Paranormal Activity. Two claws up!

[Goodieluver]

Saw it last night(downloaded) and i saw the theatre ending(the movie came out in 06 originally but a new ending was reshot)

Honestly, it bored me.

Some will say you need the theatre atmosphere for it, I was in a dark apt and had my 5.1 going

It bored me. Whenever the bass reverb hit up, you knew something was coming. I nearly laughed my ass off at the three toed footprints. Also, I felt the orig ending was better

I dunno, it was as i said weeks ago. Loud unusual noises, sudden movements that play on the camera's POV.

 

[KrazieDog]

And good lord did I want to do rude things to that girl; finally some Juicy Curvy on the screen

I couldn't agree more, she was beautiful.

 

[falcon]

I went to see it tonight. It was worth the wait for me. I loved it. A great movie that gave me chills. The ending seemed to be strange and the consensus between my friends was that there wasn't something right about the ending. Mainly because it was cg which is the exact opposite of the rest of the film. I hope they put the alternate endings on the dvd.

a co-worker of mine was talking to me about it last night she said that spielberg didn't like the original ending, so he made them change it and that's what we got 🙁 but like you said, hopefully they'll have like an unrated version or a theatrical ending version on the dvd. for me, it'll be a definite purchase!

 

[Bizkit]

I finally got around to seeing this movie tonight and I enjoyed it.I was going to go more in depth with my opinion but I'm tired and going to bed instead.


.......if I can sleep. 😉

 

[Tiger.Lily]

I'm going to see this later this week. And I won't be going home to my own bed. I'll be cuddled up with someone big and strong, lol.

 

[chicago]

Out of all the movies I've seen, Paranormal Activity was neither creepy nor scary, and I'm really not that hard to scare. Zombieland was more frightening than this movie, and it's got Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray in it. Yeah.

You know a movie's bad when the previews show only audience reaction and almost nothing of the movie, aside from giving away the ending where the guy comes flying at the camera.

 

[c7_assassin]

Out of all the movies I've seen, Paranormal Activity was neither creepy nor scary, and I'm really not that hard to scare. Zombieland was more frightening than this movie, and it's got Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray in it. Yeah.

You know a movie's bad when the previews show only audience reaction and almost nothing of the movie, aside from giving away the ending where the guy comes flying at the camera.

I knew it! The whole marketing campaign was "Everyone else thinks this is totally scary. Totally. Look how scared everyone is." That's trying a little too hard.

 

[chicago]

I knew it! The whole marketing campaign was "Everyone else thinks this is totally scary. Totally. Look how scared everyone is." That's trying a little too hard.

I figure they taped the audience's reaction to the last scene of the movie which was the only part that was actually scary. The rest of it was just anticipation for something scary that never really came. Plus there was like 30 minutes of just the guy and the girl joking around with the camera. I wish it was scary. Shit, I paid like 9 bucks to watch two nerds get haunted by some kind of invisible Big Bird, basically.

 

[c7_assassin]

I feel like I should watch it now, just so I can rip it apart in my hate-blog. 😛

 

[Marquis De Sade]

I feel like I should watch it now, just so I can rip it apart in my hate-blog. 😛

I saw it. I wanted to kill small defenseless things to make all who participated in that movie feel guilty enough to jump off cliffs.

I would LOVE to read that blog of yours when you're done. 😀

 

[alchemy]

blasphemy all of you!

That movie rocked!

 

[Bizkit]

blasphemy all of you!

That movie rocked!

I personally enjoyed the movie.I liked the connection that was built with the main characters and how the movie gradually increased in suspense as opposed to 'off with a bang'.

The ending,while surprising,did leave me expecting more.Annie brought up the Big Bird thought but I liked that twist.After I thought about it,what would you expect to see there?Surely you wouldn't expect to see a pair of Nike tracks making their way across the floor.

I'm interested to see if they follow up with a sequel and if so,how do they spin it?

 

[Oddjob0226]

Me, as the Paranormal actress: "I just got grabbed by a demon in my own bed and dragged down the hallway. So - lets get back to bed, turn out the lights, and get some sleep. "

And the paranormal expert who would turn into Scooby Doo and "Yoinks!" himself in a panic whenever actually presented with something paranormal? Sherlock Holmes didn't get the vapors if he had to investiage a murder! Dr. Kildare never fainted at the sight of blood!

