PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. (2007/2009)
WRITTEN, CO-PRODUCED, PHOTOGRAPHED, EDITED AND DIRECTED BY OREN PELI.
STARRING KATIE FEATHERSTON AND MICAH SLOAT.
WHITE NOISE. (2005) DIRECTED BY
GEOFFREY SAX. MUSIC BY CLAUDE FOISY. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY CHRIS SEAGER.
STARRING MICHAEL KEATON, IAN MCNEICE, CHANDRA WEST AND DEBORAH KARA
UNGER.
These are two different yet
similarly-themed (if you know what I mean!) horror
films which I recently watched for the first time. Late to the party
on both counts- typical me!- I adored one film and absolutely loathed
the other. Can you guess which one I loved and which one I hated?
One
deals with the notion that we are never alone, that demons from that
other world about which we know relatively little can latch onto us,
the living, and make our lives a living hell. The other is concerned
with EVP or 'Electronic Voice Phenomena,' the
practice of catching the voices of the dead on audio recordings.
These
both sound like great premises for horror films, don't they?
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is
the demonic one and it's pure freaky-ass scary brilliance from
beginning to end. WHITE NOISE, the
EVP one, sucked to high heaven, if I may be permitted to use a
technical term.
The
idea of EVP is, frankly, a terrifying one. The
voices of the dead coming at you from a tape recorder? I'd pee myself
if ever I heard such a thing. But this film never realised its full
potential, sadly. What could have been a really scary film is not
only not remotely scary, but it descends into maudlin cheesiness and
plotholey confusion and sheer ludicrousness about halfway through.
Michael
Keaton plays Jonathan Rivers, a wealthy architect whose beautiful
author wife Anna tries to contact him via EVP after she dies in a
tragic accident. When Jonathan finds out that it's actually possible
to do this, he's all gung-ho about it until he realises the following
stark fact.
When
you allow the portals to the other worlds to stand open, you're
making it possible for every demonic Tom, Dick and Harry from 'the
other side' to pop in for a
natter and a cuppa as well. Jonathan becomes aware of the presence of
evil spirits almost as soon as he begins his attempts to make
conversation with Anna. What do they want, and whom are they
after...?
I lost
interest completely when Jonathan started using the messages from the
other side to help people in trouble. Yawn...! The
ending to the film was bizarre, confusing and unsatisfactory. The
only remotely interesting thing about the movie was the use of
cassette tapes and videotapes to capture the spirits' voices and
faces. It was nice and nostalgic to see these old friends from the
'Nineties and 'Noughties. I liked Ian McNeice as the spirit conduit
as well but that's about it.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is
a million times better. Katie is a young student who's been dogged by
a demonic presence since she was eight years old. She and her
obviously richer boyfriend Micah, living together in their gorgeous
house, decide to try to capture the 'paranormal activity'
on camera.
The
results are fantastically interesting for us, the viewers, but
absolutely catastrophic for poor Katie and Micah, who are actually
quite likeable characters. Micah's striking resemblance to a certain
Cristiano Ronaldo, handsome footy star extraordinaire,
doesn't exactly hinder the
proceedings either, heh-heh-heh.
The
film is slow-moving at times but, even when stuff doesn't seem to be
happening, we're not bored at all. I personally wasn't, anyway. And
when stuff is happening,
it's flippin' terrifying to
watch. Imagine if you were fast asleep in bed and a demon got in the bed
with you and you captured this on camera. You'd be fit to be tied,
haha. Katie and Micah capture all this and much more on
their
trusty camera.
Would
they have been better leaving well enough alone, or was this demon
always going to come for Katie some day anyway and so they might as
well confront the supernatural beast head-on? It's hard to say.
I do
know that I had terrible trouble
sleeping after I saw this film. I tucked myself in to an insane
degree at bedtime, leaving no part of myself sticking out for the
boogeyman or even possible boogeymen to
fiddle with.
I'm in
two minds about the ending, but there are some alternate endings
floating about if you're not happy with the one you're shown. This
hugely successful, much-parodied movie actually started out life as
an independent feature and then got picked up by PARAMOUNT,
a success story by anyone's standards, and it's spawned a sequel or
two as well.
It scared the
living daylights out of me anyway, and if that's not the criterion by
which you judge a good horror film, I don't know what is. I'm off now
to have my afternoon nap. If anything other-worldly's planning on
getting in with me, make sure you bring the Sunday papers and my
latte. I'm not running a holiday camp here...!
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
No comments:
Post a Comment