Paranormal Activity Leaves a Mark

Not since The Blair Witch Project has a movie forced so many unsuspecting viewers to sleep with the lights on

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Tossing and turning in my bed, alone at night, I kept imagining that some alter-dimension entity would tug my shielding blanket from my grip and then toss me around the room at its disposal. That's how I slept the night I paid 12 dollars and 50 cents to see Paranormal Activity at the only theatre in the city playing the do-it-yourself terror flick that was made for a reported $15,000.

Israeli-born filmmaker Oren Peli (2010's Area 51) directed, scripted and even edited his cinematic inauguration, which is being hailed as the suburban Blair Witch Project, due to their familiar style of shooting and techniques.

The one-time video game designer filmed the entire 86-minute movie at his own home in San Diego, using a hand-held home video camera to offshoot expenses and, of course, to induce an atmosphere of plausibility and authenticity.

Katie (Katie Featherston) is a college student living with her boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat), a day trader, in a humble 2-story tract house in the suburbs of San Diego. We learn that since the age of eight, Katie has been haunted by something that can't easily be explained away, but the malevolent entity comes and goes for any given period of time. Well, now it's back, and an unconvinced Micah is determined to capture its exsistance on his new video camera.

Over the coming weeks the demonic phenomena terrorizes the frazzled couple, tip-toeing on their nerves before menacing their--and the audience's--most internal fears, captured in a rawness that only amplifies the tension.

"[Oren] Peli preys on our humanistic vulnerabilities...and sets the tension for every ordeal with a minimalist musical note that arouses a parade of goose bumps before each fear-mongering climax"

Slamming doors, flickering lights and loud thuds in the middle of the night escalate into eerie visions caught on film when Micah decides to position his new camera on a tripod situated near the foot of their bed. Its abrupt ending was unsettling, not because it left loose ends, but rather because it stretched beyond just an ominous chill unlike almost any Hollywood creation in the "horror" section at your local Blockbuster. Its unnerving realism is its most sinister trait, proving that the director had done his homework in evoking fear out of an audience.

Like the filmmakers did with The Blair Witch Project, Peli cast unheard-of actors for Paranormal, and relied on their improvisational skills to gap the bulk of the film's dialogue. And, as in Blair Witch, onscreen scripture fills us in on the rest of the story, representing that this footage was found and is being screened for our own amusement, sorta. It's all very believable, almost too familiar for comfort, but right on target of Peli's overall view for the project.

Peli preys on our humanistic vulnerabilities, tests our imaginations to fill in what we never get to see, and sets the tension for every ordeal with a minimalist musical note that arouses a parade of goose bumps before every fear-mongering climax.

The hype that preceded Paranormal Activity's wide release was both credible and legit, enticing us as "one of the scariest movies of all time." I bought in, and so did $50 million worth of ticketholders (so far) who've made this sleeper hit one of the most profitable films in history. I can assure you that if you go see this movie you'll get what you came for. What I cannot assure you is that you'll get to sleep that night.

4 outta 5 stars

This review was originally posted on "I Heart Edmonton."
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WTF Book of the Month: Pet Sematary

"Death is a mystery, and burial a secret"

by Laura Gies

In honour of Halloween, this month’s WTF book is Pet Semetary (for anyone outraged by my poor spelling, this is how the title of the book is spelled) by Stephen King.

Best WTF moment: the possessed body of toddler Gage taunts and kills his elderly neighbour with a scalpel.

As creepy as zombies and other undead are, they are made exponentially more so when they started as adorable animals or cute kids. This is a technique King grasps in most of his novels. From the dead kids in It to the possessed dog in Cujo, to the lonely twin girls in The Shining (come play with us Danny, forever, and ever, and ever), evil lurking beneath seemingly benign characters are a frequent staple of a King novel. In Pet Semetary he manages to use both creepy kids and animals.

The horror in this story is the sympathy you feel for the protagonist, Louis Creed. His family is destroyed not through anything he did, but a simple accident, and the horrifying events that follow stem from his trying to put things back to rights. You see his descent into madness. There is no moral to this story, no “and then the sun came up and all was right with the world” ending. Things go from bad to worse, and Creed doesn’t learn the lesson imparted to the viewer, don’t mess with the dead. Instead, he blames timing or ritual, and tries again.

Not only is this a must-read for anyone that likes a good spine tingling horror, but also should be on the list of anyone that tries to keep up with pop culture references. The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror III featured an homage to this horror classic, as Bart and Lisa try to resurrect Snowball, instead bringing to life a cemetery full of Zombies to plague upon the residents of Springfield.

On the lighter side for a King novel (my copy weighs in at 411 pages), if you feel like getting in a nice creepy read before Halloween, it’s a good choice. Just remember, “death is a mystery, and burial is a secret.”

3 out of 5

Colorful and Dizzying: Coupland's jPod

The literary equivalent of that anime show that causes seizures?

By ASHLEY BLUNT

Douglas Coupland has a way of reaching into your head, grabbing at the muddled, half-expressed thoughts, ripping them out and then springing them onto you in the midst of his wild narratives as simplistic yet profound little jewels of expression. For example, the main character of jPod explains, "What I don't like is being exposed to unfiltered social contact, like at parties or meeting, when anyone can just talk to you with no other reason than that you happen to be there." That's exactly how I feel! Or, this statement, "People who advocate simplicity have money in the bank; the money came first, not the simplicity." Or perhaps even more true: "Most anger is justifiable."

