It Would be Scarier if I Actually Believed It
Ah, hype, a movie's best friend and worst enemy. Not enough, and the film can't drum up an audience. Too much, and a backlash develops that can lead to some pretty nasty comments and reviews.
Remember when The Blair Witch Project was so new that there was still a lot of talk -- even, briefly, amongst legitimate news outlets -- about whether the allegedly "lost and found" footage was real? I really wish I had seen it during that moment when everyone was arguing and asking whether it was authentic. Try to imagine how horrified you'd be if you actually thought you really might be watching the last few days of those hapless documentarians, with no explanation for the bizarre events that plague them. Whether you love the movie or hate it, you have to admit that the concept behind creating such uncertainty was itself brilliant.
Of course, once you figure out (or know from the beginning) the truth, there's just no putting that genie back in the bottle. As the first "reality horror movie" The Blair Witch Project's revelation as a hoax honed our skepticism and, to an extent, ruined it for all of the imitators to follow. (Then again, that's what they get for imitating, dammit!!) You can put yourself in the proper mood and suspend your disbelief all you want, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you can't help but remember it's only a movie.
Still, independent filmmaker Oren Peli and his producers did make a decent effort to capture that lightning in a bottle a second time, with his haunted house story, Paranormal Activity. Like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity claims to be comprised entirely of authentic footage shot by amateurs, chronicling actual paranormal activity. Does it fool us? Of course not. Even The Blair Witch Project didn't fool most of us for too long, and in Blair Witch's shadow, Paranormal Activity's chances for success as another successful hoax are almost nil. But does Paranormal Activity scare us? Obviously, that depends on who you are and what tingles your particular spine. Personally, I found parts of it to be creepy, but too much of it to be over the top for it to build up any genuine suspense. The concept of the time-lapse camera is novel, but effective only if you actually believe you're watching real footage, and results in a lot of staring at nothing until Peli finally (falsely) concludes that he's let enough time pass by to build tension.
Personally, I prefer Paranormal Entity. Yes, it's an unabashed rip-off of the other film, and yes, it was made by admitted schlock-making studio the Asylum (now trying to segue into a name-change, "the Global Asylum," possibly as a half-hearted attempt to distance itself from its reputation). But this is one type of film that even low-budget studios like the Asylum would be challenged to screw up, at least based on production values; the whole point of the concept is that there aren't any production values, it's just a few amateurs with a camera. I found the characters of Paranormal Entity to be more believable than the characters in the film that inspired it; the Activity characters were a bit too "actory" to be believable, while the characters in Entity do present a more believable family dynamic, with the brother, sister, and mother alternately supporting each other and getting on each other's nerves.
Paranormal Entity (that's the rip-off; considering the similarity of the titles, I just thought I'd remind you of which one I was talking about) also has a better back story. The back story in Activity is that the couple has only recently moved in together, and Micah, who initially believes that they are both flummoxed by the paranormal activity, only gradually realizes that his girlfriend has actually been plagued by such activity all her life. Director/ writer Peli try to present this twist as a betrayal on her part, because, as Micah is right to point out, Katie should have told him about this before he moved in with her. But the problem is that this back story leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and outright contradicts some of what happens later in the story. The biggest unanswered question is, why have events escalated so enormously, and why now? It's alright for a movie to raise questions, of course, but only if it communicates an idea that there are answers, and we just may not be aware of them. That's not the impression one gets from Paranormal Activity, though; it just feels like Peli was making it up as he went along.
In the rip-off Paranormal Entity, however, it's clear early on that the family is relatively new to the supernatural. Beloved father and husband David died about a year ago, and his grief-stricken widow started talking to him, and then writing to him, as if he could answer. This was more of a coping technique rather than an attempt to actually communicate with David, but a visiting parapsychologist explains that writing to the dead can, theoretically, invite not only the spirit of the addressee, but other, darker spirits as well. Even before the events of the film start, this family quickly learns there's nothing theoretical about that theory. Entity's partial explanation for the haunting is a satisfaction that Paranormal Activity sorely lacks. (The question "does a story about a haunting really need an explanation?" is a question only in theory; a comparison of these two films provides a pretty solid answer.)
Paranormal Entity is skilled at how it gradually builds toward the conclusion that something supernatural is inarguably occurring. At first, as scared as the family is, they are aware that imagination, nightmares, sleep paralysis, and sleep walking could explain a lot of the weird stuff that's going on. However, by the time events escalate beyond explantions involving sleep dysfunctions -- objects moving by themselves, for example -- no one is surprised.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King's examination of the horror genre, King theorizes that the most effective horror often partially relies on a sense of moral offense. I'm not entirely sure I agree with him, but Paranormal Entity is a good argument in favor of King's theory, as the horror does seem to be heightened by the implicit offense made by the entity stalking the Finley family: to get into our world, it "piggy-backed" on the more benevolent, weaker spirit of their beloved David, and initially led the family to believe that David himself was responsible for the weird goings-on, until they are forced to conclude on their own that their beloved father and husband could never be responsible for the more violent acts. This adds a mostly unspoken layer of emotional turmoil to the family's suffering -- an effective narrative technique that adds a level of subtlety miles away from the inferior but more widely known Paranormal Activity. (And believe me, I never thought I'd describe an Asylum picture as "layered" or "subtle.") This point is driven home (but still uncommented on by dialogue -- a nice touch) in one scene about midway through, which I found to be the scariest part of the film.
So what's the final analysis? As I have indicated, both films suffer from Blair Witch syndrome, depending too much on earnest "this really happened" false sincerity that was old almost when it was new. But I'm honestly not sure how much the makers of any of these films honestly expect audiences to believe in the authenticity of the events depicted. Judged on their own merits, both Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Entity are worth checking out despite their flaws. But if you ask which is scarier -- and which has the better story -- the cheap knock-off Entity wins hands down.
