Paranormal Activity: Critic Reviews

With its this-is-really-happening vibe, Paranormal Activity scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare cliches. The fear is real, all right, because the fear is really in you.

It works best when it comes out of nowhere, because that's, in the end, where it goes.

This ingenious and often genuinely frightening film is a digital mocu-real nightmare.

This unsettling ultra-low-budget tale capitalizes on our innate fear of things that go bump in the night, and adds a supernatural element that will effectively terrorize even the toughest among us.

It's the sleeper hit that makes audiences too petrified to ever sleep again.

It's like watching a YouTube clip of your irritating neighbors, knee deep in muck, as they argue the effectiveness of plumbers.

Some wild moments make it all worth it.

The sizzle of the marketing is impressive; the steak of the actual movie, served bloody and rare and juicy, is even more so.

In the light of day, it's all very silly and conventional. But of course we're not talking about the light of day.

It illustrates one of my favorite points, that silence and waiting can be more entertaining than frantic fast-cutting and berserk f/x. For extended periods here, nothing at all is happening, and believe me, you won't be bored.

The climax is deliciously scary, and Peli gets considerable mileage from the simple matter of lights inexplicably going on in another room.

Peli is to be congratulated for pulling off such an audacious project, but he needs a sharper sense of timing: The film's pacing is uneven, which weakens the suspense.

Without financing, stars or more than a couple of special effects, first-time writer/director Olen Peli has made a diabolically effective essay in irrational horror.

Now that's horror.

Horror fans who value credible creepiness over the usual splatdom will welcome this.

Like legendary producer Val Lewton in the '40s, director Oren Peli, who shot Paranormal in seven days in his own home, understands that what's most frightening is what you don't see but merely suggested.

This is more fun than most studio horror films that drop into theaters most weekends. Is it scarier? Only occasionally.

The people most scared by Paranormal Activity may be the makers of high-priced special effects, who will have to explain to studio bosses how a kid with $15,000 and one or two cameras can create such effective terror.

Though it never poses a question more abstract than "Where's that scratching sound coming from?" Paranormal Activity is all about spiritual and ethical debts coming due.

The banality of the couple's day-to-day existence when they're not hearing unwelcome guests enhances the sense of realism, but it can be awfully trying for viewers who just want to get to the good stuff already.

Beyond the viral ingenuity of the marketing, what's cool about PA is that it's not just a fun thrill ride; it's an instructive artistic experience.

With a $15,000 budget too puny to empty a petty-cash drawer, the no-frills Paranormal Activity comes packed with thrills.

Peli works at mining the unknown, the unknowable, like a minimalist, using small moments and virtually no special effects exceedingly well.