Film Review: Paranormal Activity (2009)

Written and Directed by: Oren Peli
Release Date: October 2009

Review by: Rick Romanowski

I had the extreme pleasure of seeing Paranormal Activity in theaters and I have to say, this movie truly scared me to death and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It’s so rare to see a movie that is actually frightening but this movie is a huge exception and it seems like all the scary films that are original are only getting select screenings and not theatrical. What this movie accomplishes so well is that it does not let down the entire movie.



The movie is shockingly simple but effective; it’s about a couple who move into this house that is possessed by a ghost… and Micah, the boyfriend, is determined to document all the strange happenings that occur via camera. Well, when things begin to go wrong and the ‘ghosts’ become restless they soon realized that they aren’t ghosts and that there is more to the story than meets the eye.

The acting in this movie is very believable and there were several times when the actors sounded too sarcastic but that’s why it’s so believable because they are acting as though they weren’t aware this was a movie. It gives the film a shocking sense of reality and that’s what this whole movie is based around; that this actually happened. There are no credits and the movie starts off without a title sequence. I really believed that I was watching a real documented film.

Now, lets talk about the scares in this movie. It takes a lot to scare me nowadays but this movie had me biting my fingernails and gripping the armrest. They start off as minor occurrences like things movie and dropping but then things get creepy sounding and intense; There are times when Katie is being possessed and she just stands in the bedroom and stares at Micah for hours, or when the thing is dragging her. I jumped out of my seat so many times and I was screaming during some of scenes.

All in all, I think this movie was made in response to all those paranormal investigation shows on the TV where they don’t show anything; this movie is like a slap in the face to them because shit is really going down. It breaks away from your traditional possessions stories because there are loose ends, it’s not a happy ending and there are no cliché-ridden montages where the main character is researching things. Granted, it started off slow and some of the humor may overshadow the movie but this is possibly one of the scariest movies I have seen this year… or even, for a long time.