Film

So we rented Paranormal Activity on Friday night. Actually quite a scary movie. Made for something like $15,000, it’s gone on to make millions – and deservedly so.

The idea is that weird things are happening to a middle class couple, Micah and Katie, who live in San Diego. Katie’s been haunted since she was five by something that’s probably a demon – not a ghost – and has followed her to her new home, now she’s moved in with day-trader Micah. Things move by themselves, she’s seen figures standing at the foot of her bed, and so on.

The weird things happen in the night, so Micah gets himself a camcorder, connects it to a laptop, and tapes everything that goes on.

And we get to see everything that happens to them.

It’s all a bit Blair Witch and uses most of the same techniques – apparent cinema verité, filming at night, largely improvised dialogue, unknown actors – to try to convince you that terrible things are happening. Not much ever happens, but it’s the constant build-up of tension, the failure to use OTT special effects, the general weirdnesses that do happen, etc, that really play with your mind, letting you imagine the worst.

On the whole, not as scary as Ghostwatch, which actually does a better job of things visually, but scary and clever all the same.

In a moment, for those of you who haven’t seen it, the trailer. Then after the jump, let’s those of us who have seen it discuss the ending – and the alternate ones.

Continue reading “The alternate endings of Paranormal Activity”