Paranormal Activity (Theatrical)

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"Paranormal Activity" benefits from a very effective set-up; in this case, a specific camera set-up.

The story in brief: Katie (Katie Featherston) believes she is being haunted by a demon. Her boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat) wants to capture the evidence on film.

He sets the camera on a tripod and points it at their bed as they sleep. He uses a wide-angle that frames the bed on the right half of the screen, and the open door to the hallway on the left, crowded into the upper corner. This deceptively simple composition provides the energy that powers the movie´s most effective scenes.

Cinema, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Anyone familiar with the moving image knows that this empty (negative) space is begging to be filled. At any moment. And, seeing as we´ve just talked about demons, probably by something rather nasty. As the camera´s time code scrolls by at elapsed speed through the night and then slows down to real time, we just know that something in that general area of the frame is going to happen.

Writer/director Oren Peli doles out the something with an eye dropper. On Night #1 (many of the nights are marked by number) we hear a clatter of keys dropping off the downstairs table. The next night, the bedroom door closes halfway and then re-opens. Later, the patter of feet and maybe, just maybe, a whispering voice. All out in the hallway which we can just barely see through the door and, night by night, creeping just a bit closer to that looming threshold…

Fortunately, Peli doesn´t play coy with the story. Katie is sure from the very start that she´s being stalked by a demon. In fact, she thinks it´s been with her since childhood (maybe she´s related to that unbearable kid from "Paranormal State") and a psychic (Mark Friedrichs) confirms her suspicions. Leaving the house won´t help. It is she that the demon wants, a neat piece of plotting which prevents a frustrated audience from asking "Why don´t you morons just move out?"

Were we speaking of morons? Ah yes, let´s talk about Micah the pseudo-skeptic and obsessive video documentarian. He thinks he´s smart, but so do most dumb people. His skepticism is soon quelled but even once he believes in Katie´s creepy friend, instead of reacting with fear or even caution he just seems to find it kinda cool and pretty funny. He repeatedly taunts the demon despite the warnings of the psychic and pleading from Katie. He might as well be wearing a "Drag Me to Hell" t-shirt.