Paranormal Activity

Runtime: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Stars: Katie Featherstone, Micah Stone

Plot: Katie and Micah are an ordinary couple who are being haunted by a demonic prescence. 

Review: For having a really small budget, Paranormal Activity was very well done.  I didn't find this movie to be as scary as most people.  It did have its moments where it was pretty freaky, but overall, it wasn't that scary.  My problem with this movie stems from the main characters, Katie and Micah.  I just didn't sympathize with them.  Katie was such a whiny, crying chick and Micah was pretty much just a jerk to her the whole time.  In the end, I found myself wanting the demon to kill them.  I think by now, everyone knows how this movie ends.  If you don't want the end spoiled, don't read further. 

There were three ending shot for Paranormal Activity, and I have seen all three.  I will discuss all three endings in the reverse order of how I liked them.

One ending that didn't make the theatrical release, but was included as the alternate ending on the DVD ends with Micah getting woke up by Katie's screams for him. He rushes downstairs and you can assume that he is killed by Katie.  Katie then walks up the stairs, into the bedroom and closes the door. She then walks over to the camera and puts a knife to her throat and slashes it.  She then falls lifeless to the floor.  Out of the three endings, this one is the one that sounds like it would be the coolest, but it just kind of falls flat on the execution. Katie slashing her throat was just kind of blah.

The second ending that didn't make the theatrical release, and wasn't included on the DVD, I had to watch on the internet.  It starts again with Micah running downstairs to Katie's screams and him being killed.  Then Katie walks up the stairs and sits down by the bed.  You see the time on the video camera race by as she just sits there rocking back and forth.  The next day you hear some knocks on the door, and one of Katie's friends opens the door and screams when she sees Micah dead downstairs.  She runs out of the house and you assume calls the police.  The police come to the house a little while later and come in the house.  They come up the stairs and find Katie.  When Katie makes a move toward the cop, they shoot her dead.  I liked this one the second most, just because it is well executed and is pretty original.

The ending I liked best was the one in the theatrical release.  It ends with Micah being killed and then thrown into the camera.  Then Katie crawls over his body and looks into the camera and smiles.  I felt this ending was the best because it was the most well executed ending.  It also involved some trickier camera work and stunt work than the other two. 

Overall, I would say this movie was pretty good.  It was original and that originality will never be able to be duplicated.  I applaud the makers of this film for standing their ground and not allowing the movie studio who bought the rights to the movie to remake it with known names and a bigger budget.  This movie succeeded because of its small budget and genius internet marketing. 

Rating: 6/10, would recommend to horror fans, but don't be surprised that it isn't that scary

Official Site: http://www.paranormalmovie.com/
IMDb: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1179904/