Paranormal Activity

[Kane52630]

What about the movie was great??

Was it the fact that every thing that was supposed to be scary was given away by the sound effects warning you ten seconds in advance? Furthermore, every supposedly scary scene in the film was also given away by the commercials. There is no way that ANYONE could be scared by this film unless they are a cinematic moron, or new to Horror and has not scene the commercials and are unaware that when the sound effects come...the scary thing will happen. If however...you saw the commercials...heard the sound effects telling you the demon was about to move a freaking door a little...and STILL got scared...then I just dont see how that is possible from a reasonably intelligent person. The scares involved moving blankets and doors...it wasnt even shockingly quick or violent acts that might create a reaction.

Was it the acting? I hope not

Was it the story? That was just pandering to idiots. After everyone in the theater saw what happened (and wasnt scared by it), they felt the need to replay the scene with the couple watching so that the couple could inform us that what we saw was in fact scary. Besides, watching a couple go to sleep a dozen times wasn't exactly a riveting plot. Their decisions were idiotic and I was hoping for incredibly violent deaths for them both.

Was it the ending, when the movie completely jumped the realism shark and sold one of the cheapest "scares" I've ever seen???

I will give the movie ONE positive remark. It was funny. I'm not sure if everything I laughed at was supposed to be funny, but I did laugh several times at the guys dialogue, and stupidity of the "scary" scenes.

i dont know about you and what movies you watch but i like this movie for what it is, the acting was realistic to the events happening to them, the story is like a classic Blair Witch, and scares is pretty scaring, for me not seeing whats going on is more scary than Jason or Freddy Kruger killing some ****e. i think you don't like this movie is because you arent a "believer" on the paranormal

ok enough bashing around, i like this movie and you didnt lets bury the hatchet shall we?

 

[danoyse]

So what you're saying is, if you heard noises at night and when you went to investigate you found the chandelier swings for no known reason, you wouldnt be creeped out? If your girlfriend started standing over you for hours on end, it wouldnt bother you?

No, it wasnt the scariest movie ever but it was far from laughable, imo.

I agree. If you leave something in one place, then come back and inexplicably find it somewhere else with no reason, that's pretty creepy.

If I'm hearing footsteps and voices from my bedroom in the middle of the night, I am never getting to sleep that night.

If I play back the tape and find my significant other standing over my bed for no reason for hours in the middle of the night with no memory of it in the morning, I'm calling the demonologist.

It's like Poltergeist - I thought one of the scariest scenes in that film was when the mom turned away from the kitchen table for 10 seconds and turned back to find all the chairs stacked in a pyramid on top of it. Stacked chairs are not scary. But how the hell did that happen?!

 

[Heretic]

I believe in the paranormal...just never experienced it (okay...kind of once...but I dont know what it was, it didnt alter my life and I cant prove it happened, so its not a big deal).

I havent even seen the latest Jason film or the Texas Chainsaws, so I wouldnt call myself a huge fan of that type of horror either.

My favorite horror films that I've seen lately have been Let The Right One In, Deadgirl, Inside...it's a pretty weird taste.

SPOILERS IN THIS POST DEALING WITH THE PLACEMENT OF SCENES SHOWN IN COMMERCIALS

It's not that I want to see the scares, it's the opposite in fact. As I said before...this movie announced every single scare about 5 seconds in advance. Once the sounds start, you know the scare will come...generally right after a series of thumps. It's not scary, it's more interesting to see what the entity does. Unfortunately, all he does is move a door a little, make a chandelier move...stuff like that. If you've seen the commercials then you even know what the scares are before the movie even starts. Once the movie gets rolling, you can easily guess which things wont happen...like, you know the guy isnt getting thrown across the room early in the film...you know that'll be near the end. The problem is that as that scene doesnt occur until you realize that you have reached the climax of the film...it MUST occur at that exact scene, therefore it is NOT scary when that scene finally occurs. The only thing that occurs in the movie after that is just so ridiculous...so utterly contradictory to the world the entire movie tried to establish, that it just makes the ending laughable...not scary.

 

[Kane52630]

remember when Kate stared at the camera? i got goosebumps

 

[Sarge 2.0]

So what you're saying is, if you heard noises at night and when you went to investigate you found the chandelier swings for no known reason, you wouldnt be creeped out? If your girlfriend started standing over you for hours on end, it wouldnt bother you?

No, it wasnt the scariest movie ever but it was far from laughable, imo.

Not really.

