After seeing the Lars Van Trier film Monday, Tuesday I saw a true “Dogme” horror film, done with all the handhelds and close-ups in the limited space of a suburban San Diego home (in 2006, before the real estate collapse). I’m talking about “Paranormal Activity”, which doesn’t leave much room for Heterosexual Activity between Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston. Yup, like “AntiChrist” this is a “He and She” movie (“Bugcrush” at least was “He and He”). All too soon, the geeky Micah (an about-30 very likeable guy) sets up webcams over the house to photograph the Happenings, hoping to see the ghost. The Ouija board scene is clever, and reminds me of a Ouija session I had in Brooklyn New York in 1978 (it moved), or even of being hypnotized by a roommate at the University of Kansas in 1967 (my arm levitated).
A lot is made of the fact that the movie was produced (by Blumhouse Productions, written and directed by Oren Peli) for between $11K and $15K and yet has made tremendous profits. It’s odd that Paramount and Dreamworks both used their full-corporate trademarks on billboards to distribute the movie (rather than using Paramount Vantage). But the film itself had no rolling credits and no distributor marks. It merely had the opening and closing typewritten narratives about the fact that this was a real event as discovered by San Diego police. “Napoleon Dynamite” (with Jon Heder) was distributed under the full Paramount label, as I remember.
In fact, Film Bloggery has a story that Peli is looking for a distributor for “Area 51”, link here. Other sources say that Steven Spielberg picked up this HD film (sounds like it could have gone to Magnolia’s HDNet).
The very ending, the last ten minutes or so, yes, they are scary, and brutal. Micah had such a nice – bod – until. I love the stepladder scene – to the attic, it reminded me of the attic in my Pulte Townhome in Dallas.
I’ll add here a link to an appeal from IFP Minnesota, link here. I networked with them when I lived in Minneapolis from 1997-2003.
Here is a video review on YouTube from MBish84.
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