Paranormal Activity (2007/2009)

“I figured, well, sleeping at home is something you can’t really avoid. So if I can make people scared of being at home, Paranormal Activity might do something.” - writer/director Oren Peli

Roughly a week after Paranormal Activity lit up screens in a handful of "college" markets, writer and director Oren Peli's preternatural horror film hit the road for its next leg of midnight showings. In my market, Minneapolis/St. Paul, you got two shots and out. Quite needless to mention, both screenings were sold out well in advance, as I discovered after a ticket snafu before Friday's show. Luckily, I had tickets good for Saturday to fall back on! This is one you want to see, and see early on in its run, preferably during its witching hour tour, as auds will be wholly receptive to both the film's brand of measured humor and its punishing dose of frustration and distress.

As far as the film itself, and without going into great detail, twenty-something (maybe early thirty-something) couple Micah & Katie are in the midst of investigating some bothersome happenings that have been intruding on their sleep, and for Katie, her mental well-being. Micah employs a phalanx of technology, consisting mainly of a stationary camera positioned in their bedroom to "catch" whatever it may be that's causing the rift. All of this is rather benign for the present. For Micah, it's a chance to flex his technological muscle, and for Katie it's hopefully a means to an end, and, well, let's face it, it's charmingly intrusive. Still, when sound sleep continues to evade them, she tolerates both camera and Micah's increasingly flippant attitude toward their situation less and less. Bringing some amount of substance to the table, should they employ outside help, somehow takes a back seat to exhausting bravado and menacing curiosity. Which is what they do not need at the moment. And yes, it will be very bad. And terrific for us.