(Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures)
The hype around �Paranormal Activity� has been building for a while now, and though the movie was enjoyable, it lacked the true terror promised in the trailer.
The film is about a young couple that has recently moved in together. The girlfriend, Katie (Katie Featherston), tells her boyfriend that a creature has haunted her since she was little. Fascinated, the boyfriend, Micah (Micah Sloat), buys a video camera to record them sleeping. The idea is to see if it�s all in Katie�s head or if there really is something haunting her. Every morning they play back more action on the video camera, captivating Micah and terrifying Katie.
The movie felt like a bad remake of 1999�s �The Blair Witch Project.� Both movies are supposed to be live footage found after the death or disappearance of the filmmakers and they share the theme of the fear of the unknown.
Conor Mills-Currie, an 18-year-old freshman psychology major, said he liked that �Paranormal Activity� uses amateur camerawork to give it a homemade feel.
�The camerawork was very well put together in that you could only see what the camera saw,� Mills-Currie said. �The perspective was very interesting and moved the movie along at a good pace.�
Though the movie was enjoyable and gave the audience a good scare once in a while, it failed to generate the true horror of �The Blair Witch Project,� or imprint itself as a terrifying memory for the audience as it left the theater.
�I didn�t think it was scary,� said Kayla Laufer, a 19-year-old sophomore pre-communication major. �None of the images really freaked me out.�
Another problem in the movie was the plot. Like many horror movies, it started out believably and lost credibility when the couple didn�t seek outside help as the terror escalated.
Mills-Currie said he felt that the boyfriend was the plot�s weak point.
�The man in the movie was a little too heroic for me,� Mills-Currie said. �I feel like if all that kind of stuff was going on in my house without a logical explanation it would freak me out, especially if I could see all of these things on tape.�
Though the movie has its flaws, it�s a good fallback for a boring night.
�It was a quality film; it took a little while to get good but it kept you interested throughout,� Mills-Currie said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Brigid Igoe at Brigid.igoe@colorado.edu.