If my girlfriend was staring at me while I was sleeping for two hours, that would be ****ing scary. It's just too bad the people behind "Paranormal Activity" decided to stop ****ing around and sort of, almost try to make a movie in the last ten minutes instead of right from the get go.

 

[Heretic]

I agree. If you leave something in one place, then come back and inexplicably find it somewhere else with no reason, that's pretty creepy.

If I'm hearing footsteps and voices from my bedroom in the middle of the night, I am never getting to sleep that night.

If I play back the tape and find my significant other standing over my bed for no reason for hours in the middle of the night with no memory of it in the morning, I'm calling the demonologist.

It's like Poltergeist - I thought one of the scariest scenes in that film was when the mom turned away from the kitchen table for 10 seconds and turned back to find all the chairs stacked in a pyramid on top of it. Stacked chairs are not scary. But how the hell did that happen?!

All of those things would be scary in real life. However, this is a fictional movie. Again, every scare in the film is pre-warned by noises so you know exactly when they will occur. If you jumped when ANYTHING happened in this film, then you must not have heard the sound effects that preceded all of the other scary moments. Showing us replays of it is just an attempt to convince us that it was scary.

 

[danoyse]

All of those things would be scary in real life. However, this is a fictional movie. Again, every scare in the film is pre-warned by noises so you know exactly when they will occur. If you jumped when ANYTHING happened in this film, then you must not have heard the sound effects that preceded all of the other scary moments. Showing us replays of it is just an attempt to convince us that it was scary.

Yes, but they were unexplained noises that you don't know the source of, which creates the atmosphere and the tension that's freaking out some audiences.

When I saw it, during the last scene people freaked out more [BLACKOUT]at the sound of the footsteps coming up the stairs than they did after Micah was tossed at the camera[/BLACKOUT]. It's the anticipation at whatever unknown entity is causing those sounds that lets people's imaginations run wild if they're caught up in what's happening.

Obviously, it's a fictional movie - there's not really a demon on the video and you clearly had a problem suspending your disbelief for an hour an a half.

 

[Kane52630]

Yes, but they were unexplained noises that you don't know the source of, which creates the atmosphere and the tension that's freaking out some audiences.

When I saw it, during the last scene people freaked out more [BLACKOUT]at the sound of the footsteps coming up the stairs than they did after Micah was tossed at the camera[/BLACKOUT]. It's the anticipation at whatever unknown entity is causing those sounds that lets people's imaginations run wild if they're caught up in what's happening.

Obviously, it's a fictional movie - there's not really a demon on the video and you clearly had a problem suspending your disbelief for an hour an a half.

exactly if you have a good imagination this is gold but for others it wont be

 

[Sarge 2.0]

No, the entity was totally not unknown. It was so obviously telegraphed in the previous scenes that you knew what happened and who it was as soon **** started going down.

The production is so full of holes and slapdash plotting that I'm baffled by people trying to defend it on the level of craft. There's no craft in the thing whatsoever. People are just under the spell of marketing, audience atmosphere, hype, and the cheap tricks employed on screen.

Also, I'd like to think that I have a pretty good imagination. That's precisely why I think Paranormal Activity is pretty worthless. It's totally unimaginative hackwork. It's all gimmick and no creative drive.

 

[Heretic]

I had no problem suspending my disbelief...the movie just did not deliver.

Yes, I believed the entity tossed the car keys on the floor. yes, I believed the entity slightly moved a blanket. I never have a problem getting into the world set by a film. Of course, this film did itself no favors by breaking the walls of its own world in what was supposed to be the most shocking moment of the movie...completely ruining the mood and world.

The problem is that while those things would scare me in real life, they do not make for thrilling movies. Heck, I spent half the film wondering why i could hear all the noises that preceded the entity's activities and the couple could not. I understand that they were asleep, but it was awful loud at times.

 

[danoyse]

No, the entity was totally not unknown. It was so obviously telegraphed in the previous scenes that you knew what happened and who it was as soon **** started going down.

The production is so full of holes and slapdash plotting that I'm baffled by people trying to defend it on the level of craft. There's no craft in the thing whatsoever. People are just under the spell of marketing, audience atmosphere, hype, and the cheap tricks employed on screen.

It was a $15,000 movie made by a video game designer with no film experience, and it's glaringly obvious at many points in the film. I don't think anyone here is trying to call it perfect filmmaking.

When Dreamworks bought the film, the plan was to re-make it, mostly for the reasons you listed above. But others (including Spielberg) decided the fact that it looked like a glorified YouTube video thought it worked and just had some editing done and a new ending shot.