And the ouiji board...... still? Back in my elementary school, the 1970s, in the Bible Belt, we had one we used as a toy along with all the other board games we played with during indoor recess.

I'll give the movie a couple of digits, but theys ain't thumbs.

 

[BellaRisa]

Me, as the Paranormal actress: "I just got grabbed by a demon in my own bed and dragged down the hallway. So - lets get back to bed, turn out the lights, and get some sleep. "

And the paranormal expert who would turn into Scooby Doo and "Yoinks!" himself in a panic whenever actually presented with something paranormal? Sherlock Holmes didn't get the vapors if he had to investiage a murder! Dr. Kildare never fainted at the sight of blood!

And the ouiji board...... still? Back in my elementary school, the 1970s, in the Bible Belt, we had one we used as a toy along with all the other board games we played with during indoor recess.

I'll give the movie a couple of digits, but theys ain't thumbs.

As the professor told them: it didn't matter where they were, because *she* was being haunted and not the house itself. That's why she wouldn't stay at her friend's place, and why the boyfriend felt their best bet was to stay in familiar surroundings and try to capture something on video so they could at least know what they were dealing with. And when they were going to leave, by then she was already under a different influence and convinced him she needed to stay. Furthermore, the professor told them from the beginning that he couldn't help them and they had to deal with the demonologist, because whatever was with her was way too strong for him to deal with personally. I think a lot of folks who saw this movie are so used to A) done-to-death rehashed crap horror and B) morons in horror flicks who would rush into a situation where they know they're in over their heads that this movie was just too non-formula and required too much imagination. As for only showing the audience at the last scene, when I saw it folks were gasping like that at scenes throughout.

This review summed it up best for me:

http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1822

 

[Marquis De Sade]

IMO the prof was actually the best part of the whole movie. He was certainly the best actor and came up with his own lines. Lines that actually brought a sense of dread AND moved the story forward. I heard there was no script, it was all improv and it shows. The actors have no other credits and obviously can't improvise on their feet very well.

I hate being told or shown the same thing multiple times in a movie. For example, when she stands up and hovers over the bed for two hours (time lapsed, yes, and thank God). First I see it happen. Then I have to sit and listen to them talk about in the bedroom. Then I'm forced to watch the footage of her doing it again. Then they go into the kitchen and have the same damn conversation. The whole movie was like that for me. Bored me to death so hard that by the time I might've been scared, I was just pissed about how much of my life I'd missed out on.

I'll give it this: It does indeed break formula. But it made me miss certain basic story telling rules like establishing something and moving on. But if you wanna watch some horror movies that don't use conventional Hollywood formula and are freaky as all hell, try and find some Asian horror before Hollywood diluted them into popcorn jump scare crap. A Tale of Two Sisters, the original Pulse, the original The Eye, the orginal Shutter just to name a few. These movies are slower than Paranormal Activity, don't have jump scares and will probably stay with you a lot longer afterwards.

One thing I hate more than Paranormal Activity? What the masses are saying about the lead actresses weight on the imdb boards. She's BRAND new. She's probably read everything.

But that's another thread. 🙂

 

[BellaRisa]

IMO the prof was actually the best part of the whole movie. He was certainly the best actor and came up with his own lines. Lines that actually brought a sense of dread AND moved the story forward. I heard there was no script, it was all improv and it shows. The actors have no other credits and obviously can't improvise on their feet very well.

I hate being told or shown the same thing multiple times in a movie. For example, when she stands up and hovers over the bed for two hours (time lapsed, yes, and thank God). First I see it happen. Then I have to sit and listen to them talk about in the bedroom. Then I'm forced to watch the footage of her doing it again. Then they go into the kitchen and have the same damn conversation. The whole movie was like that for me. Bored me to death so hard that by the time I might've been scared, I was just pissed about how much of my life I'd missed out on.

I'll give it this: It does indeed break formula. But it made me miss certain basic story telling rules like establishing something and moving on. But if you wanna watch some horror movies that don't use conventional Hollywood formula and are freaky as all hell, try and find some Asian horror before Hollywood diluted them into popcorn jump scare crap. A Tale of Two Sisters, the original Pulse, the original The Eye, the orginal Shutter just to name a few. These movies are slower than Paranormal Activity, don't have jump scares and will probably stay with you a lot longer afterwards.

One thing I hate more than Paranormal Activity? What the masses are saying about the lead actresses weight on the imdb boards. She's BRAND new. She's probably read everything.

