You know, I mentioned this in another post and I guess I'll say it again: Why do audiences point out the so-called "bad acting" in a horror mockumentary? I don't get it. If the movie is filmed like a documentary, displayed as such to "real" events unfolding, the people being portrayed in said film are like regular people and NOT Oscar-worthy actors. People whined and moaned repeatedly about how wretched The Blair Witch Project was because of Heather Donahue's "awful awful" emoting. She even got nominated for a Razzie award. I'm assuming the "regular people" actors have to make you believe that you are actually watching "regular people", but either way it does not deter from this blogger's enjoyment of the films.
I went on a 4 mile hike last weekend in the woods with my girlfriend and a bunch of other people, and if a camera had been following us around for 3.5 hours, I'm assuming that we would be considerably attacked for not having motivation for displaying our range of acting talents. I can hear somebody saying, "Boy, he sucks at drinking from a Deer Park bottle! I don't believe him for one second! Boooooo!!!!"
All this being said, I will now roll into my reviews of Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Activity 2. These films, as I previously mentioned are horror mockumentaries displaying a wide range of awful acting talents (according the norm, not by this blogger). Movies of this sort are taken in (at least by me) as a different viewing experience. I didn't want to see either one in the theater, because I knew I would be surrounded by a bunch of loud, drunk-whooping teenagers yelling at everything at the screen and laughing at the most inept moments. (Because as we all know, every teenager that yells out something at the screen is always funny, all the time). Yeah, ha ha. I would rather be chained to a rocking chair and watch Death To Smoochy again.
Anyway, after seeing both films on DVD by myself, I can say with utmost certainty that both films are of equal caliber.
Both movies display a certain creepiness that I've always admired. I love horror films, gory or not. However, my favorite types of horror have always been the types that go by the horror that you don't see. Sure, we've had movies like The Exorcist, Halloween, and Night Of The Living Dead, but we've also had more obscure films such as Let's Scare Jessica To Death, The Other, and probably the most important (although not obscure), Jaws. I mention Jaws because if you watch the film again, you'll notice that you do not even see the shark fully until about an hour into the movie. Spielberg relied on the suspense and the buildup of the unseen terror that the shark resonated, and it was most certainly effective.
So what does all this have to do with the Paranormal Activity movies? It's the unseen terror. What we're looking at here is the reaction of people to what they are seeing (or not seeing). Unfortunately, in today's society, the evolving of movie audiences has changed. They want instant gratification, and if they don't experience that in a horror movie, they start to get impatient. (Hence, the drunk-whoop yelling at the screen.) This is also why we are having so many remakes of older franchises like Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and Texas Chainsaw. "Hey, if it worked before, it'll work again!", said the money-hungry studio.
It's refreshing to note that the PA films both made a lot of money, and were popular with moviegoers. (However, so did the SAW films, so maybe you should ignore that previous statement.) The PA movies both follow a certain timeline that eventually comes full circle. In the first film, a young couple is terrorized by an unseen apparition that manifests itself mostly at night, while these actions are recorded on video. However, we never actually SEE what it exactly is. It's all done through sound editing and creative special effects. I will not spoil the ending of the first PA since I am sure there are a few that have not experienced it yet. In PA2, there is more of the same, but in its situation there is a family involved, and lots and lots of security cameras. Oh, and an awesome automatic pool cleaner that should have gotten its own place in the credits considering how much screen time it gets. It's been proven that inanimate objects get acting credits in movies: just look at Hayden Christensen in Star Wars - Episode II :
Whatever the case may be, I'll just say that I enjoyed both PA and PA2. They get the job done. It's the distinct creepiness of each that make them so effective, plus I really enjoyed the repeated fonts of "Night #3 or Night #12", which just added more to the documentary feel. Neither film is Oscar-worthy to be sure, but they are most certainly horror-worthy, and here, that's just as important.
Paranormal Activity (2009) and Paranormal Activity 2 (2010):
Collective grade: B+
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