Paranormal Activity

Icon Home Entertainment

R4 DVD

This film plays with your mind in a big way. Much is implied, little is shown. Your imagination fills the gaps and as the plot develops it goes into overdrive.

The story is simple enough. Micah and Katie have an uninvited guest in their home – the sort that goes “bump in the night”. Katie tells Micah that it has followed her through a number of different addresses since she was a little girl and although it can be scary (such as when she wakes up in the middle of the night and sees … something …. at the foot of the bed watching her), it doesn’t seem to be actually malignant. She is still worried about it so Micah gets a video camera to record what goes on at night and hopefully find out what is haunting them.

This disturbs the night guest and the activity increases, becoming noisier and more obvious. Katie is now really nervous. She calls a Dr Fredericks, an expert in ghosts and paranormal activity, but he has not experienced this sort of activity before. He knows a doctor who has, but they do not call him at once. Micah still thinks he needs some rational evidence. Dr Fredericks has also told them that he thinks they are being haunted by a demon, not a ghost. Demons are more dangerous if antagonised.

Michael is building up a library of the poltergeist-like activity on film, and now they start hearing what could be voices as well – is it trying to communicate with them? Katie is becoming increasingly irrational but Micah keeps blundering along accidentally antagonising the demon further. A ouija board seems to spell out a message but is then destroyed in flames. His requests for the demon to speak English don’t help. Meanwhile the demon’s earthly powers seem to be growing stronger. It can now turn lights on and off and open doors.

Micah scatters talcum powder on the floor one night and they see odd three-toed footprints in the powder after a visit. Micah follows the footprints and examines the roof space where he finds part of an old photo of Katie as a child. Is the demon obsessed with her and sees Micah as a competitor? It seems so, because a photo of the couple is attacked. Micah’s face in the photo is scratched from inside the glass and the glass is then broken as if his image has been punched in the face.

Dr Fredericks returns to the house but he is driven off in fear by the now out-of-control demon. Until his colleague returns Micah and Katie are alone with their demon and it is not happy.

It is easy to pick holes in the plot along the lines of “why didn’t they just …?” but the sheer feeling of terror being built up in Micah and Katie seems to be blocking rational thought. Perhaps the factor that contributes most to the constant buildup of tension is that they never get to see the demon. We all wait for it, even want it to appear, but apart from occasional shadows it stays elusive. How do you handle being hunted by something when you don’t even know what it looks like?

The constant slow but steady rise in terror is what makes this film. You just can’t predict where it is going but you know in the end there will be a confrontation.

The film is rather low budget. Most of it is shot from the point of view of Micah’s hand held camera and this sometimes becomes annoying. The bulk of the action takes place in a couple of rooms, most notably the bedroom where the activity seems to be concentrated. The superbly developed plot and great acting lift it out of the low budget genre and make it a truly frightening film. It’s the best of its style that I have seen for many years.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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