I agree. Went to see it at the cinema and came away feeling like I was a child again having been genuinely entertained at the cinema, suspended belief, rather than battered to death with subliminal messages, subplots, product placements, over egged special effects and massive (yet always badly used) budgets. It gave me hope that the true art of good mainstream cinema is not dead. My only criticism would be that although I didn't see what was coming, once the genie was out of the bottle it was a race to the end of the film really.Pete wrote:Moon was surprisingly entertaining.
Tonight I watched "Paranormal Activity". It was very straight forward. Unlike it's fore runner "Blair Witch" the trick of this film was the use of static camera as opposed to running blindly through the dark with just the audio and glimpses to build the tension. The majority of the film is shot at night, in a bedroom. 2 people in a bed and the camera locked off with a wide angle surveying the couple, the majority of the room and a darkened hallway / stairwell through an open bedroom door. For most of the time the only movement are the tossing and turning of the couple, plus the time which features in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and corresponds to the video (obviously).
The tension comes in two forms. 1) The sceptic, pain in the **** boyfriend who has recently let his girlfriend move in. She in turn has only just come clean to the strange things that have occurred at night at various points throughout her life. His part is really to act as the audience barometer and fall guy. He creates the tension by pushing his girlfriend, who is increasingly alarmed and afraid of the events. He initially takes none of it seriously. 2) Basic psychology. We are all afraid of the dark, we are all fearful of the invasion of our privacy, our home and most importantly our bed. Turn off the lights, have things start to bump around in your hallway then you instantly connect with practically everyone on the planet. The greatest fear is clearly the fear of the unknown source of all the night time disturbances.
The wife and eldest daughter were terrified and both thought it was the scariest film they had ever seen. I think division in life will be the same division found in the film, i.e. the guys will merely laugh it off, if somewhat nervously.
On the whole, it wasn't as clumsy as "Blair Witch", but I personally still feel the BW is an exceptional film. It was a lot slicker than I was expecting, plus this is clearly a re-edited version. Something tells me that a "Directors Cut" will be on the offing and make this budget film a huge pot of cash.
The lead actress, Angela Bettis, plays the part 70% of the time like Johnny knoxsville's charachter in the ringer: 
strange strange film!!
Passed the time though, Not a bad twist at the end, Reminded me a bit of (The Cube).