Paranormal Activity was released in 2007. It was written, directed, and edited by Oren Peli. Paranormal Activity was produced by Steven Schneider and Jason Blum. The film stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat.
A professional psychic, Dr. Fredrichs, learns that Katie has been haunted from age 8 on. Whenever she moved the haunting followed her. She and boyfriend, Micah, moved into a house. Dr. Fredrichs believes Katie is haunted by a demon and that the goal of the demon is the torment Katie. Dr. Fredrichs also says not to taunt the demon to attempt to communicate with it. Dr. Fredrichs also gives them the number of Dr. Johan Averies who is a demonologist.
Instead they record things at night on a video camera.
The bedroom door sways back and forth on the third night.
On the fifth night she is scared? He goes down stairs with the camera to see what a noise was. He finds nothing. The next morning he played an audio recording and hears something but can’t tell what it is.
He wants to get an Ouija board. She doesn’t want one.
He is taunting whatever is haunting the house.
On night 13 she thinks she hears something downstairs. Then a very nasty and loud growl is heard. They investigate with the camera and find nothing. They go back to sleep and get up the camera. They hear something.
She thinks he doesn’t take the haunting seriously. He says he is.
He continues to taunt the thing haunting the house.
On night 15 she gets up for a while and leaves the bedroom. Katie goes outside. She doesn’t want to come inside. As boyfriend comes back in he sees a television is turned on a static channel. In the morning she sees the footage of her getting up in the middle of the night. She says she doesn’t remember it. She also doesn’t remember talking to him while she was outside.
He decides to get an Ouija board so that what ever is haunting Katie can communicate with them. They put the camera on the Ouija board. Some movements are made with the board then a fire comes up on the board. A star was drawn inside of a circle.
He then says on the camera he will only use the camera for what Katie want, not to betray her trust, or offend the demon.
In the morning Micah looks a book to see what the symbol on the Ouija board means. She reiterates that the demon is after her.
He places powder outside the bedroom door to see if something is coming over night.
On night 17 noises are heard. The couple wakes up. There are foot steps in the powder Micah left. Additionally whatever it is created a big hole in the attic. Micah decides to investigate. He takes the camera with him. He finds a picture of Katie from when she was a kid at her old house in the attic. He looks on his computer feed and sees the footsteps being made. She wants to bring a profession into the house to investigate. She called Dr. Averies but he is out of town. Not knowing what else to do Katie calls Dr. Fredrichs.
On night 18 noises are heard and a light is turned off and the bedroom door is slammed shut. Loud noises are. Micah opens the door and Katie follows him with a camera. The noises continue and are louder. They go downstairs with the camera and see nothing.
In the morning some noises are made. A picture of the couple is broken. The glass over Micah’s face is dented in.
Dr. Fredrichs arrives and can tell things are worse. He tells them he cannot help them and that the demon is not happy that he is there. Dr. Fredrichs tells that Dr. Averies will be back in a few days. He says that leaving the house won’t help them.
On night 19, October 6, 2006, an invisible force lifts the sheets up from Katie. An invisible force turns on a light in the hall and makes some noises. The light is then turned off. Katie then hears something.
In the morning they look at the video footage and see that the invisible force lifted the sheets up by Katie.
He then uses a computer to look up Dianne, one of the possibilities for what the demon symbol was on the Ouija board. As it turns out Dianne had the exact type of haunting happen to her in the 1960s then Katie has experienced. She ended up calling an exorcist to take care of the problem. It appears that the same demon that haunted Dianne is haunting Katie.
On night 20, Katie is dragged out of bed by an invisible force and into the hallway and the door is slammed shut beside her. Micah follows her and she is screaming. He gets her back into the room. A nasty bite mark is left on the back of Katie by the demon.
They decide to spend the night in a hotel. Katie is gripping so hard on a crucifix that her hand is bleeding. Micah grabs the crucifix as well as the picture he found in the attic and throws it in a fire.
Micah wants to go. For some reason Katie wants to stay in the house. On night 21, October 8, 2006, noises are made. Once again Katie gets up in the middle of the night and stares at Micah. An invisible force takes sheets off of Micah as he is sleeping. Katie walks into a hall and screams incredibly loud. Micah wakes up and chases after her. Loud footsteps are heard coming up the hallway at Micah’s body is violently thrown into the camera. Katie slowly walks into the bedroom with her clothing covered in blood. She looks over the body of Micah. She then looks at the camera with an evil look on her face. Then a demonic look comes across her face and the screen turns to black.
It then says that “Micah’s body was discovered by police on October 11th, 2006. Katie’s whereabouts remain unknown.”
The plot for Paranormal Activity is cliché in several aspects. The same can be said for the script. The acting is alright. This film does have its scary moments, specifically the ending. That having been said for the most part this movie is not scary. Paranormal Activity earns negative 10 stars.
