Paranormal Activity – Goes way deep than some goosebumps on surface
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Being fearful comes naturally to us. We need not be conditioned for it. However, bravery, courage and other virtues seek example. Fear stands on its own. Tall, unfettered bonded to our psyche naturally. All great horror movies revel in the fact that ‘it is not about what you show, but what you not show’. They exploit the human imagination and spur it on to unlock the normally inaccessible sets of thoughts and images. Peli knows the fear of unknown is the most pronounced of all and hence builds anticipation like a slow poison with a lot of care and craft. He makes sure the movie doesn’t startle us all of a sudden one moment and fizzles in the remaining parts. The emotions don’t vacillate in crests and troughs here, but rather take a forever depressing linear path which sometimes make it quite a task to even tolerate this movie.
The movie’s sparsely used narrative style transports one seamlessly into the couple’s bedroom. Not like a voyeur, but as an intelligent and keen observer who has the unfortunate advantage of seeing things when the potential victims laze defenseless. Peli hands us the camera when we are least prepared for it. And he keeps putting the onus on us again and again, and we succumb to it unwillingly, because just like Micah and Katie there is no escaping from this. The audience faces the same predicament as the protagonists and it is the synchronization of fear that binds the audience and the protagonists together in an unsettling, stifling fashion.
The use of hand held camera and its often unpleasant jerky movements aggravates tension, for it restricts one’s field of view, and hence amplifies the fear of unknown. When the camera moves through a partially lit living room, the field of view worsens further, anticipation escalates dangerously, and one almost wants to implore the characters to switch on the lights and then continue their quest. At this time, our sympathies doesn’t lie with them, because it is our fear that robs us of any power of lending sympathy. In this way, Paranormal Activity erases the difference between what happens on screen and what happens off it.
It is interesting to note how otherwise mundane, insignificant things add on to the terror here. The place where the camera is planted in room provides the maximum field of view. And once the camera is alive, nothing happening in the house is merely an activity, but rather an indication of impending gloom. Also, the camera is agile and observant when the protagonists are totally defenseless, and becomes reluctant to give us whole peek into sets of action when the protagonists are active themselves. The motive and action of camera is totally opposite to what the characters do, thus connecting and alienating audience at will.
Generally, a lot is said, discussed and dissected about the role of background music with respect to horror movies. Peli adopts the contrarion approach by its minimalist use. The only appreciable moments it registers its presence are the scenes filmed in couple’s bedroom when everything is at standstill except the audience’s expectations of what is to come. The crescendo aspiring to reach its loud climax complement those scenes really well.
It is an important movie because of audience’s relationship with it. It sneaks quietly in that remote, inaccessible area of one’s mind like an unwelcome visitor and stays there. In times when majority of mediocre horror movies beg for audience’s attention, this one dominates the mindset ruthlessly even when the movie is long over. Give this movie a chance to play with your imagination. The sadist in you would thank you for that.
Tags: Fear, Hand held camera, horror, Oren Peli, paranormal activity
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
looking forward to it.
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Can you tell me about how the cities where it is to be screened selected?On votes?Is there an iota of truth in what I just asked?I was told about this.It happened this way at Little Rock,Arkansas with 17000 votes…cant real tell you the exact figure.
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Sourav,
Interesting point you raise here. Googled a bit on this and bumped on this piece by Berardinelli where he has this to say – “Those who feel “left out” in the early stages of the phased distribution can “demand” the movie on a website. Paramount promises that once 1,000,000 demands are recorded, the movie will go wide. (This is a bit of sham, since plans to distribute prints to multiplexes around the country were finalized weeks ago, but the website provides viewers with the illusion of participation.” However, what I don’t understand is why such a huge production house has to rely on no. of demands. I am sure they can release it themselves, it is obviously not an indie now. Although it makes sense, if it was intentionally done to market the movie.
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Interesting..some how the trailers did not get my interested.
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The movie was screened based on no.of demands it gets in first 2 weeks. But now it is playing in as many as 700 theaters here in US.
Throughly enjoyed watching it on the big screen.
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Watch – The exorcism of emily rose..its based on true events..will definitely give you sleepless nighte
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watched this movie at a 12 midnite special show. all it did was build up the anticipation and it ends there with no real scary moments or thrills. the home video treatment added to the pain. i didnt understand what the whole hype was about. The horror scenes had me in splits (SPOILER: especially the scene where katie is dragged across the hall). maybe it was all the hype and the midnite show tht did me. This movie will stand out for the way it was marketed. I’m sure more will follow their example.
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I am going to watch it tomorrow midnight show. hopefully, it doesnt disappoint.
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This is a terrible movie. I’m a huge fan of the Blair Witch Project, and I’m usually not averse to cheesy mockumentaries. This, however, did nothing for me. And the resolution has to be one of the laziest in horror history. It’s like the creators went, “oh snap, we’re shooting on a shoestring budget and we’re fresh out of ideas. Let’s just end the damned thing ‘cuz noone’s going to hold it against us anyway”
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Exorcism of Emily Rose was indeed scary
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looking forward to watching this film … whilke on the exorcism of emily rose, it truly gave me many a sleepless nights! reaso? bcoz one can relate with this film! since it was based on true events, everything (esp the 3 oclock thingy) makes it relatable and hence scary! btw has anyone watched the amityville horror( another film based on a true story)?>i hear it’s quite scary!!! and the blair witch project was well made, but not scary (for me at least!)
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looking forward to watching this film … while on the exorcism of emily rose, it truly gave me many a sleepless nights! reason? bcoz one can totally relate with this film! since it was based on true events, everything (esp the 3 o’clock thingy) makes it relatable and hence scary!
btw has anyone watched the amityville horror( another film based on a true story)? i hear it’s quite scary!!!
and the blair witch project was well made, but not scary (for me at least!)
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Yeah, if I was awake till 3 o clock, I would get restless thinking about events in the movie. The words Based on True story really make all the difference ;).
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