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We may need to disagree on this one, but I will give it one more try. Really read my words this time..Look, I have seen "The Shining" in its many forms and I do love the movie (the orginial anyways), there are many positive things about it from a filmakers point of view, but it is outshone by Paranormal for a couple diffrent reasons.
First of all, PA was shot in 10 days for 11K! And is a film that actually imho managed to do what many hollywood "horror" films do not nowadays and that was make the audience use their imagination a bit. Stephen King once said that nothing the author or filmmaker can show you in regards to "what's on the other side of the door" is ever as scary as what the reader, viewer's imagination can produce. I agree with him. This is why some films like ALIEN work, and the first 2/3 of Jaws, (admit it, as great a film as JAWS is, once you see the shark prominently towards the end, it really diminishes) Even “The Shining” you KNOW what the bad guy looks like.
For me and many others, PA worked because what I dredged up in my imagination was really scary. And for the following 2 nights at home, it still did it's trick. Now this kind of film really relies on what the viewer brings to it. And you are right, unfortunately the promotion and media hype can be over the top
I saw it opening night roughly 90% of the audience was really scared. Shrieking, Jumping. Yelling. Talking back to the screen and on the edge of their seat, it was a rollercoaster ride. I have NEVER experienced that in a movie theater before during a "horror" film.
Every night when the characters went to bed, you could hear a pin drop. That was what worked, the expectation, the wait, the buildup. But once again, it's what the audience brought to the table. Sure, if ANY person or movie claims, "This is the SCARIEST movie ever!" you could easily go in with the attitude of "yeah? Let's see!" and invariably be disappointed. I saw that happen firsthand in "The Exorcist: The version you've never seen" when it was released and billed on the poster as "The scariest movie ever!" I saw it, same great spooky film as ever but there were a bunch of high school kids making fun of it the whole time and when it was over said, "THAT was the scariest film ever? That sucked!" Did it suck? No.
What would make PA scarier? Seeing the demon? imho that would ruin it. Anyways, hopefully the wake up call to Hollywood was that a tiny low budget, no star cast, no cgi, no gore, no nudity little film got better reviews and made MUCH more $ than the latest SAW, HOSTEL, Zombie, torture porn POS that Hollywood has been cranking out for years.
Is PA a classic? No. But for what it was, it did a damn good job and shook things up.
I think we will have to disagree here. I didn't go into the movie with many expectations, but one of them, was to be somewhat scared-- or at least to be somewhat nervous. Another expectation was for it to be something new-- maybe something different? Sadly, I was disappointed. The whole theater laughed most of the way through it. I do agree- the atmosphere I watched it in wasn't very good-- but that didn't make up for the poor acting, boring plot, and silliness of it all. And yes, this movie has been done time and time again. Go watch Poltergeist-- much scarier bedroom scenes in that movie. There were some scenes in PA that I thought-- Oh man-- now its finally going to get good-- it will finally be scary. But it wasn't. It just fell flat. And I don't believe you need to see the "demon" or whatever to make a movie scarier. The fact is, the movie was just okay.
Now lets compare it to Saw. A movie that was filmed on less of a budget and in a short time as well (18 days)... Lets not try to relate Saw to Hostel because those two movies have literally nothing in common as far as character development and plot (hostel sucks in my opinion). Saw opened up a new genre of horror that hadn't been approached before. PA didn't open up any new genres... it was just the same old ghost story over again. (And there are tons of movies with ghosts in the bedroom). Saw's ending was much better and even though the acting in the original Saw was pretty bad-- I believe its acting was better than the acting in PA. Overall-- they made 7 Saw movies (seventh to be released soon). PA probably won't last more than 2 (they are currently making a sequel). When I left the theater after seeing Saw, the audience was stunned, just absolutely shocked and amazed at the movie and the ending. When I left the theater after seeing PA, the audience was angry and most of them wanted their money back.
Not trying to be offensive-- this is just my opinion.
But I do understand the atmosphere you saw it in. I heard the 12 midnight showings were the best for PA. However, to be a good horror movie it should be scary-- no matter when or where you watch it.
