Newspaper staff shares ‘Paranormal’ experience

A SKEPTIC GIVES IN TO FEAR

When I heard the movie, “Paranormal Activity” being compared to “The Blair Witch Project,” I didn’t expect much.

Years ago I saw “The Blair Witch Project,” and I found it boring and silly. Of course, the fact that I knew it was a fake didn’t help.

Walking into “Paranormal Activity,” I was pretty sure it was a fake, too. I didn’t think it possible that I would be scared.

How wrong I was.

Midway through the movie, I was curled up into my ball in my seat with my hand covering my mouth lest I unintentionally let out a yelp of fright.

Without revealing too much, I will tell you that my fear was derived from the realistic nature of the filming; it is set up as a home movie, one I hope will never be featured in my home movie collection.

The movie taps into the subtle everyday fears that ordinary people experience all the time: How many times have you been in a dark house, heard a creepy noise and wondered what it was? The terror in
this movie is on that level, except the director ups the ante with each scene.

By the end of the movie, I found myself completely oblivious to the fact that this was, in fact, a work of fiction. Well, until the very end, anyways. I won’t tell you what happens, but the climax destroyed
my sense of belief.

I also began imagining what that night would be like as I lay in my silent apartment trying to go to sleep. Would I hear footsteps or voices seeping out of my mind into the air around me? Would I be able
to sleep at all?

Turns out I was fine; the fear inspired by the movie wore off pretty quickly. I haven’t talked to my co-worker, Amanda Stewart, who attended it with me though; she might have had a worse time.

I recommend that everybody see this movie. But do yourself a favor, don’t read anything about it until after you go. Let it all be a surprise.

This is one of those rare movies that I wish I could go back and see again for the first time. Alas, that will never be, but perhaps another one will come along and I will be sucked in once again. Until then,
make your way to the local theater and see “Paranormal Activity.” You won’t be disappointed.

Editorial Page Editor Alex Granados can be reached at 703-878-8069.

‘PARANORMAL ACTIVITY’ SCARY, BUT NOT FOR LONG

Let me preface this by saying I am a wimp.

At various times in my life, scary movies have made me afraid of clowns, dolls, wells, forests and knife wielding psycho killers.

So, when I saw “Paranormal Activity,” yeah, I was scared.

Of course I was.

The movie had just enough realism, surprises and suspense to creep me out.

At the time.

Now, a few days later, I’m over it.

It wasn’t creepy enough to make me afraid of ghosts, demons or home movies.

And I haven’t found myself wondering or thinking about the fate of the main characters, who, like most characters in scary movies, are frustrating at best.

But, that being said, while I was watching the movie, I was entertained.

It got off to a slow start, but once it got going, I was glued to the screen, waiting for the next creepy happening to occur and shushing my co-worker who has a habit of talking through movies.

So, I’d say, it’s worth seeing.

If you like scary movies, you’ll probably be scared.

If you’re more of a skeptic, you might not be impressed.

But one thing’s certain, after you see the movie, you’ll have a strong opinion, one way or the other.

The movie has generated enough hype to earn $22 million and the top spot in the box office this past weekend. And it’s been the talk of Twitter, making it to the list of top trending topics pretty much ever
since it premiered.

Comments on Twitter range from the very impressed (“Paranormal activity was one of the scariest movies EVER!!!”) to the very disappointed (“Please shoot me NOW! How lame!”)

So, if nothing else, it’s worth seeing the movie to join the conversation.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.

‘PARANORMAL ACTIVITY’ NEEDS MORE ACTIVITY

“Paranormal Activity,” the low-cost flick likened to the shocker blockbuster “The Blair Witch Project,” and billed as so frightening as to compel the unwary audience members to flee, has one thing going
for it.

The last 60 seconds. A quick bit of action and then you know you’re going home.

As for the 100 minutes that come before — well, that’s basically 100 minutes of life that can never be reclaimed.

This is a far cry from blogs that rate the film as “undeniably scary,” “one of the most effective horror movies in years,” and “the sleeper hit that makes audiences too petrified to ever sleep again.”

Such bloggers must be plants. And it’s that last, especially — the one that speaks to the ensuing loss of sleep — that strikes the biggest chord. If you want to sleep, just go to this movie. That’s what
my husband did.

Somewhere between the “what time is it?” mark and the “oh, man, will this movie ever end” period — roughly half way through, that is — there’s this scene where the couple is asleep in bed (actually, a
good portion of the scenes is of the couple asleep in bed, and that’s a good thing. It offers about the only respite from the follow-the-bouncing-ball nature of the videography. But more on that in a minute.).

