Paranormal Activity (2007)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  Better than I expected but really I think im over this style of film.

• Wildaly M

  
  I can certainly understand how the novelty of this film and it certainly delivered in the suspense/horror department. I did not particularly like the characters but if you're looking for a different type of horror movie, you're looking in the right direction.

• Jameson W

  
  I thought this was going to be better but I honestly didn't think it was scary at all. I liked the 2nd and 3rd ones much more.

• Nikhil N

  
  Revolutionary and a breath of fresh air, better than Blair Witch, and takes horror back to its roots when the smallest noises and minimal use of CGI still got me to cringe in my seat.

• Michael M

  
  It's suspenseful and well filmed with a mockumentary camera style. However, the suspense nevr really delivers as it didn't scare me like it was supposed to. Paranormal Activity was well-done in every other way considering its low budget and it will certainly entertain… More
  It's suspenseful and well filmed with a mockumentary camera style. However, the suspense nevr really delivers as it didn't scare me like it was supposed to. Paranormal Activity was well-done in every other way considering its low budget and it will certainly entertain mainstream teenagers and adults. Howveer for fans of true horror, Paranormal Activity is extremely over-hyped.

• Christopher H

  
  The most over hyped horror movie since Saw. The movies plot reduces to two minute scenes of objects slightly moving or loud noises and ten minute scenes of the annoying couple talking about what happened in those two minute scenes. Lather, rinse, repeat. The couple in this movie is… More
  The most over hyped horror movie since Saw. The movies plot reduces to two minute scenes of objects slightly moving or loud noises and ten minute scenes of the annoying couple talking about what happened in those two minute scenes. Lather, rinse, repeat. The couple in this movie is unlikable and annoying, I wished the demon would have gotten to them sooner just so the movie could have ended sooner. I've seen youtube pop up scare videos that were more suspenseful than this movie. There is nothing scary about objects slightly moving. The movie's biggest mistake is it reveals everything in the first twenty minutes. In order to make a good horror movie, some things need to be left to the imagination.

• Matt G

  
  Not a monumental piece of work, but it still delivers thrills and never bores. It's basically pop-out after pop-out. It's incredibly cool watching it with the sound loud and the lights off.

• KJ P

  
  This is as terrifying as a movie going experience will ever get! Most of the film relies on suspense and holds out until the very end to really get your heart-pumping, but it is a very clever and smart piece of horror cinema and probably one of my favourite horror films of the last… More
  This is as terrifying as a movie going experience will ever get! Most of the film relies on suspense and holds out until the very end to really get your heart-pumping, but it is a very clever and smart piece of horror cinema and probably one of my favourite horror films of the last decade. For having a budget of a mere $15,000, I applaud the filmmakers for making such a fantastic film. It does feel like it has a few place holders to keep the audience involved, but other than that, the camera placement is phenomenal, the actors are great for hardly even having a pay grade, and the movie itself is just awesome. I love paranormal activity and the end left me begging for more!

• Alexander D

  
  ***Disclaimer***: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is <i>not</i> scary. It just has an extremely terrifying mood and a terrifically groundbreaking core. Remember THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? The film that started the "found footage" sub-genre? (Well, I don't remember, as… More
  ***Disclaimer***: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is <i>not</i> scary. It just has an extremely terrifying mood and a terrifically groundbreaking core. Remember THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? The film that started the "found footage" sub-genre? (Well, I don't remember, as I've never seen it.) The sub-genre was lost for eight years, until the 2007 Spanish horror film [REC] was made, at which point filmmakers decided to go back to implying violence to generate terror on an amateur film camera. That's where PARANORMAL ACTIVITY comes into play. Rather than treating us to an average, lackluster gore-fest or "torture porn" party like SAW, director Oren Peli achieves revenge on us by using his childhood nightmares from films as mild as GHOSTBUSTERS, and transforming those into the idea of an unmarried couple, Katie and Micah, the first one having been haunted by a demonic presence since her childhood. Her profanity-and-technology-gaga boyfriend Micah, who carries the gigantic home video camera through at least 85% of the film, thinks she is making it all up, and he decides, somewhat jokingly, to set up the camera on their dresser to record all happenings during the night. It's not the violence, blood, or gore that scares us with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, because there was none. The ridiculously petite $15,000 budget this film was made on could have easily paid for gallons and buckets of blood, but instead, Mr. Peli is clever. He decides to scare us with bloodcurdling shrieks, repeated name-gasping, and a haunting Ouija board. All of that makes PARANORMAL ACTIVITY a creepy, original must-see.

