Paranormal Activity

Saw Paranormal Activity. Being the colossal wimp that I am, I approached the film with great trepidation. Gimmicky sales techniques aside, it's a modern horror and thus chances of a jump scare are optimal. Well, I need not have worried. This film is the classier sort of horror, light on visceral adrenaline (thank god) and heavier on psychology. This is not to say it's a hoity-toity film in the mould of the 70s' morbid "horror"s. It deals with a young couple where the girl is apparently haunted. Everywhere she goes she has night terrors which get worse after her douchey boyfriend taunts the ghosts into further action. The ghosts only come out at night so, fellow fraidy cats, there is always ample warning for when to tense.

Though the jumps are not so sudden, the film instead cruelly tries to target exactly the kind of pedestrian, irrational fears of burglars and so forth that everyone has. A creak that could be an intruder, inexplicable open doors and sounds, a light turns on but nobody touched it, etc. It's the kind of thing that preys on your mind after the day is over. There's also of course the tether to the more prosaic horror of the deterioration of the couple's relationship. The boyfriend is fascinated and wants more tangible evidence of his girlfriend's haunting, the girl understandably wants to leave everything alone. The boyfriend resorts to a browbeating kind of bargaining with her and wears her down in the most petty and transparent ways. She alternates between being furious with him and begging him to stop. My sympathy is with her.

Anyway, the film is well put together. It uses the contrast of the supernatural happenings and the Ikea-pedestrian surroundings to great effect. Nobody can seriously believe in demons in the morning, sitting on their spotless, white, affluent couch drinking coffee from a colourful mug. But at night, half-asleep, everyone believes in monsters of some kind.