October Fright Fest: The Paranormal Activity Films
Halloween may be one day, but I celebrate the entire month of October by watching as many horror movies as possible. Forsaking other genres for spooky, scary thrills, and filling the month with films I haven’t seen or haven’t seen in a while. So, let’s grab some popcorn, turn off the lights, and get our fright on with the Paranormal Activity films!
When the first Paranormal Activity came out in 2007, I was a bit tired of found-footage horror flicks, so I passed. After watching some found footage earlier this month, I realized it was the right time for me to watch the entire Paranormal Activity franchise, which I did over two days.
The films are about two sisters, Katie and Kristi, and the demonic entity that has been attached to them since they were kids. While many found-footage horror flicks take almost a third of the time to get to the good stuff, I enjoyed not having to wait 20 minutes for the first bump in the night to happen with the cameras there to record it all. The first three films have plausible reasons to have cameras constantly recording. In Paranormal Activity, Micah (Micah Sloat) bought a camera because Katie (Katie Featherston) hears things at night. In Paranormal Activity 2 (2010), the Rey home is trashed, prompting Daniel (Brian Boland) to have security cameras installed. Julie’s (Lauren Bittner) boyfriend Dennis (Chris Smith) is a wedding videographer, so when strange things start to happen in Paranormal Activity 3 (2011), it makes since he would want to record the events. Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) starts with Wyatt’s (Aiden Lovekamp) soccer game being taped, but the reasons why Ben (Matt Shively) and Alex (Kathryn Newton) keep filming during the time before Robbie (Brady Allen) comes to stay isn’t clear. Because they don’t have a reason to film, the teens are messing around, resulting in a lot of shaky shots until they rig the computers to record. Although PA4 has the weakest reason to start recording events, the film has one of the most memorable visuals: the Kinect tracking dots.
Paranormal Activity has successfully constructed a mythology based on a few lines in the first film. Katie tells Micah that she had incidents off and on since she was young. From there, the franchise has built a story about why the demon has targeted the girls. In PA3, we learn that the demon was likely attached to the girls on purpose by their grandmother. We’re told it is the same demon, but we know it is by the actions and sounds. The entity has a pattern of escalation in each film. Bumps, scratches, and opening doors signal the beginning and eventually the entity pulls, bites, and throws victims against walls. The low rumble lets us know the demon is the one behind everything. The films don’t have a score. The same sound effects are used from film to film because the threat is the same from film to film. Keeping the sound consistent heightens the terror because we understand how persistent, driven, and obsessed the demon is.
After watching the four films, I realize why they are very popular. They are just plain scary. The footprints in the powder and the covers pulled off the bed (PA1), Abby the dog being attacked and the baby being lifted out of the crib (PA2), the figure covered in the sheet standing behind the babysitter and all of the items in the kitchen gone then falling suddenly (PA3), and Alex being lifted off of her bed and an invisible figure moving through the Kinect dots (PA4) are moments that made me jump in my chair. People standing and watching people sleep, kids talking to something off camera, and the possessed faces of Katie and Kristi are very creepy elements that happen in different films. Each time someone got grabbed and dragged around the house terrified me. I was skeptical if the series could keep the story and the scares from feeling repetitive and trite, but the filmmakers have delivered quality shocks and suspense in each film. I’m late to the party, but I’m a fan now, and I’m eager to see where the filmmakers take the story in Paranormal Activity 5, which is scheduled to be released next year.