Unless you’re living in a fall-out shelter somewhere awaiting the zombie apocalypse, you’ve heard about Paranormal Activity, the will-it-make-it/will-it-not indie horror flick that’s been gathering dust since 2006. If you haven't, you just lost some major para-points. Redeem yourself asap by checking out this movie. The flick, shot on a handheld in seven days at director Oren Peli’s crib, was made for a scant $11,000, probably about the same price as the smallest ring on Lindsay Lohan’s pinky finger. (Compare that to the $100,000 estimated Blair Witch budget and you can imagine what we're working with here.) It gathered buzz at festival screenings, but until DreamWorks picked it up in 2008 (along with some backing from this guy ... Steven Spielberg? Never heard of him.), Paranormal Activity wasn’t so active. But lucky for horror geeks near uber-cool hipster cities across the country, you can check it out this week.
I’ve heard talk of it being one of the all-time, all-time scary movies. It employs the use of night vision to capture the goings-on inside a young couple’s bedroom while they sleep. Paranormal Activity is not a star vehicle — it features newcomers Katie Featherston and Micah Slot paired up with first-time director Peli. There's this cool anecdote as well: The Chicago Tribune reports that Spielberg (who helped re-imagine the ending) was afraid his copy of the disc was haunted. Apparently the day he watched it, the door to his bedroom randomly locked from the inside. So scared was Spielberg that he brought the disc back to DreamWorks in a garbage bag. True story or publicity stunt? Who cares. I think it just worked on me.
Check out the trailer, and happy nightmares.