A Look Into the Paranormal

So...as you've all seen from my last blog post, I am excited to report that I have found a scary movie that's actually scary. Honestly, I haven't been that scared since the first time I saw The Ring (say what you will about that one, but right after I saw it I went to visit my grandparents, whose guest bedroom has a TV right in front of the bed...yeah, I barely got any sleep).

SPOILER ALERT: I will do my best not to reveal too much about it for you other crazy kids who will actually want to see it, but I make no promises.

Anyway, there are a couple of factors that make Paranormal Activity particularly scary...
#1-You don't necessarily have to believe in God, but you have to believe in the existence of the devil (although in my opinion the two go hand in hand). So you atheists might have a bit of a hard time getting sucked in.

At first, the movie looks like a ghost story. It's not.

#2-You need to understand the rules of dealing with this kind of stuff so you will recognize when they are broken, which they are...several times.

Now, most of you know I claim to have lived in a haunted house...to this day I'm still 100% convinced that what I felt and saw was evidence of life after death. After living there, I wanted to learn all I could about ghosts and the paranormal...so I read up on it. I currently have an entire bookshelf full of books on the subject. Now before you all go thinking I'm messing with things I shouldn't be, let me say I'm not into paganism or wicca--I don't have any books on performing spells or communicating with ghosts or any of that...I simply enjoy reading accounts of other people's encounters w/the paranormal and how they dealt with it, should I ever encounter it again.

In reading these things, I quickly learned the do's and don'ts of it all. When dealing with a malevolent entity in particular, the numero uno rule that should NEVER be broken...EVER...is using a ouija board. That is the one thing paranormal experts agree on--don't use them, you're inviting stuff in. Another rule is not to taunt the entity or attempt to play games with it because you're going to further aggravate it, which is a really bad idea. Lasty, it's important to remember that malevolent entities feed off of negative energy...so if you're bringing that into the home, it can potentially strengthen whatever's there.

So, having said all that...here's my review of the film itself: while we can all take comfort in the fact that this movie is a mockumentary and the people in it are just actors who are living safe and sound in their own homes, it is still a realistic illustration of what could happen (if you believe in this kind of stuff). I have read several accounts of paranormal manifestations, and the movie definitely follows the pattern of documented hauntings. It is fast-paced enough that it's not boring...you don't have to wait long before you start seeing the creepy stuff. And yet it's patient enough to have a balance between scary and non scary...which is a really great way to build the suspense leading up to the climax. If you believe and allow yourself to be sucked in, by the second half of the movie you will be bracing yourself whenever the sun goes down and the unfortunate people go to bed. And I guarantee that by the end your heart will be pounding and you will be on the edge of your seat.

While I'd like to say that the movie is without flaw...I am disappointed to report that at the very last second, it reverts to one of the worst horror cliches ever. Think Liv Tyler waking up and screaming at the end of The Strangers. You know it's going to happen, and it's a total climax kill when it does. There is an alternate ending which is slightly better, but still not amazing. The dumb thing is all they had to do was take out the very last second and leave the rest as it was and it would have been perfect. But I suppose the temptation to try to get one more jump out of the audience was just too great.

Anyway, to conclude, Paranormal Activity is scary, and I highly recommend it to horror fans. If you want to see it though, you should probably hurry up...it's only playing at a couple theaters in Utah (that I know of) and I doubt it will be there long.