Blog: "Horror Tip: Paranormal Activity"

[Thomas]

A horror film worth watching + some discussion on horror in the familiar.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2010...ivity.html

[naturon]

Ah yes, the movie plays on some very primal fears in that sense, but that does not mean you have to create such an inept product to create an atmosphere like that. I find these camcorder horror movies to be so pathetic and desperate in their need to scare people that the filmmakers forget they are making a movie. I don't believe in anything supernatural whatsoever, and if I am going to see a movie affiliated with the paranormal then I really don't have anything to fear from it at all. I still like to see well made (not necessarily big budgeted) and well written horror movies. From what I have seen, Paranormal Activity is neither. I could have excused the simple set-up if it were competently made, and it is so not. This camera horror idea is extremely unrealistic and visually tedious to say the least. Insinuating that what you're watching is absolutely real (it's impossible to even think so) does not automatically make it scary, in fact I find good character development and clever writing goes a much longer way to making a movie scary than filming it with a 100$ handheld camera. Unless you're doing a Guinea Pig kind of thing where you're made to believe you're watching a snuff movie, what's the point? It's really not that hard to make a genuinely scary movie competently. If you have to sacrifice the overall quality of the movie just to make it a little scarier (ironically it backfires) then I don't see the point really. I got really bored with it so I stopped watching. Not a good movie in my opinion.

[Sexbad]

I haven't watched it, but I heard a lot about it sucking. I've never actually seen any camcorder documentary style horror films because the camcorder idea seems really cheesy, and paranormal means screamers which are, no matter how they are done, stupid and must go away and don't scare me.

[Nevyn]

I actually liked the movie. I think the simple setting is good since it makes it at least easier for me to feel it is something that could actaully happen in your own home. I am pretty tired of horror movies only based on gore and making you jump, this shows that sound really are more important then something you can see if you let your imagination work a little for you.

[Skaruts]

Only seen the trailer. It reminded me of a story a friend of mine told me from his uncle in Germany that lives with a ghost or something supernatural in his house. He actualy did put powder in the floor and checked real footprints, but the main thing is he hears sounds all around, like flushing the toylet but no water running, TV sounds even if it's off or placed somewhere else, among other things. He also told me his uncle sent ppl into his house to investigate the thing and they concluded to be an old man who died there and apparently his spirit kept living there as if nothing happened, and the spirit, or ghost, whatever it is, has proven to be harmless by all means. Just co-exists, so to speak.

My friend also said that in a weekend he spent there, he slept in the same bed as the old man used to sleep (and supposedly still did), and he said he had never slept so well before.

I never could tell if this was real, but coming from the person it did I never found reasons to doubt it either. I know he realy has several relatives in Germany too.
But the powder scene reminded me of this.

Hmmm, this would be something I could write about and evolve... into HORROR.