The hype for Paranormal Activity was probably the reason most people went to watch it. The commercials themselves are just audience reaction with about a second of the actual film. Why is this? Because the film is, for the most part, not scary; but I got the feeling that that is what director, writer and editor Oren Peli wanted.

Audiences walk in thinking it will be a cringe-ridden story, when they are met instead with humor. A couple buys a video camera, more so the idiot boyfriend (Micah Sloat), hoping to document the "paranormal activity" surrounding the demon that haunts his girlfriend (Katie Featherston). Seeing the couple play around with the camera is laugh-worthy. Right as you find yourself yawning and asking "Why did I even come to see this movie?" it happens: Things turn drastically petrifying.

The movie is fairly short, running at about an hour and a half, which was the ideal time for this film. Any shorter and you wouldn't have gotten to know the characters so well, thus you wouldn't be as shocked at the ending; and any longer and the scare would have lost its freshness. You leave the theater feeling genuinely terrified. It's a different scare than other horror movies, adding to its power.



Jahla Seppanen is a senior at Monte del Sol. You can reach her at jnm747@hotmail.com