Back to the scene: Couple in bed. Camera mounted in bedroom corner to catch scary demon in action. Tension builds. Audience quiets. Oh, what will this evil presence do next?

Click. The hall light turns on and we hear the steady, deliberate sounds of footsteps climbing the staircase, walking toward the bedroom, toward the couple, toward the poor, sleeping, unsuspecting
couple.

It’s about at this point I stifle a giggle and turn to my husband. Hey, do you think it’s strange a demon needs a light to see? But the question goes unanswered. He’s snoring — albeit lightly — and asleep.

Oooh, scarr-rrry.

In fairness, it wasn’t that the movie was so boring it put him to sleep. Rather, the never-ending bounce of the camera lens as a trying-too-hard director attempts to capture the key elements of a
homemade, and therefore Genuine and Not-Acted movie, made him nauseous. He closed his eyes for a few minutes to regain his equilibrium and, quite by accident, dozed off. Things happen.

Just not in this movie.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.

REPORTER BRAVER THAN HE THOUGHT

Perhaps I’m braver than I thought.

After seeing “Paranormal Activity,” many viewers have reported being scared in their own homes. Some have said they had to sleep with the lights on.

The film didn’t inspire that kind of fear in me.

But I do like the movie the more I think about it.

Sitting in a crowded theater at Potomac Mills, I had a problem with the flick as soon as I realized I wasn’t keen on the main characters, Katie and Micah.

They weren’t people you wanted to root for. Frankly, I didn’t care whether a haunt got them or not, and it didn’t help that the story unfolded slowly at first.

Katie is a student, and Micah is a day trader, and they live in an immaculate pad in San Diego in the style of the TV show “Friends”: you know, to go with the movie’s flow, you have to suspend your
disbelief not only about spooks, but about what kind of place 20-somethings who barely work could afford.

But as their frights increased, I didn’t feel sorry for them as one might expect to. Micah, especially, was problematic: His stubbornness and lack of appreciation for his girlfriend’s fear seemed cut from the
cloth of that guy you always hated in high school.

Thing is, though, the more I thought about how I didn’t identify with the characters, the more I realized what a wonderful job the actors — whose real names are Katie (Featherston) and Micah (Sloat) —
did.

Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? If you don’t identify with the characters, doesn’t that mean the actors did a poor job?

Not necessarily. Because I’ve met people like these characters, the film’s premise that we’re watching two people’s real lives becomes all the more successful.

In other words, I may not have cared for the characters, but that was OK because they were believable.

The scares? They didn’t really do it for me, but I will offer that the ending left me with a shock that lasted after I walked out of the theater.

So should you see it? Yeah, but do it soon, while the film is still generating buzz.

You want to make sure you go at night and when there’s a packed house because part of the fun is seeing and hearing the gasps and squeals of your fellow moviegoers.

That might sound corny, but, heck, it’s Halloween. Corny’s allowed.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.

MOVIE JUST LOTS OF TALK

Maybe it’s the fact that the last movie I saw in theaters was “The Final Destination 3D,” with cover- your-eyes blood and gore flying at you from the big screen, or maybe it’s because it reminded me
of “The Ring” with the shaky “possession” images and the television turning on.

I don’t know, it all seems overdone, too cliché for my taste. I found myself waiting for something to happen. Anything but sleeping and talking about the video camera; but that’s all that happened.

And what was with the picture in the attic or the Ouija Board catching on fire? Did that even have a point? And what about finding “Diane,” which obviously didn’t do any good for the characters. Did any of
this add anything to the plot?

Throughout the movie, all I could do was plan for the worst to happen, but instead of surprising me or at least giving me the expected, all that happened was morning came and they started talking more
about the camera.

The end — what to say about the end? I found myself laughing hysterically. Of course the end was meant to terrify you and make you unable to fall asleep that night, but I was left completely
disappointed.

I felt tricked by the hype that made me want to see “one of the scariest movies of all time.” I’d like to change that to “one of the lamest movies of all time.”

This movie should have had more suspense, more shadows and scarier noises. Maybe I just missed the point or maybe there just wasn’t one. You can choose to chalk it up to my like of edge-of-your-
seat blood and gore, but this is one film I won’t be adding to my collection, and this is one hour and a half I will never get back. I almost forgot to mention the best part … movie theater butter popcorn.

Courtney Scites is the Assistant to the Editor at the News & Messenger.

Do you have paranormal activity in your house? Leave your story in the comment box below.