• Melvin W

  
  The Psychic: You cannot run from this- it will follow you. It may lay dormant for years. Something may trigger it to become more active and it may over time reach out to communicate with you.  "What Happens When You Sleep?" Paranormal Activity is one of the most effective… More
  The Psychic: You cannot run from this- it will follow you. It may lay dormant for years. Something may trigger it to become more active and it may over time reach out to communicate with you.  "What Happens When You Sleep?" Paranormal Activity is one of the most effective horror films I have ever seen, and I do believe it is a scary film. It freaks me out like no movie I have ever seen. It is a film that has sort of divided horror fans. This is a masterpiece for the fans of slow burn, leave it to your own imagination horror fans and just extreme boredom for the fans of gory, big body count horror films. I like both types, but I'm more a fan of the ones like this. It takes much more skill to do something like this and when you succeed at it, the sum total is amazing.  Paranormal Activity takes place in a San Diego home where boyfriend, Micah, and girlfriend, Katie live together. It's implied that things have been going on before the movie starts. Katie returns home to Micah and a camera. He has plans of filming everything that is going on in the house and hopes to catch some cool otherworldly stuff going on. They have a psychic over where we learn about Katie's past; mainly that this isn't the first time things like this have happened to her. As the entity starts escalating what it does during the night; Katie gets more and more freaked out, but throughout it all Micah seems to not be taking it seriously and kind of plays with the entity.  The coolest thing about Paranormal Activity is just how little the budget is and how much the amateur filmmakers were able to do with that budget. That small budget benefited it more than it hurt them, because it made them have to use some different techniques in order to scare its audience and I think they obviously succeeded.  Another part of the movie that splits people is its ending. Some will feel like it is cheap and others will totally love it. Put me on the love it side because I don't remember ever jumping as high as I did the first time I watched this film. What happens at the end of the movie took me completely off guard. Maybe it isn't the most intelligent ending possible, but just for scaring me, it gets points. The only downer about the movie isn't even the movie itself, it's the fact that it is going to mimicked forever. There have already been ripoffs like Paranormal Entity, and this will launch endless remakes that may be fun through the first two or three, but after awhile no one is going to give a shit anymore. This franchise is going to run into the same tiresome rehash of sequels that other franchises like Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street have seen.  Still, this is the best haunted house movie of the first 2000's and in my opinion one of the scariest movies ever. People have different opinions on what is scary though and this may not be scary to a lot of people. For example with me; The Exorcist is known as one of the scariest movies ever, but I don't find it all that scary. But this movie is just plain freaky in book. Even if you don't find it scary or even like it, there is no denying what a great accomplishment this is.

