"What happens when you sleep?"

This week I discuss my first watching of Paranormal Activity. I have seen one of the other ones, I don't remember which one though...something with two little girls and a family and ghost...but this was the first time I have watched the first Paranormal Activity movie that sparked all the ones that followed.

I had trouble getting into this film because first person "found footage" films instantly throw me off of wanting to watch a movie. I don't know, but with the exception of The Blair Witch Project, the found footage narrator is just not one I can usually get absorbed into. I also didn't feel the two main characters were that believable. The most paranormal thing about this movie was that a college student and her boyfriend with some job I wasn't even sure of were able to afford to live in that rather spacious and expensive-looking home.

I tried to connect with Katie, and there were times I almost did, usually during the parts where she showed fear. The actress did a decent job with showing Katie's intense emotional reactions when she was woken up by noises at night or when she was dragged from the bed. The boyfriend, however, was annoying most of the time with his purposeful ignorance and obsession with the camera.

Despite the factors that put me off from the film, I think there was potential behind the story line.

"Basically, they're these malevolent evil spirits that only exist to cause pain and commit evil for their own amusement. It's pretty creepy- I mean, they stalk people for years, like decades, and sometimes they're really intelligent in the way they do things to freak you out." -Micah, Paranormal Activity 

The idea of demon attaching itself to Katie and following her from house to house throughout her life could have really produced something terrifying and dark, but instead the intense parts of the hauntings are so greatly delayed by the in-between stuff being dragged out, that when we see Katie sleepwalking or hear the odd noises, it just wasn't as creepy as it could have been. I mean, if those things started happening to me in real life I would probably never sleep again, but for the sake of the film the deliverance of the evil entity and its doings could have been amped up enough to make up for all the drawn out scenes of the couple fighting about the same things.

So overall, Paranormal Activity has certainly made a name for itself in the movie industry and perhaps in the horror genre, but the movie would probably have more appeal to me if it was done in a more outside perspective way than with the found footage point of view.

Happy Hauntings,
Sara