Paranormal Activity, writer/director Oren Peli’s single-set calling card of a ghost story is clever, occasionally unbearably tense, and, above all, utterly relentless—a Blair Witch Project that doesn’t skimp on the money shots. Much like that previous film, the combination of jittery handheld cameras, no-profile actors, and lack of dudes in rubber suits will no doubt turn off a significant portion of the audience in the mood for something overt. For those in a more suggestible frame of mind, however, Peli’s method of imbuing everyday objects—a slightly ajar door, a swinging chandelier, a (gulp) strangely rumpled bedsheet—with an atmosphere of ball-crawling dread is really something to see. It doesn’t let up.
The premise is ingenious in a way that’s maybe only possible on a microbudget: After a young woman begins to complain about hearing strange (and, more ominously, strangely familiar) sounds after dark, her type-A tech-head boyfriend hooks up a camera in their bedroom to document any late-night shenanigans. Heh heh heh, as the Cryptkeeper used to say.
There are problems, to be sure: The male character is presented as such an unlikable douche from the beginning that it’s hard to garner much sympathy once things start to unravel, while the film’s mounting reliance on silence-then-BOOM set pieces can sometimes seem like a bunch of cheap jolt YouTube videos spliced together. But, man, when it works, it works, to a degree that I’m slightly shamefaced to admit during the daylight hours. Backlash against advertising proclamations of The! Scariest! Movie! Ever! is probably already primed, but all I know is that every damn time that camera goes back to the time-coded bedroom and waits for something to happen, it’s awfully easy to believe the hype. 
I went to the free Thursday midnight showing and enjoyed it despite the drunken student-heavy crowd.
I think for the past four nights I’ve had dreams that have been at least partially influenced by seeing this film. And I’m starting to appreciate this small, subtle, and effective film more and more (for reasons that I probably can’t mention without spoiling things).
Why can’t there be more creepy movies like this one? Scary movies that don’t rely on gore or sex/nudity or chase scenes.
Although the hand-held element is certainly part of the film, it’s not the dizzying type of camera movement. And lots of the film takes place with the camera on a tripod. So don’t skip this film just because of the hand-held factor.
I saw “Paranormal Activity” at the Neptune on both Friday and Saturday, and haven’t been able to shut up about it since. It’s one of the best horror films I’ve seen, and arguably the best experiences I’ve ever had watching a film in a theater.
However, I’d say the key to enjoying this movie, ironically, is to try and avoid the hype as much as possible…Hearing comments that go on and on about how “It’s the scariest movie ever made!” create a ‘Prove it’ attitude in the audience that will no doubt manifest itself in the movie’s first 30 minutes, which are used to provide exposition and introduce us to, and get us to empathize with, the characters.
But the film’s, director, Oren Peli, knows exactly what he’s doing: the film slowly and expertly builds its scare scenes, alternating between day, when thank god it’s probably safe, and night, when the freaky stuff happens, bit by bit.
It works brilliantly, building up an immense sense of dread, taking its time to get completely under your skin. Then it ramps up and busts out some truly shocking, frightening moments in the last 45 minutes. One particularly disturbing and shocking jolt, an instant classic in the horror pantheon of ‘scary moments,’ caused the entire audience to recoil as one (awesome) in disbelief – I believe no one will be sleeping with their foot hanging off the corner of the bed after seeing this.
Overall, the film’s a ton of fun. It’ll hold up especially well for home viewing, but is also a blast in the theatre, where you hear the groans of dread from the audience increase exponentially as the nights tick by.
I reiterate, if possible, see it with as neutral of an opinion as you can. While I hate to add fuel to the hyperbole fire, myself, all the friends I saw it with, and a lot of people around me after the movie finished, called it one of the scariest movies we’d ever seen. Seriously, go.
Is nobody going to talk about the utterly terrible ending? I won’t give it away, but sheesh! The entire theater I saw it with (7pm, Neptune, 10/9) let out a huge, disbelieving guffaw when it happened, and at least one person screamed out “give me my money back!”
Movie sucked. Wasn’t scary at all. I want my $9.50 back. Everyone at my showing at the Neptune was laughing.