD I got has all three. I think.

[Rendakor]

Yea, that's the ending I saw in theaters.

[Slyfeind]

The DVD only has two. It doesn't have the "real" theatrical ending with
and all attempts to find that on YouTube result in the USUAL OMG YOUTUBE CLEVER WIT HAHAHA FUCKERS!!!

I didn't get Blair Witch either. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the guy was pissing in the corner. I didn't even know it was referenced earlier in the movie until now.

The multiple ending thing is interesting. I think Ratman interpreted it as "All endings are equally valid, now watch them all!" As opposed to "This is just the extra shit you get on all DVDs."

[Rendakor]

So there's some "theatrical" ending that none of us saw in theaters, and isn't on the dvd? 

[Ratman_tf]

So there's some "theatrical" ending that none of us saw in theaters, and isn't on the dvd?  

Looks like. According to that bastion of internet truth, Wiki, the movie was going to get remade for the big screen, but they screened the original footage and decided to just touch that up. So we got a few more scenes and some different endings out of that.

http://www.horrorsquad.com/2009/10/11/so-what-was-paranormal-activitys-original-ending/

[Kitsune]

The movie was interesting but totally dropped the scary ball, in my opinion.  The fact that the 'scary' was always telegraphed so clearly by the movie really dampened the effect.  Knowing for certain that something was going to happen sank any suspense, and the main characters being retards turned the movie from suspenseful into ludicrous.  The fact that they stuck around after blatant things were happening right in front of their eyes instead of saying, "Fuck this house, we're setting it on fire and going to the Motel 6." just killed it for me.  If they'd spent just one night in a hotel, and the weird shit continued to happen, it would've eliminated the problem entirely, but the fact that they didn't try to run and only vaguely contemplated running was unbelievable.

Also, of the three rumored endings to the movie, the one in the theater was the least impressive.  Both of the other two sound waaaay creepier.

[Draegan]

It was mentioned a ton of times that the demon was following the chick, moving anywhere would not of solved the problem.  Breaking up with your possessed insane wife would of saved the dude; the chick was fucked.

[gryeyes]

The fact that the 'scary' was always telegraphed so clearly by the movie really dampened the effect.  Knowing for certain that something was going to happen sank any suspense, and the main characters being retards turned the movie from suspenseful into ludicrous. 

Not to defend the movies flaws but the telegraphed "scary" was intentional. If you pay attention the scary follows the same exact pattern from the first incident till the end. Its the fear of "jesus fuck how much worse is the next cycle going to be!". I also found them remaining just a duo the entire time pretty stupid. Ok you wont leave the house for some unknown reason at least invite a swarm of friends/family/reporters over.

They also seemed to have no problems ignoring all the things mentioned about the "demon", except the one thing that would ensure they get fucked.

[schild]

Picked this up on blu-ray after Fry's had it on sale. It was only 9,000 times better than fucking Blair Witch. Though, I think the best touch is if you wait til the credits are over, and by wait I mean wait like 5 minutes after that single copyright screen, there's a ridiculously long list of names (tens of thousands, if not hundreds):

Exhibit A:


From this:
http://screenrant.com/paranormal-activity-fans-dvd-credits-aco-33624/

Also, turns out the Nexus One takes good pictures.

Edit: The list of names is more interesting if you don't know why they're there.

Edit 2: I guess I should give an opinion beyond "better than Blair Witch" given that Blair is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It was reasonably scary. I sort of enjoy the hell out of horror movies and I felt like this one delivered but might not be worth having on blu-ray besides having the alternate cut which I'll probably watch later this week. I'd rank it about 1/10th as scary as say, Ringu or the original Dark Water and definitely not nearly as scary as the original Grudge (Ju-On). Really, it's just nowhere near the quality of where Japanese horror peaked. Better than most American horror though. I'd say it's about as scary as Exorcist (but not as scary as The Exorcist of Emily Rose). I'd put it somewhere between The Thing and The Vanishing (the original). As in, scary than The Vanishing but not as scary as The Thing. Well, saying that now, I'd say it's probably worth owning on Blu-Ray since I have both of those on multiple formats.

[Engels]

Schild, not to derail, but while we're on the subject of asian vs american, have you seen either version of Shutter? The original Thai or the remake? Thinking of renting one or  the other.

[pxib]

I'd like to see some sort of division of "horror" into "dread", "disgust", and "shock". Something like The Orphanage doesn't belong in the same category as Ringu or Nightmare on Elm Street. Or Night of the Living Dead. Or Alien.

[schild]

Schild, not to derail, but while we're on the subject of asian vs american, have you seen either version of Shutter? The original Thai or the remake? Thinking of renting one or  the other.

Shutter came out after Blu-Rays were widely available and I have not seen it since the original version is not available yet (afaik). I won't watch a remake until I see the original (the remake IS available on blu-ray).

Edit: The original movie came out long before blu-rays, but it never played in AZ, or at least I didn't see it playing there and the DVD wasn't available in "non-import" variety until 2007. Thai Cinema tends to be hard to keep track of in general, if it weren't for the remake, I probably wouldn't have known it existed.

Edit:

I'd like to see some sort of division of "horror" into "dread", "disgust", and "shock". Something like The Orphanage doesn't belong in the same category as Ringu or Nightmare on Elm Street. Or Night of the Living Dead. Or Alien.

I'm big on genre purity, but my horror subgenres would be: "Gore" and everything else. I would in fact throw Orphanage into the same pile as Let the Right One In (Yes, I know you didn't mention this) and Ringu. Nightmare on Elm Street and Night of the Living Dead I'd put in Gore. Alien I'd put in Sci-Fi. Yes, I absolutely know that Alien is a horror movie first, but the series lands it firmly in Sci-Fi. In a vacuum, I'd probably just put it under straight horror though. Event Horizon, however, would go in Horror, not Gore and definitely not Sci-Fi, it crosses the line way too much.