'Paranormal Activity' All too Normal

Humans like to think they know the difference between truth and fiction. But in the modern media age, even as we feel technology has made us more savvy than ever, there’s always a disquieting edge that makes us wonder what’s really the truth and where are we being manipulated. Is Fox News really “fair and balanced” just ’cause they say so, for instance? Or is Obama really bringing “Hope” back to America just because his colorful posters say so?

Back in 1999, a movie called “The Blair Witch Project” burst into the American pop culture consciousness from seemingly nowhere. It appeared to be (and was marketed to viewers as) a raw documentary film about three student filmmakers and their tragic last days experiencing supernatural forces while lost in the wilderness, but in reality it was a fictional film made for under $30,000 by a team of indie filmmakers and actors and had caused a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival months before.

The resulting hysteria of “was that real or not?” among the average, uninformed horror-film fans drove the film to a massive $150 million gross in the US alone, and inspired dozens of spoof films and cheapo horror films in its wake. But no one’s been able to catch that lightning in a bottle of mass mental manipulation twice – until now.

“Paranormal Activity” uses the same conceit of “found footage” depicting the tragic consequences of supernatural attacks on seemingly normal people. In this case, it follows the events that befall young shacked-up couple Micah (Micah Stone) and Katie (Katie Featherston) after Micah buys a video camera in an attempt to see whether they can catch on video exactly what’s causing awful noises to waft through their apartment and doors to slam viciously while they sleep at night.

Katie is more inclined to believe there’s a supernatural element to things than the skeptical Micah, partly because she reveals that she’s experienced strange behavior before from what seemed like spirits at other times in her life, no matter where she’s moved. Micah starts to believe pretty soon as well, however, especially after he leaves a Ouija board out and notices that it’s very definitely been used for a message from the beyond. Soon, a paranormal expert comes over to check things out and says he definitely thinks there’s trouble brewing.

“Paranormal” uses a string of subtle effects to convey the slow yet steadily growing horror felt by the couple as they experience all manner of noises, slammed doors, shaken chandeliers, flipped-on TVs and eventually the sight of hideous claw marks in some strategically placed powder on the bedroom floor. The lead actors are total unknowns making their feature film debuts, effectively adding to the feeling that this is real rather than a predictable cinematic adventure sure to be survived by a star like George Clooney or Angelina Jolie.

And yet, while first-time writer-director Oren Peli crafts a haunting, desolate look for the film with its frequent use of shadowy night footage, very few moments of the film provide a true scare that makes audience members jump out of their seats or shriek in terror. Having seen it with a crowd of mostly underage teenagers who should have been perfect targets for a truly scary film, I can attest that the loudest freakouts of the film – other than its undeniably disturbing final moments – came when audience members dropped bottles loudly at tense moments, provoking false panic immediately followed by whoops of laughter, and at the film’s conclusion, a chorus of disappointed comments.

That reaction was surprising, because distributor Paramount Pictures is turning “Paranormal” into a box-office juggernaut by using a viral Internet campaign in which a million people had to electronically “demand” the film be released widely before the studio would release it nationally (surprise, the campaign worked). Having seen through the hype after surviving a screening, one can only hope that the “demand” won’t keep growing once word gets out about its almost-nonexistent plotline and simply sporadic scares.

Advance hype in a Los Angeles Times’ article on the film stated that Steven Spielberg himself went crazy for “Paranormal,” finding it so terrifying that he believed his advance screening tape was haunted and that he brought it back to his office the next day wrapped in a plastic trash bag for fear of touching it. If this is what terrifies the legendary director of “Jaws” and writer of “Poltergeist” these days, then perhaps he’s made a few too many family films.

He should have also kept the tape in the trash bag and spared the rest of us our ten dollars.