But that's another thread. 🙂

See, I enjoyed their convos and actually liked them discussing the same things over again, that's what real people do-hash out something over and over. It gave their conversations a verisimilitude that too many other films lack. I do agree with you on the asian films, though I thought A Tale of Two Sisters was a little too convoluted. As for Katie's weight, I refuse to even read any of the naysayers, that girl has an hourglass that I dearly hope she doesn't starve away over those idiot comments. It was SO NICE to see a real, sexy booty in a horror movie...

 

[weeping_guitar]

In terms of the POV shaky-cam movies, nothing has yet to top [REC] for me. Damn those Spanish.

 

[Oddjob0226]

I think a lot of folks who saw this movie are so used to A) done-to-death rehashed crap horror and B) morons in horror flicks who would rush into a situation where they know they're in over their heads that this movie was just too non-formula and required too much imagination. As for only showing the audience at the last scene, when I saw it folks were gasping like that at scenes throughout.

The rest of the folks are the ones who know lazy screen writing and great William Castle-style exploitation when they see it. There was so much talking because they had to plug in the plot holes that they knew people were going to bring up, but didn't want to actually show anythingunfold. Was the ghosthunter named Basil Exposition?

Look! The ouiji board caught on fire and we didn't see anyone light a match! Wow!

Look - footprints just appeared, out of nowhere, just like in the cartoons when a character puts on "vanishing cream"! Amazing!

Hey - things are so scary that the expert is scared! That means I should be scared!

And that boyfriend - he has balls! He's going to show that demon who is boss! Not in over his head at all. Go for it, rush in and get the burned up photo after you've been warned that you're fighting a demon and your girlfriend told you she has been followed by this thing for her entire life and the expert told you NOT to talk to it with a ouiji board but you did anyway. It's like he's trying to prove something, but we just don't know exactly what. But that's one dedicated day trader - he must know what he is doing!

Was there no other paranormal 'expert' in the San Diego phone book they could consult with? Did they not think that maybe a news station or magazine might want to document this? Since it IS movie reality - couldn't they have called the Ghostbusters? So the demon was following her..... could they have not moved out of the demon-epicenter house into a place with less receptive energy for demons since things ahd never been that bad before, even though she has alway been followed by this? In real estate is it always location, location, location, after all. They taught us that in the first Ghostbusters. The building was a magnet for that iron-filing of a main character. How about, like, maybe, the iron-filing moving the to a less powerful magnent?

NOW you want to leave? Now? What in all of this weird crap goings-on made you think that you really had a handle on things up to this point, this specific moment in time, Ting-Tings? Why did it take the demon 25 years to stalk this woman; was his aim just that bad? Where was he the years he wasn't bugging her, outsourced to India?

I don't think it was a demon; I think Robert Zmeckis was just messing with them. Or it was an episode of Scare Tactics that went really wrong.

My audience was pretty much nonplussed. Fun movie, but... scariest thing ever? Sunshine Cleaning is looking better to me now.

 

[BlackestLily]

I am going to be a complete lame-o and admit this movie scared the living crap out of me!

 

[Goodieluver]

I think it would had been scarier if more things happened during daytime. The whole "it only happens at night thing" is boring. Poltergeist nailed it when they had weird things happening during the "Safety" of daylight

I will say tho, the original ending was better than the flying remake

 

[alchemy]

The rest of the folks are the ones who know lazy screen writing and great William Castle-style exploitation when they see it. There was so much talking because they had to plug in the plot holes that they knew people were going to bring up, but didn't want to actually show anythingunfold. Was the ghosthunter named Basil Exposition?

Look! The ouiji board caught on fire and we didn't see anyone light a match! Wow!

Look - footprints just appeared, out of nowhere, just like in the cartoons when a character puts on "vanishing cream"! Amazing!

Hey - things are so scary that the expert is scared! That means I should be scared!

And that boyfriend - he has balls! He's going to show that demon who is boss! Not in over his head at all. Go for it, rush in and get the burned up photo after you've been warned that you're fighting a demon and your girlfriend told you she has been followed by this thing for her entire life and the expert told you NOT to talk to it with a ouiji board but you did anyway. It's like he's trying to prove something, but we just don't know exactly what. But that's one dedicated day trader - he must know what he is doing!

