"A Nightmare on Main Street"
by Scott Mantz

"Paranormal Activity"
Micah Sloat, Katie Featherston
Directed by Oren Peli

The Haunting! A young couple experiences "Paranormal Activity"

Psst!  Wanna see something really scary?  Then by all means, find the nearest theater playing “Paranormal Activity,” and rush out to see it as soon as humanly possible.  This is one seriously scary movie, and the full effect of how terrifying it is won't even hit you until 3am, when you're jolted awake by the things that go bump in the night.

That's because “Paranormal Activity” reinforces your biggest fears -- fears that you might have had earlier in your life, but later buried into your subconscious (or thought you did).  You know the type: dark rooms, closing doors, creaking floors, breaking glass, shadows on the wall, lights that turn on by themselves -- all of which are completely validated by this 86 minute film.

Remarkably effective for a low-budgeted indie that was directed by a first-timer (Oren Peli), features novice actors (Micah Sloat, Katie Featherston) and cost just $11,000 to make.  That's even less than “The Blair Witch Project,” the breakout hit from 1999 that “Paranormal Activity” will be most compared to -- for obvious reasons, though “Paranormal” is the scarier of the two.

For starters, both movies tell their stories using “found” home video footage.  In this case, Micah and Katie, who have been dating for three years, live together in a San Diego suburb and suspect that their house may be haunted.  Turns out it is, and Micah can prove it with his new video camera.

What that camera captures late at night, while Micah and Katie are sound asleep (or try to be), is startling.  At first, it seems relatively harmless, as their bedroom door moves back and forth a few inches.  Micah doesn't take it seriously, even after Katie reveals that she has a past history with hauntings.

But as the movie progresses, so does the tension.  One night, Katie is captured standing still at the foot of her bed for two full hours with no memory of it, and on another, she is dragged across the floor by an unseen entity.  Twenty-one days pass with incidents more terrifying than the last, until all hell finally breaks loose.

As with “Blair Witch,” everything is told from the point of view of the home video camera.  We see what Micah and Katie shoot, even when they frantically point the camera in every direction in a fit of panic (which may cause headaches).  But it makes sense that they would shoot everything, since they're using the light on the camera to find their way around their darkened home.

“Paranormal Activity” is a testament to how genuinely effective and scary a movie can be without relying on all the usual horror clichés, a big budget and enormous bloodshed.  It earns every one of its goosebumps, and you're bound to feel the bone-chilling after-effects long after the house lights come up.  At that point, the movie may be over, but brace yourself: the nightmares are about to begin.

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