Paranormal Activity: Blair Witch '09?

I think the trailer will somewhat ruin the film for you. If you plan on seeing it this year, I recommend you skip the youtube trailers.




So my buddy at work insists I get on the internet, and check out this new low budget horror movie. He tells me that it cost $11,000 to make($15,000 according to wiki), and he says it freaks the audience out, Spielberg thinks the film is haunted, we might have to see it.

Tonight, I finally get around to getting on the youtube, I check out the videos I posted above. I call B.S. This partial trailer thing look dumb, and this so-called freaked out audience look like these kids who annoys me by hollering, overreacting, regardless of the type of movie playing. I was not impressed, but I decided to head over to rottentomatoes.com
to see how it was rated, and this startled me more than anything I saw in the trailer:

Critics approval - 88%

Joe Blow approval - 78%

This is unusually high for an horror film, especially for an low-budget one.

I call my buddy, I told him about the ratings, and he's just as surprised as I was. Little bit excited. Some of us are going to go see it next week. Has anyone seen it? Even if you haven't, what's your take on this unique little film?

From what I've heard, it's more of a movie that plays mind-games than any actual horror. It apparently, just does a really, really good job of making your mind believe there's actually something there.

People who have absolutly no belief in ghosts whatsoever are supposed to "love" this.

McLaren

People who have absolutly no belief in ghosts whatsoever are supposed to "love" this.

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I don't believe, or disbelieve, but I always try to get in the mood movies. I gotta pretty good feeling about this one so far.....

I went to see it. Couple of shows were actually sold out, which is something I hadn't seen in awhile. When we arrived at the only theater in the area that carried this film, the place literally looked like high school. We left. But after hanging out at friend's apartment, watching TV, we decided to go see it anyway on their last showing, which was 12:01.

My take on the film is that it did not live up to the hype. When the film was done, there were couple of people voicing how dumb they thought it was, but you gotta expect that from few people on a film like this.

For what it is, I think they did an excellent job. Like the Blair Witch, I found the acting to be almost passable to be real life. Almost believable. Especially the ghost psychic, that was some superb acting. 👍 Simple special effects were very effective, very creepy. My headache didn't like the shaky cam at times, but I didn't think it was that bad.

Wikipedia mentions a story about how Spielberg supposedly thought the sample DVD he saw of this movie was haunted, as he was locked up in the room he was viewing the film, and I think he threw away the DVD? I have no idea if the story is true, and if anything, my money would be on that the story is a PR. But even if you are not gullible, the last "turn" of the film, the last part of the film, it will creep you out.

This film did not scare me at all. Over 90% of the film was more boring than scary. But at this point, I'm thinking it was by design. Because of the ordinary pace for the most of the story, when something does happen in spots, you find yourself paying full attention. Two parts where she's standing by the bed in the middle of the night, that, to me is scarier than any splatter films. And when the film does take the turn for "scary" in the end, it is very effective. I still nearly get the chills just thinking about the ending.

I can see why people rate this film so highly. I must do the same, considering these two points: 1) Low budget/Indie 2) Superbly done, considering the genre it's in, where 99% are pure garbage.

My take on this film would be to not expect a home run going to see this movie. But for a Halloween movie night out, I don't think you can do much better than this. 👍

Saw it last week, and it's the only movie besides Blairwitch to creep me out, but I personally think Blairwitch is better.

Just saw it. Review here.

Didn't like it one bit. Inevitably this movie will be compared to Blair Witch and I think that one did a much better job at portraying it like a real event. Truth be told, the gist of both these movies is that they're supposedly real and that what you're watching is footage that was "found". I think BWP is much better at making you feel scared, though it may also be because I didn't feel scared at all from PA. My review of it clears that up pretty much.

Tom Servo

Just saw it. Review here.

Didn't like it one bit. Inevitably this movie will be compared to Blair Witch and I think that one did a much better job at portraying it like a real event. Truth be told, the gist of both these movies is that they're supposedly real and that what you're watching is footage that was "found". I think BWP is much better at making you feel scared, though it may also be because I didn't feel scared at all from PA. My review of it clears that up pretty much.

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Blair Witch project had the benefit of a massive ridiculous marketing project to support. Having watched BWP some 2 years after its' release and hype died, I found myself excruciatingly bored throughout the entirety of the film.