Paranormal Activity (or supernatural failure?)
Raging Indy success Paranormal Activity first came to my attention in 2007, amidst a slew of debatable Saw movies and hashed Hollywood remakes; in horror-movie terms the concept—malevolent spirit terrorizes a couple in their own home and is caught committing devious acts on home-video while said couple are asleep—sounded like a winning formula that couldn’t go wrong if it tried. But: I knew better than to take such information at face value! As a horror film lover repeatedly let down by the oh-so-apparently-terrifying trend of recent scary efforts—not to mention consistently embarrassed with defending his beloved genre to his many disbelieving friends—I was unwilling to believe the hype, at least until the film had undergone rigorous scrutiny at the hands of the international press, a ruthless gang of trusty reviewers with hundreds of years of experience between them: experts who wouldn’t let me down.
Six months or so later and Paranormal Activity fell off the map almost completely; word on the street was that the film wouldn’t get a world-wide release and there was even talk of the ‘scariest film ever made’ being shelved for good. Then something intriguing started to happen; Paranormal Activity was everywhere, all at once. And the buzz was that the film was actually really good. So, when the anomalous film finally obtained a UK general release in late November 2009, after several years of sustained excellent press and freakishly encouraging reviews, I—and I think it’s fair to say everyone else who was there when it all started, too—expected something extra special and was confident that Paranormal Activity wasn’t about to let me down. In the end it transpired that the most amazing thing about Paranormal Activity was the marketing. While no-one can argue that the film will send a shiver down the spine of even the most hardened film-goer, it simply can’t cut it against other classic psychological masterpieces such as The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby.
Just came across this online competition where the prize is some time at one of my favourite ski chalets. Everyone should really put your names forward, this would be a wonderful way to spend a bit of the winter and getting over this damn cold I have!
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