The first “Paranormal Activity” was one of my most pleasant and unexpected cinematic finds of last year. Even in the comfort of my living room, the story of a young suburban couple haunted by some kind of demonic poltergeist kept the tension tightening and tightening right up until the final scene, which was so scary it would take a glass of strawberry Nesquik and a phone call from mommy to get me to nigh, nigh.
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Before actually viewing it, the conceit of the film’s concept — having the events all caught on a home video camera — turned me off. But in this case, my prejudice towards gimmicks and Internet hype failed. If seeing this skillfully crafted low-budgeter at home made me wish I hadn’t given up my stuffed bunny Rudy when I was 15, seeing it in a theatre must’ve been twice the experience.
Horror is my favorite genre. The problem is that effectively and honestly terrifying your audience is in my opinion the most difficult thing for a film to do. Which is why truly worthy horror films come around so rarely. When they do work, however, there is no better movie-viewing experience. And the original “Paranormal” not only works but proves that even with no budget a skilled filmmaker — in this case writer/director Oren Peli — can freeze you cold with nothing more than the movement of a bedroom door.
Peli’s film is also intelligently scripted. The story moves towards an unexpected but still logical conclusion and the relationship between the two twenty-something protagonists is just complicated and tense enough to make you believe they wouldn’t run screaming out of the house. Problem numero uno with haunted house stories is making sense of why no one ever leaves, or at least crafting the film well enough that the audience doesn’t roll their collective eyes as if to say,”It’s called the Holiday Inn, morons.”
Peli wrote but doesn’t direct the sequel. Thankfully, from the look of the trailer, it looks as though #2 will at least hang on to the concepts and ideas that made its predecessor so worthy of a follow up. My guess is that everyone learned not to mess with a winning formula after the botched sequel to 1999’s equally terrific “Blair Witch Project” — another hair raising, out-of-nowhere, low-budget chiller with a similar concept — failed so miserably.
Some of you might remember that “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2” had about as much in common with #1 as the L.A. Times does with journalism.
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