Was there no other paranormal 'expert' in the San Diego phone book they could consult with? Did they not think that maybe a news station or magazine might want to document this? Since it IS movie reality - couldn't they have called the Ghostbusters? So the demon was following her..... could they have not moved out of the demon-epicenter house into a place with less receptive energy for demons since things ahd never been that bad before, even though she has alway been followed by this? In real estate is it always location, location, location, after all. They taught us that in the first Ghostbusters. The building was a magnet for that iron-filing of a main character. How about, like, maybe, the iron-filing moving the to a less powerful magnent?

NOW you want to leave? Now? What in all of this weird crap goings-on made you think that you really had a handle on things up to this point, this specific moment in time, Ting-Tings? Why did it take the demon 25 years to stalk this woman; was his aim just that bad? Where was he the years he wasn't bugging her, outsourced to India?

I don't think it was a demon; I think Robert Zmeckis was just messing with them. Or it was an episode of Scare Tactics that went really wrong.

My audience was pretty much nonplussed. Fun movie, but... scariest thing ever? Sunshine Cleaning is looking better to me now.

No dude, Bella's right.

As a paranormal investigator myself, I can say that much of what happened in the movie is very realistically portrayed (with obvious exceptions)

Secondly, only in the movies are there conveniently paranormal investigators in the phone book. Even if they HAD been able to locate one, there wouldn't have been much they could do other than confirm that there was something there. Unlike the movies, we can't really bust ghosts.

Third, the boyfriend actually acted like most non-believers would have. Mocked it...toyed with it...messed around with crap he knew nothing about...trying to prove how macho he was by attempting to fix it himself.

No, this movie did a pretty damn good job of portraying a demonic haunting, and, in my mind, is easily one of the best ghost movies ever made. Why? Because it DIDN'T show you everything. It DIDN'T give you all the answers on a silver digital platter. It DIDN'T go out of it's way to provide the audience with constant action and eye candy. Dude, go watch the original The Haunting.
Also, watch The Entity.

This movie rocked!

 

[BellaRisa]

No dude, Bella's right.

As a paranormal investigator myself, I can say that much of what happened in the movie is very realistically portrayed (with obvious exceptions)

Secondly, only in the movies are there conveniently paranormal investigators in the phone book. Even if they HAD been able to locate one, there wouldn't have been much they could do other than confirm that there was something there. Unlike the movies, we can't really bust ghosts.

Third, the boyfriend actually acted like most non-believers would have. Mocked it...toyed with it...messed around with crap he knew nothing about...trying to prove how macho he was by attempting to fix it himself.

No, this movie did a pretty damn good job of portraying a demonic haunting, and, in my mind, is easily one of the best ghost movies ever made. Why? Because it DIDN'T show you everything. It DIDN'T give you all the answers on a silver digital platter. It DIDN'T go out of it's way to provide the audience with constant action and eye candy. Dude, go watch the original The Haunting.
Also, watch The Entity.

This movie rocked!

This right here, thank you. At this point I'm done with the naysayers, there's good reason this movie is being so highly regarded by so many; it's proof that you can make a good scary film without overwrought predictability, hacked-up giant boobed blondes and ridiculously false dialogue, or little blue asian kids 😎.

And OMG, the Entity! Not only is the movie excellent but I read my mom's copy of the book when I was 12 (!) and I don't think I've recovered yet

 

[BellaRisa]

I am going to be a complete lame-o and admit this movie scared the living crap out of me!

If you're lame then so am I, the few movie critics I hold in any regard, and many many many other people 🙂

 

[BlackestLily]

If you're lame then so am I, the few movie critics I hold in any regard, and many many many other people 🙂

The more people who say it's not scary, the more I feel lame for being as scared as I was. The funny part is I was MORE scared later, when I went home alone...in bed...and was staring at the door...

 

[Goodieluver]

This right here, thank you. At this point I'm done with the naysayers, there's good reason this movie is being so highly regarded by so many; it's proof that you can make a good scary film without overwrought predictability, hacked-up giant boobed blondes and ridiculously false dialogue, or little blue asian kids 😎.

And OMG, the Entity! Not only is the movie excellent but I read my mom's copy of the book when I was 12 (!) and I don't think I've recovered yet

How was it not predictable?

It started with a minor door creek and escalated to more.
You knew every night something would happen and the bass would reverb when something was about to happen

I said above i believe, i nearly fell down laughing at the footprint scene
Also, one would think as things got more "Serious" the BF would forget the camera to rush and find out whats happening