Paranormal Activity

Director: Oren Peli

Writers: Oren Peli

Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and  Mark Fredichs

After moving to a suburban home, a couple become tormented nightly by a demonic entity.

Sales

The estimated cost of the movie was $15,000, the film was shown in only 12 screens in America released on the 27^th of September 2009 it took in on its opening weekend $77,873. It’s been estimated that the film has made $193,355,800 worldwide all together when added up last year.

Main problem with these type of films

The main problem the horror genre faces is to make the supernatural believable, in order to make these films believable we the audience need to identify with the story and characters. For example there is always a sceptic, who we identify with normality, during the film as the plot thickens when the sceptic starts to believe we also get drawn in and believe.

There are many scenes in the film that are in the daylight when the characters are analysing what’s happened the night before, this emphasises that they are normal people and the daylight being relatable to everyday life. We see Katie’s friends round making it more believable, constant use of date/time linking with reality again and the amateurish filming makes us think we could film this ourselves!

Sometimes in these films ‘experts’ are brought in, like Peter Cushing in Hammer Horror films. Dr Fredericks, Dr Abraham are the experts in the film and even the internet which is a modern source of information we all use today.

Why this film is effective

The film is captured through a handheld camera, the camera is our eyes in the film and also makes the film realistic as it makes us feel like we’re there like for example when Katie’s sleepwalking it seems like we’re looking for her too. At night we see everything that is happening when the couple are sleeping making them seem more vulnerable.

There is no non-diegetic sound which makes everything seem more unpredictable and tense and we don’t know what’s going to happen next. The simplest of noises become scary and selective use of volume makes us jump when loud. The film is in low-key lighting, use of light/darkness and shadow the bed is partially in light and surrounded by dark/evil. The darkness make us the audience also struggle like the character as we can barely see what’s happening.

The film is constantly building to a climax and the demon gradually is getting stronger and confident as each night the attacks/torment intensifies leaving the characters more paranoid and frightened. Seems more paranoid and scared the characters become the more violent the supernatural attacks become.