My one complaint against jPod then, is that it seems like a collection of thoughts, reflections and observations on life stitched together by a loose narrative which at times seems cold and unfeeling, and other times like its in need of Ritalin. And perhaps this is the feel the book was intended to achieve: a vast swirl of colors, brand names, video game violence, the local drug trade, a very believable, not-at-all-lovey love story, typical Couplandian family dysfunction, a murder and a kidnapping, a rescue, China, your average office work day, all connected but disjointed, all leaving me with the feeling that I need to lie down for a while.

If you've never read Coupland, don't start here. Start with Generation X or, if you like a more traditional, chronological sort of story, maybe Girlfriend in a Coma. If you're a real Coupland fan, you've probably already plunged into jPod -afterall, it's been out long enough to be made into a Canadian TV flop, apparently. If you're somewhere in between, don't hesitate, just be warned: this novel is the literary equivalent of those pizzas with "all" the toppings, the ones that come with breakfast cereal sprinkled between the gorgonzola and strips of pollock. Which may or may not make you laugh, but will definitely make you think.

A First Look: V

Yes a remake of the 1983 miniseries

BY COLIN ENQUIST

ABC plans to bring V back to television. Starting on November 3rd, 2009, a re-imagining of the 1983 miniseries of the same name airs, 4 episodes will air in November before the show goes on a break until after the 2010 Winter Olympics. Originally created by Kenneth Johnson, the new series is produced by Scott Peters, Jace Hall, Steve Pearlman, and Jeffrey Bell. ABC president Steve McPherson also said, “We always intended to break the show up into ‘pods’ to make it more of an event.”

For those that do not know the premise of this series or the original, here is a breakdown. Giant spaceships appear over all major cities in the world, and Anna, a beautiful and charismatic leader of the extra-terrestrial “Visitors,” claims to come in peace. Small groups of humans start to doubt the sincerity of the Visitors. An FBI counter-terrorism agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell) discovers the aliens have spent decades infiltrating human governments and businesses, and are now in the final stages of their plan to take over Earth. Soon, Erica joins a resistance movement, which includes Ryan (Morris Chestnut), a Visitor sleeper agent who wants to save humanity. The resistance is in trouble when the aliens gain favour among many humans because they cure a variety of diseases.

Below is a 9 minute preview of the show. The pilot is already getting rave reviews. Maybe this show will be what FlashForward was intended to be?

Was Paranormal Activity the Scariest Movie Ever?

It sure warrants a debate!

BY COLIN ENQUIST

If you have been reading Stories in Medium the past couple of months, you would already know how excited I was to see Paranormal Activity. Paranormal Activity is the newest indie darling film to get a nation wide theatrical release, thanks to the 1 million people who clicked Paramount’s Demand It button. Also the horror film is just in time for the Halloween season too!

Oren Peli made this film on a minuscule budget of $15, 000. Part of the reason Paranormal Activity is selling out shows everywhere has to be the two stars of the film. The relative unknown, Katie Featherston (Mutation) and Micah Sloat, really are fantastic. You could easily put up an argument that neither will ever win an Academy Award but the outstanding chemistry the two have make up for any minor glitches in their performance. Featherston really does a wonderful job of playing a college student about to have a nervous breakdown.

A simple plot like Paranormal Activity’s causes possible ticket holders to question the hype the film has generated. The couple is being haunted by a demon, really Katie is being haunted and Micah is along for the ride. Micah is adamant that he can stop the entity and films the ordeal they are going through, never letting the camera out of his sight. The sluggish moving plot Peli has created is something we do not see enough of. As the demon begins to torment Katie and Micah more and more, the tension is leisurely starting to reach its boiling point.

Instead of using the overrated bag of tricks Hollywood is now obsessed with, Peli tests each viewer’s imagination by solidifying the presence of the invisible demon, off camera. Rattling the chandelier, moving the door or banging on the walls, slowly disturbs Katie and the audience. Micah still senses what is happening is unbelievable, even with the footage proving that something is fucking with them.

Suspense filled at first, Paranormal Activity begins to transform itself into the horror film the hype machine has created. With Micah provoking the demon while Katie is not around, the attacks he instigated get worse. This leads to a few truly terrifying nights for the couple. Who would have thought baby powder could be so scary?

I will not ruin the few moments that ring true to the hype, as the posters states, “Paranormal Activity is one of the scariest movies of all time. You will be affected as it’s hard to ignore the imprint it leaves on your psyche. Nightmares are guaranteed.”

For those that did not know, the ending has been changed from the original cut. It still keeps the same tone so it is not really a big change. Steven Spielberg is the apparent cause of the change and you can not really fault him for the switch. You can view the original ending here. Both are creepy, the theatrical cut evokes a more startling image for the audience but the original ending drives home the spine-chilling scares of the film that will sit in the back of your mind for the next few nights to come.

Personally, this film scared the shit out of me. It was not to the point that I had to walk out of the theatre like a few did. This film will be loved or hated; it will all depend on your imagination. Creepy, disturbing, terrifying, and tons of suspense make this film a must watch. If only Hollywood focused more on making films like this instead of seven Saw films (which I still adore to an extent) and counting! The Hurt Locker and Moon are the best films I have seen this year. Who would have thought a low budget horror film would also be grouped into this category.

4 out of 5

Image of the Week: October 26th, 2009

The Fourth Kind

This movie looks creepy as hell! Check it out in theatres near you on November 6th, 2009.