I didn't think it was the 'scariest movie ever' (mostly due to Micah's never-ending stupidity), but I thought it had some definite creepy moments and the concept was terrific, even if the execution fell a little short.

Like a few people have said on here, how scary it is depends just how much you can suspend your disbelief. I know people who believe all this ghost stuff who won't even see this movie after I told them about it.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

Yeah, I think paranormal stuff is utter ********, but I'm willing to submit to the idea if someone actually makes a (good) movie about it. If Paranormal Activity were a real movie, it probably would have been pretty good.

 

[Kane52630]

i cant wait for the director to make the Area 51 film

 

[Heretic]

The new ending that was shot was HORRIBLE. I dont know what the original ending was, but it HAD to have been better than what is in theaters.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

The one ending that I heard about where she

Spoiler

slits her own throat in front of the camera

sounded really good, and might have salvaged a bit of the film for me. But the ending where she

Spoiler

lunges at the camera in a cheap, silly, unimaginative jump-scare

just made me groan.

 

[Kane52630]

The one ending that I heard about where she

Spoiler

slits her own throat in front of the camera

sounded really good, and might have salvaged a bit of the film for me. But the ending where she

Spoiler

lunges at the camera in a cheap, silly, unimaginative jump-scare

just made me groan.

did you get a good crowd or were they apathetic? mine had a lot of screams in the end scene. maybe thats why i liked it more, the crowd was so alive

 

[Heretic]

I agree Sarge. I just read up on the original endings...

The one you prefer is the best, but was apparently only used at a few early screenings. It is better than the official original ending...and both are FAR, FAR better than the Hollywood ending we got in theaters.

That's right folks...spend an hour and a half suspending disbelief...and in the final shot we'll crap all over it by giving you the most cliche Hollywood horror ending scene of all time. Just in case you thought the movie was real...we'll prove it isn't in the final, laughably bad seconds.

 

[Heretic]

double post

 

[danoyse]

There were reportedly two different endings:

Spoiler

#1
Katie kills Micah off-camera, then comes back in the room and sits on the floor rocking back and forth for 2 days, then slits her throat (the rocking back and forth is in the trailer)

Spoiler

#2
Katie kills Micah off-camera, sits on the floor for the next two days. The best friend is heard entering the house and finding Micah's body and runs from the house. The cops come, find Katie in the bedroom and wind up shooting her to death

I actually liked the ending now in the movie best. They used a little CG, but it was subtle enough and the movie seemed to be building up to it.

 

[danoyse]

did you get a good crowd or were they apathetic? mine had a lot of screams in the end scene. maybe thats why i liked it more, the crowd was so alive

Mine was a little of both. One woman practially ran the hell out afterward and her friends were cracking up at her.

The guy behind me started making that gagging noise from The Grudge at the end of the movie.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Yeah, I think paranormal stuff is utter ********, but I'm willing to submit to the idea if someone actually makes a (good) movie about it. If Paranormal Activity were a real movie, it probably would have been pretty good.

See, I wouldnt want it to be a "real movie." Yes, it was choppy but that made it feel "real" to me. If it were a slick Hollywood movie, it would be....just another slick Hollywood movie. I liked that I saw something different in this film. I dont know about you, but I think real life is kind of "choppy" and not as cut and dry and "convenient" as a Hollywood flick. It doesnt go as smoothly as a written drama.

I dunno. I liked the movie and if you didnt, thats fine.

did you get a good crowd or were they apathetic? mine had a lot of screams in the end scene. maybe thats why i liked it more, the crowd was so alive

I was amazed at how many people got into the movie. I hadnt heard so many honest screams and gasps since I saw the original The Grudge.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Wow that ending that they didn't use sounds awesome. That would be ****ing well wacked out.

 

[Heretic]

I also just read that Dreamworks added the noises that telegraphed every single scare in the film.

Without the noises and with the ending the director shot as a better fit for his movie before Dreamworks got involved, I must say my opinion of this movie would be far different.

 

[Fresh Prince]

i dont know about you and what movies you watch but i like this movie for what it is, the acting was realistic to the events happening to them, the story is like a classic Blair Witch, and scares is pretty scaring, for me not seeing whats going on is more scary than Jason or Freddy Kruger killing some ****e. i think you don't like this movie is because you arent a "believer" on the paranormal

ok enough bashing around, i like this movie and you didnt lets bury the hatchet shall we?

Are you a beleiver in the paranormal?

 

[Kane52630]

Are you a beleiver in the paranormal?

i know people who does, im like a 50% skeptic and 50% believer