Welcome.
I have decided to start a blog, throwing my opinions out there about the films I have the pleasure - and, sometimes, the displeasure - of seeing.
I believe this to be a brilliant idea, as I do seem to have A LOT of opinions (many would say I have TOO many).
People may - and will- disagree with me at times. By all means, feel free.
So here goes...
Monday 30 November 2009
Sunday 29 November 2009
Paranormal Activity
Right...
The marketing of this film did not prepare me for the huge letdown I gradually and more aggressively felt as the film rolled on. If this film is to win any awards it should be for exactly that, the marketing strategy. That is how it has been SO successful at the box office (also, by somehow getting Steven Spielberg to comment on how he had to wait until the day to finish watching the end - erm... why?).
I went along to the cinema hoping to be scared shitless (for lack of a better term). I had heard promising comments from people who had seen the film, saying they had to sleep with the light on afterwards and for the days that followed, that it was the scariest film they'd ever seen. These people did not help. This effect was completely lost on me. I can't help but compare it to other films from within found footage genre, most notably, The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999). Not only did this film shock and scare me 10 years ago, but I am still unable to watch this film alone today.
I really wanted to be scared, but it just never happened.
The narrative of Paranormal Activity is mundane, at best. The insert of Katie's back story to in some way strength the presence of "evil" was not very well executed, whether this was due to the unrealistic acting of the female protagonist or whether it, simply, just felt forced and full of cliques.
To go back to the acting; I feel the use of amateur actors was a bad move, not only was the acting not believable, it was also very annoyingly just that, amateur. I did not relate to them, I did not feel sympathy for them, in fact I hoped for their demise. The filmmaker probably wanted unknowns (not only to keep the budget as low as possible - each actor reportedly being paid $500 each) to play the couple in the hope that it felt more realistic, as thought the footage being viewed was in fact real (for instance, Michael Haneke's Funny Games (1997) in which this was very successful - please don't mention the US 2007 remake to me! Grrr). This failed, it only highlighted their acting "ability". Yes, "ability".
The only success, I felt, was the bedroom shot, whilst the video camera is static whilst the couple sleep. Keeping all doors open and in complete darkness was a brilliantly eerie notion, it's a shame the rest of the film in it's entirety wasn't as thrilling.
If anyone does want to see a film that lives up to it's hype, it's not Paranormal Activity you're after.
The marketing of this film did not prepare me for the huge letdown I gradually and more aggressively felt as the film rolled on. If this film is to win any awards it should be for exactly that, the marketing strategy. That is how it has been SO successful at the box office (also, by somehow getting Steven Spielberg to comment on how he had to wait until the day to finish watching the end - erm... why?).
I went along to the cinema hoping to be scared shitless (for lack of a better term). I had heard promising comments from people who had seen the film, saying they had to sleep with the light on afterwards and for the days that followed, that it was the scariest film they'd ever seen. These people did not help. This effect was completely lost on me. I can't help but compare it to other films from within found footage genre, most notably, The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999). Not only did this film shock and scare me 10 years ago, but I am still unable to watch this film alone today.
I really wanted to be scared, but it just never happened.
The narrative of Paranormal Activity is mundane, at best. The insert of Katie's back story to in some way strength the presence of "evil" was not very well executed, whether this was due to the unrealistic acting of the female protagonist or whether it, simply, just felt forced and full of cliques.
To go back to the acting; I feel the use of amateur actors was a bad move, not only was the acting not believable, it was also very annoyingly just that, amateur. I did not relate to them, I did not feel sympathy for them, in fact I hoped for their demise. The filmmaker probably wanted unknowns (not only to keep the budget as low as possible - each actor reportedly being paid $500 each) to play the couple in the hope that it felt more realistic, as thought the footage being viewed was in fact real (for instance, Michael Haneke's Funny Games (1997) in which this was very successful - please don't mention the US 2007 remake to me! Grrr). This failed, it only highlighted their acting "ability". Yes, "ability".
The only success, I felt, was the bedroom shot, whilst the video camera is static whilst the couple sleep. Keeping all doors open and in complete darkness was a brilliantly eerie notion, it's a shame the rest of the film in it's entirety wasn't as thrilling.
If anyone does want to see a film that lives up to it's hype, it's not Paranormal Activity you're after.
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