• Kytyrah K

  
  Ah, the assholery of the general public. It is commonly misconcieved that somehow this is the mockumentary-style-tale of a haunted house. How utterly foolish.This movie depicted the haunting of a woman named Katie-not her new house. Had any of the foolich critics HIRED to review this… More
  Ah, the assholery of the general public. It is commonly misconcieved that somehow this is the mockumentary-style-tale of a haunted house. How utterly foolish.This movie depicted the haunting of a woman named Katie-not her new house. Had any of the foolich critics HIRED to review this movie actually bothered to watch it, they would have easily made this distinction in their minds. Even in the teaser, she cries into Micah's arms "it's not the house, It's ME!" Hello?? Another trifling misconception that gnaws at the threads of my fragile sanity like a squirell might gnaw on a quickly-snatched Thanksgiving walnut? Who in their right mind would call this film a horror? This movie was anything but a horror-it was a psychological thriller in which the less you saw the more you scared yourself. It was never intended to scare anyone-but rather to allow the scaring of oneself through use of the tools afforded by the sparse film. Example? The scene in which Micah ingeniously pours powder over the floor of their hallway to catch footprints? What was scary about the footprints? Not what they showed, but what they alluded to. Three-pronged feet, a very heavy print-maker, and a presence that had never turned around and left the room. You hardly saw a thing, you needn't to be sufficiently wound up. The rest was simply your imagination trying to piece together the future. In response to growing comparisons to the Blair Witch Project, I must attest to the fact that this film was not only thrice the movie BWP will EVER be, it was far more cleverly written, executed, and shot. I remember nearly throwing up after the Blair Witch Project-and not from fear or nerves. I was nauseous. That's right, the movie was so shabbily shot and executed that my stomach was sickened. The camera jiggled far more than it had any right to. The creators clearly were not thinking about the viewer's health when they shot it. Furthermore, the Blair Witch Project was a pathetic use of the saying "the less you see, the worse it is". I saw nothing even remotely creepy, and the end inspired me to hope to God that it was a real documentary and thus had an excuse to suck so terribly. Regarding Cloverfield, I too was unimpressed by the film, however, I would never rank it as one of my worst Thriller/Horror/Mockumentary experiences(I'm saving that for Blair Witch). Now to the actual movie. For a mere 12-15K, this movie not only delivers shocks to you system, but it also awakens that primal need to understand everything. As american cinema 'victims' I'm afraid we are conditioned to see horror and thrilling as things jumping out at you, everyone dies in the end,it has to be gorey films (Saw, Hostel, Grudge, The Ring, Etc.) People who hated this movie were clearly not willing to admit fear of nothing. That's right, I was afraid. There was nothing there half the film, and I was rivetted yet ready to jump and run out at any moment. Simply watching a night-scene and waiting for the demon to act was terrifying and I did find myself watching the clock to see if morning was there yet. Finally, the last insult. Some fools have called this movie a "dead end" I beg to differ. I saw it as the end and beginning of the story. Doesn't anyone see that the demon was completing a full circle? "goodbye Diane"? does that ring a few bells? Yes, it was finishing the cycle with Katie as it had Diane and probably left in her body, dumped it somewhere and headed off to find a new victim-Maybe even her sister. Who knows? The point is, the entire haunting was part of a circular cycle, and you cannot "finish" one of those, you can only start back at square one. Alright, I'm done trying to sway the opinions of those who are too "worldly" to be scared by some powder footprints and a whole lot of imagination. In retrospect, however, I bet alot of you nay-sayers woke up in the middle of the night afraid something was watching you.

• Daniel L

  
  Paranormal Activity is an enjoyable and genuinely frightening film that was made on a shoestring budget.

• Martin S

  
  Well this certainly left me a little brown in my pants. This is 100% built on suspense...It's hard to look during the night footage...But yet...You can't look away...It's just....the silence....Something about silence makes me sick! It's like a door moving a couple… More
  Well this certainly left me a little brown in my pants. This is 100% built on suspense...It's hard to look during the night footage...But yet...You can't look away...It's just....the silence....Something about silence makes me sick! It's like a door moving a couple of inches....And it scared me more that any Freddy movie ever did...This is a fine example that less is more. I was gonna give it 4 stars...cause it's a pretty simple movie...But I couldn't resist. They say "Don't watch alone"...but I say do...cause only then will you really feel it.

• Brad W

  
  Paranormal Acivity is a well made film, just not a scary one. It has a good story, creepy moments, and a good cast, but what hurt the film drastically is the ending and that the film is just plain not scary.

