Film Road to Halloween: Paranormal Activity (2007)

The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 99 days to go.

Back in 2009, while my beloved and I were vacationing from the rest of the world in Kent, we found an uncanny activity of our own. Was likely not paranormal, sure, but the ajar and slightly rotated loft door in the cottage we were staying in was a perplexing coincidence at best. Given we had watched, hours before, the movie, Paranormal Activity.

The film is so synonymous with the docu-realist cinema format that the first of the Paranormal Activity films has kind of been tainted with the same brush as many other genre-dragging duds. Including three of the sequels to this particular franchise. Obvious comparisons to The Blair Witch Project make perfect sense, though Paranormal Activity is still owed much of the spotlight for immersing the found footage format into the modern era of cinema. Especially given the likes of Cloverfield and [REC] bursting onto the scene at this time.

Written, produced, and directed by Israeli-born Oren Peli, Paranormal Activity first appeared on the festival circuit back in 2007. Peli had zero filmmaking experience, was a software programmer for Sony, dropped out of high school at sixteen, and saw The Exorcist way too young. On any other day these might not be the essential ingredients to make a crack in the movie world. You all should know Peli’s story of resilience amidst the movie business big guns and top-tier film festivals.

“The film is so synonymous with the docu-realist cinema format that the first of the Paranormal Activity films has kind of been tainted with the same brush as many other genre-dragging duds.”

Paranormal Activity is a film that was green-lit after a grueling near-two-years, based on the reactions of none other than the audience. Remember them? We forget that it was this movie that showed us the startled and screaming audience members in their seats during the trailer run. Hollywood were constantly no-no, the distribution and backing potential was vaporizing, festivals like Sundance rejected the film. But not Screamfest.

In the end, the fear of marketing such a reality-footage film in the dawn of Facebook and Twitter, as well as the savvy YouTube model, was the detractors loss and the gain of Paramount. Even during the whole DreamWorks / Paramount take-over fiasco. It might have also helped that a certain Mr. Spielberg declared himself right behind the project after watching it at his home. And it took some balls for Peli to stand by his little gem, carrying his pride and joy over his shoulder like Dick Whittington, when bigwigs were nagging him to let them remake it with known faces.

Peli shot the entire film in just seven days. In his own home in San Diego, no less. Revamping his house, which he apparently was intending to do for some time, for the film’s posterity. With a year dedicated to pre-production, Peli was pretty much one segment of a three-man crew (his best buddy and then girlfriend), in which he would direct, edit, mix sound, and cast the film himself. Managing to raise somewhere in the region of $15k, the long haul and determination would result in Paranormal Activity grossing around $200 million worldwide. Basically, profitable as fuck.

“Katie Featherston in particular carries that heavy emotional burden on her shoulders… neither showy nor loud, but just the right amount of ingenuity and humanity to get you to the crooks of the personality.”

Paranormal Activity has no opening titles or end credits. Set entirely in the house of the film’s couple, Micah (Micah Sloat) and Katie (Katie Featherston), the shaky, hand-held-camera forms part of the film’s story, as he attempts to capture the physical energy on film that has been taunting her since a horrific childhood trauma. And worth noting, even without a solid screenplay as a blueprint, this backstory is woven into proceedings so swiftly, it must have agonizing scriptwriters scratching their heads.

When he is not filming much of their everyday existence, Micah sets up the camera on a tripod at night so he can record anything untoward while they’re sleeping. That framing of the large bed and the open bedroom door is now iconic horror imagery. Micah is clearly looking for something cool, rather than protecting the sanctuary he and Katie have built. Katie is somewhat carefree and level-headed, but the repressed anxiety is there for all to see. This is, then, not really a movie about a relationship, for it does not need to be.

So naturalistic are the performers, it is oh-so easy to get as comfortable as the enigmatic entity allows in their home. Katie Featherston in particular carries that heavy emotional burden on her shoulders, while constantly pottering about, showing a normal need to just get on with things. Her performance is neither showy nor loud, but just the right amount of ingenuity and humanity to get you to the crooks of the personality.

“That is part of what makes Paranormal Activity so chilling. It’s appliance to our very existence.”

There is definitely a whiff that Katie and Micah had all manner of love and playfulness in their relationship. It’s just, right now, they have enough on their plate to disrupt the harmony. Their bond is tested, and indeed reflecting of its true colors, when the paranormal activities of the film’s title crank up the heat. It is Katie they want, and Micah is just in the way. The spiritual being – which we never see – appears to have a constructive, logical sense in their stream of activities.

As does the director, Peli. Utilizing tried and tested horror tropes, but illuminating such elements into the real-life discourse. Where we do record videos on our phones, and watch reality shows on our TVs, and ogle at the world on our computers. That is part of what makes Paranormal Activity so chilling. It’s appliance to our very existence. These are regular people forced to deal with irregular, unfathomable occurrences.

There is an Ouija Board, but Peli opts not for the game itself, but rather it be left to catch fire while Katie and Micah are out. Strange footprints shown in the powder sprinkled on the floor. Crumpling, sliding bed sheets that to the naked eye is impossible to explain. Even a moment when Katie freezes on the spot, claiming “it” is breathing on her – only for part of her hair to unusually flicker. There are no requirements for conventional jump scares here.

“Paranormal Activity is not just a glorious filmmaking success story in its own right, but a reminder that we must wipe away our mental cache of the found-footage horror.”

The disorienting tension, the progressively suspenseful mood, is captured through the lack of information (to both us, the audience, and the couple onscreen), and that notion that our fears start in the mind. That what we don’t know, can’t see, struggle to comprehend, is what makes this whole scenario so frightening. And that’s good horror. Coupled with an extraordinary, and perfectly-timed, sound design, makes for a perpetually nervy experience. No CGI needed. Although that very final second of Katie’s shrieking face hurtling towards us was an odd moment.

Paranormal Activity 2 and 3 would follow (but not on Peli’s watch), and would faithfully build on the backstory of Katie and her sister, though would inevitably up the ante on the genre’s capture-everything format. But unlike the next three chapters of the franchise, parts two and three are also solid ventures. What Oren Peli achieved with the original Paranormal Activity, is not just a glorious filmmaking success story in its own right, but a reminder that we must wipe away our mental cache of the found-footage horror, and acknowledge that this was a ground-shaker. One of the few in a mixed bag that does it well. Really well.