Remember when The Blair Witch Project was so new that there was still a lot of talk -- even, briefly, amongst legitimate news outlets -- about whether the allegedly "lost and found" footage was real? I really wish I had seen it during that moment when everyone was arguing and asking whether it was authentic. Try to imagine how horrified you'd be if you actually thought you really might be watching the last few days of those hapless documentarians, with no explanation for the bizarre events that plague them. Whether you love the movie or hate it, you have to admit that the concept behind creating such uncertainty was itself brilliant.
Of course, once you figure out (or know from the beginning) the truth, there's just no putting that genie back in the bottle. As the first "reality horror movie" The Blair Witch Project's revelation as a hoax honed our skepticism and, to an extent, ruined it for all of the imitators to follow. (Then again, that's what they get for imitating, dammit!!) You can put yourself in the proper mood and suspend your disbelief all you want, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you can't help but remember it's only a movie.
Still, independent filmmaker Oren Peli and his producers did make a decent effort to capture that lightning in a bottle a second time, with his haunted house story, Paranormal Activity. Like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity claims to be comprised entirely of authentic footage shot by amateurs, chronicling actual paranormal activity. Does it fool us? Of course not. Even The Blair Witch Project didn't fool most of us for too long, and in Blair Witch's shadow, Paranormal Activity's chances for success as another successful hoax are almost nil. But does Paranormal Activity scare us? Obviously, that depends on who you are and what tingles your particular spine. Personally, I found parts of it to be creepy, but too much of it to be over the top for it to build up any genuine suspense. The concept of the time-lapse camera is novel, but effective only if you actually believe you're watching real footage, and results in a lot of staring at nothing until Peli finally (falsely) concludes that he's let enough time pass by to build tension.
Personally, I prefer Paranormal Entity. Yes, it's an unabashed rip-off of the other film, and yes, it was made by admitted schlock-making studio the Asylum (now trying to segue into a name-change, "the Global Asylum," possibly as a half-hearted attempt to distance itself from its reputation). But this is one type of film that even low-budget studios like the Asylum would be challenged to screw up, at least based on production values; the whole point of the concept is that there aren't any production values, it's just a few amateurs with a camera. I found the characters of Paranormal Entity to be more believable than the characters in the film that inspired it; the Activity characters were a bit too "actory" to be believable, while the characters in Entity do present a more believable family dynamic, with the brother, sister, and mother alternately supporting each other and getting on each other's nerves.
Paranormal Entity (that's the rip-off; considering the similarity of the titles, I just thought I'd remind you of which one I was talking about) also has a better back story. The back story in Activity is that the couple has only recently moved in together, and Micah, who initially believes that they are both flummoxed by the paranormal activity, only gradually realizes that his girlfriend has actually been plagued by such activity all her life. Director/ writer Peli try to present this twist as a betrayal on her part, because, as Micah is right to point out, Katie should have told him about this before he moved in with her. But the problem is that this back story leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and outright contradicts some of what happens later in the story. The biggest unanswered question is, why have events escalated so enormously, and why now? It's alright for a movie to raise questions, of course, but only if it communicates an idea that there are answers, and we just may not be aware of them. That's not the impression one gets from Paranormal Activity, though; it just feels like Peli was making it up as he went along.
In the rip-off Paranormal Entity, however, it's clear early on that the family is relatively new to the supernatural. Beloved father and husband David died about a year ago, and his grief-stricken widow started talking to him, and then writing to him, as if he could answer. This was more of a coping technique rather than an attempt to actually communicate with David, but a visiting parapsychologist explains that writing to the dead can, theoretically, invite not only the spirit of the addressee, but other, darker spirits as well. Even before the events of the film start, this family quickly learns there's nothing theoretical about that theory. Entity's partial explanation for the haunting is a satisfaction that Paranormal Activity sorely lacks. (The question "does a story about a haunting really need an explanation?" is a question only in theory; a comparison of these two films provides a pretty solid answer.)
Paranormal Entity is skilled at how it gradually builds toward the conclusion that something supernatural is inarguably occurring. At first, as scared as the family is, they are aware that imagination, nightmares, sleep paralysis, and sleep walking could explain a lot of the weird stuff that's going on. However, by the time events escalate beyond explantions involving sleep dysfunctions -- objects moving by themselves, for example -- no one is surprised.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King's examination of the horror genre, King theorizes that the most effective horror often partially relies on a sense of moral offense. I'm not entirely sure I agree with him, but Paranormal Entity is a good argument in favor of King's theory, as the horror does seem to be heightened by the implicit offense made by the entity stalking the Finley family: to get into our world, it "piggy-backed" on the more benevolent, weaker spirit of their beloved David, and initially led the family to believe that David himself was responsible for the weird goings-on, until they are forced to conclude on their own that their beloved father and husband could never be responsible for the more violent acts. This adds a mostly unspoken layer of emotional turmoil to the family's suffering -- an effective narrative technique that adds a level of subtlety miles away from the inferior but more widely known Paranormal Activity. (And believe me, I never thought I'd describe an Asylum picture as "layered" or "subtle.") This point is driven home (but still uncommented on by dialogue -- a nice touch) in one scene about midway through, which I found to be the scariest part of the film.
So what's the final analysis? As I have indicated, both films suffer from Blair Witch syndrome, depending too much on earnest "this really happened" false sincerity that was old almost when it was new. But I'm honestly not sure how much the makers of any of these films honestly expect audiences to believe in the authenticity of the events depicted. Judged on their own merits, both Paranormal Activity and Paranormal Entity are worth checking out despite their flaws. But if you ask which is scarier -- and which has the better story -- the cheap knock-off Entity wins hands down.
posted by Movie Man at
4:50 AM
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