• Tired of P

  
  Directed (and written) by Oren Peli, Blumhouse Productions, 2007. Starring Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and Mark Fredricks. Genre: Horror, Mystery Question: Do you ever do something you really don't want to do but someone dares you? Admit it - you have! You all should… More
  Directed (and written) by Oren Peli, Blumhouse Productions, 2007. Starring Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and Mark Fredricks. Genre: Horror, Mystery Question: Do you ever do something you really don't want to do but someone dares you? Admit it - you have! You all should know by now that I am NOT a fan of horror films, right? Well, I just watched Paranormal Activity with headphones on (as instructed) because I was sort of coaxed into it. All I will say is that I am not a happy camper right now and it's dark...and soon bedtime. Drats! Okay..that is all I could get down of this review before I forced myself to go upstairs to bed...YAWN...I am really tired because I did not sleep well due to viewing that film. Why, you ask? Let me tell you. When almost an entire movie takes place in the home, particularly in the bedroom with creepy things like noises, banging and the sheets being taken off by some thing, it is just NOT conducive for sleeping well - at least not for this person. So, here I am the following day after viewing yet another horror film only 8 days removed from my last one. Therefore I can't wrap my sleep deprived head around this review...coffee....ok, I am back. Where shall I begin? For more of this review: http://www.tiredofpreviews.com/2011/09/paranormal-activity.html

• Lee ?

  
  Finally Hollywood has come up with something that I can actually say has genuinely scared me! I like a good 'haunting' movie but finding one that fills me with fear is rare. The plot to this one and even the documentary style of filming isn't exactly new but I still… More
  Finally Hollywood has come up with something that I can actually say has genuinely scared me! I like a good 'haunting' movie but finding one that fills me with fear is rare. The plot to this one and even the documentary style of filming isn't exactly new but I still found it to be effective enough. It does manage to achieve a sense of realism to some degree but you can still tell the actors are 'acting'. But it's the frightening Demon that haunts them that steals the film, and even though you never quite see it it's the thought of having it around that's terrifying, from the banging heavily on the house walls, slamming doors and dragging people from their beds. If you never really bought into the hype around this one I urge you to give it at least one watch to say you tried it out.

• Kase V

  
  'Paranormal Activity' is not an easy to movie to watch, but that's what makes it so good. The suspense is intense and the silence keeps you transfixed. Movies like these reinvent the genre and with such a low-budget, it proves you don't need lightning-fast editing… More
  'Paranormal Activity' is not an easy to movie to watch, but that's what makes it so good. The suspense is intense and the silence keeps you transfixed. Movies like these reinvent the genre and with such a low-budget, it proves you don't need lightning-fast editing and overproduction effects to create a good scare. Paranormal Activity is a wake up call for every filmmaker that believes they are making horror movies, when instead they are making garbage.

• Louis R

  
  I just couldn't buy into it. I appreciate the idea, and often this kind of horror is the best, but this one just didn't work for me. I didn't find it scary. I found it boring, mainly.

• Eric A

  
  I applaud this movie for rising through the ranks to its prominence! It was a good idea for a movie and provided lots of scares. The audience score on here is low because people are scared! That's a good sign.

• Steven C

  
  I think the 'found footage' genre is rather admirable. It's fascinating to see filmmakers set up such extreme boundaries for themselves. They have to fit all the requirements into this contained structure and it's thrilling when they can pull it off.… More
  I think the 'found footage' genre is rather admirable. It's fascinating to see filmmakers set up such extreme boundaries for themselves. They have to fit all the requirements into this contained structure and it's thrilling when they can pull it off. "Paranormal Activity" is one such film. It's understandable that this fiercely divides audiences, but "Paranormal Activity" kept me in it's grip. The film is scary in the way "Rosemary's Baby" is scary; never showing you what is menacing the protagonist. And like that Polanski film, the pace is incredibly muted for a horror film. For me, the methodical pacing is one of the films strengths, helping set up a sense of normalcy and than purposefully deconstructing it. I have always seen "Paranormal Activity" as a very effective experiment, an interesting filmic exercise that is lost on most film goers.

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