Paranormal Activity

For my research on a horror movie, I decided to focus on a horror movie that I recently watched rather than an older more well known film, this is because the film I chose, Paranormal Activity, made a big impact in my mind and was extremely successful at full filling its brief as a triumphant horror film, which created alot of press interest.

Background

A lot of hard work and attention to detail has gone into the making of Paranormal Activity to make it original and to steer it away from being just another predictable horror movie, the director of the movie, Oren Peli, aimed to create a small, low budget film that would appeal to film festivals. With a back catalogue of fairly successful straight to DVD movies behind him, Peli was more than happy for this film to do the same, however after coming up with a brilliant story line, auditioning for the two main roles in the film, Katie and Micah, and filming it over a period of 7 days in his own home, editing the film together and with it costing only £9, 000 to make, Peli and his employees realised they were on to a winner.
After attempting to sell it to many film companies, nobody seemed interested on taking such a risk on a low budget film, directed by somebody who was fairly unrecognised in the big movie making game, it took a year, for the film to finally be snapped up by paramount, after various different pitches and talks about changing elements of the film, Paramount finally made the decision to bring in Stephen Spielberg to rewrite the ending. then the film was ready to be promoted and sent out to a few different cinemas in cities and towns around the U.S, an online request service was put up, for the film to go global and within 2 days there were over 50, 000 positive responses. this promoted the advertising company to successfully pitch it to many different movie theatres and within a week the movie made on a £9,000 budget had grossed £60 million.

Camera Work

Paranormal Activity is a POV film, filmed as if it is real footage, comparable in this sense to the blair witch project and cloverfield. POV horror films have been proven to be alot more successful than other films within this genre, this in my opinion is because it feels alot more realistic like these are real people that this is happening to and not just actors, and could happen to you. the aim of a POV movie is to make the audience believe something that isn't there, but easily could be, this means the audience doesn't get to see anything in most cases, with cloverfield being somewhat of a exception. with POV films the story is told through the eyes of the main character, Paranormal Activity has absolutely no, opening or concluding credits, the audience is instantly made to believe there is no director, screenplay writer, producer, makeup artists, sound technicians and most importantly no actors. The implication is that the people you see on camera took the initiative to film all of this themselves, because it was actually happening to them. the camera is an ordinary HD handheld camera that could be purchased by anyone at they're local electronics store, we are introduced to the idea that its a POV film from the very beginning, with the classic amateur, wonky camera in the mirror shot, and then with one of the main characters, Katie, asking what the camera is for, this makes the audience aware that there is a possibility this could be actual footage, as it looks just like any other home movie. there are a variety of different camera shots, such as perspective shots, which is most of the film as its shot from the perspective of the two main characters. there are also a few over the shoulder shots to make it feel like theres a presence that is not human in the room. at the beginning of the film , there are a few wide shots used, to signify the happy and contented lifestyle that Katie and Micah have, this also helps to contrast with the downhill spiral the actions of the two characters throughout the film create. as the film goes on the shots seem to get closer and closer to the characters especially Katie, with alot of close ups on Katie's face, to create the feeling, that there is impending doom, whatever evil presence exists is getting closer and closer to creating a dismal climax for the characters. the film begins with a relatively average pace where shots are concerned, however towards the end of the film, the camera shots are alot more snappily edited together, with a range of wide shots close ups, and extreme close ups, which create confusion and tension within the audience, giving the climax to the film its ultimate horrifying effect. at the end of the film, there is an extreme close up on Katie's face after she has killed Micah, this creates large amounts of fear within the audience as her face is the only thing in the shot, leaving it imprinted in the viewers mind for a long time after.

Sound

As it is a POV film, Paranormal Activity has no diagetic sound whatsoever, everything the audience hears is what is happening within the scene, eg. speech, music played, by either Katie or Micah, the sound made by the "evil presence" etc
the film and the effect it has on the viewer rely`s mainly upon the non diagetic sound, as we never as the audience get to see this evil presence, the tension, suspense and horror is created by the stomping, slamming, screaming, whispering and growling within the film. the effect of not using any diagetic sound is very successful as the silence at some parts creates a very real and Erie feeling, another film where this silence is used to build tension and horror is in the opening scene of "don't look now", where a child drowns, the only sound heard is what is happening within the scene this makes the occurrence alot more hard hitting and effects the audience in a more realistic way than if there was composed music put over the top of the scene.

My Rating

To conclude, I would give this film a 5 out of 5 for fulfilling its ultimate aim, which is to terrify the audience, I am not usually one to be scared by horror movies, I am very interested in them and the effect they have on people, however I am not usually affected by them myself, whereas with Paranormal Activity, I was literally terrified to the point of tears, Oren Peli`s idea that making the film POV makes it feel as though it could happen to anyone certainly worked. the low budget, ordinary setting, ordinary people and small filming time, shows that this film is truly simplicity at its best.

paranormal activity