I probably would have enjoyed PA more if I was watching it alone, in my bedroom, at 1 AM.
We may need to disagree on this one, but I will give it one more try. Really read my words this time..Look, I have seen "The Shining" in its many forms and I do love the movie (the orginial anyways), there are many positive things about it from a filmakers point of view, but it is outshone by Paranormal for a couple diffrent reasons.
First of all, PA was shot in 10 days for 11K! And is a film that actually imho managed to do what many hollywood "horror" films do not nowadays and that was make the audience use their imagination a bit. Stephen King once said that nothing the author or filmmaker can show you in regards to "what's on the other side of the door" is ever as scary as what the reader, viewer's imagination can produce. I agree with him. This is why some films like ALIEN work, and the first 2/3 of Jaws, (admit it, as great a film as JAWS is, once you see the shark prominently towards the end, it really diminishes) Even “The Shining” you KNOW what the bad guy looks like.
For me and many others, PA worked because what I dredged up in my imagination was really scary. And for the following 2 nights at home, it still did it's trick. Now this kind of film really relies on what the viewer brings to it. And you are right, unfortunately the promotion and media hype can be over the top
I saw it opening night roughly 90% of the audience was really scared. Shrieking, Jumping. Yelling. Talking back to the screen and on the edge of their seat, it was a rollercoaster ride. I have NEVER experienced that in a movie theater before during a "horror" film.
Every night when the characters went to bed, you could hear a pin drop. That was what worked, the expectation, the wait, the buildup. But once again, it's what the audience brought to the table. Sure, if ANY person or movie claims, "This is the SCARIEST movie ever!" you could easily go in with the attitude of "yeah? Let's see!" and invariably be disappointed. I saw that happen firsthand in "The Exorcist: The version you've never seen" when it was released and billed on the poster as "The scariest movie ever!" I saw it, same great spooky film as ever but there were a bunch of high school kids making fun of it the whole time and when it was over said, "THAT was the scariest film ever? That sucked!" Did it suck? No.
What would make PA scarier? Seeing the demon? imho that would ruin it. Anyways, hopefully the wake up call to Hollywood was that a tiny low budget, no star cast, no cgi, no gore, no nudity little film got better reviews and made MUCH more $ than the latest SAW, HOSTEL, Zombie, torture porn POS that Hollywood has been cranking out for years.
Is PA a classic? No. But for what it was, it did a damn good job and shook things up.
I do admit that Paranormal Activity was scary at first. The camera angle down the hallway is a classic, that feeling that something is going to walk by (like the scene in Sixth Sense with the bathroom door behind him), and you're just tense and waiting. That squirmy "Oooooh, something's going to happen!" wore off after time, though, and there were a few things about the movie that were distractingly nonsensical. For starters,
Spoiler
if I were afraid of something outside of my room, I'D SHUT THE DOOR.
The first half of the movie was thrilling and intense, I felt.
I'm a total scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies, I still have nightmares about The Exorcist. That said, I was very nervous about watching Paranormal Activity as that genre(sp?) really freaks me out. However, PA didn't scare me AT ALL, I just didn't get what all the fuss was about. I thought it was boring and completely unrealistic in how the characters dealt with their "issue". Hey, different strokes, right?! I loved the original Halloween, and yes(don't laugh), I loved Blair Witch-totally freaked me out! Plus, Blair was very original at the time. Duel was great too.
I'm a total scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies, I still have nightmares about The Exorcist. That said, I was very nervous about watching Paranormal Activity as that genre(sp?) really freaks me out. However, PA didn't scare me AT ALL, I just didn't get what all the fuss was about. I thought it was boring and completely unrealistic in how the characters dealt with their "issue". Hey, different strokes, right?! I loved the original Halloween, and yes(don't laugh), I loved Blair Witch-totally freaked me out! Plus, Blair was very original at the time. Duel was great too.
The Exorcist is the only movie that really scared the heck out of me. I was afraid of it for months afterwords. That was a great movie.
Salem's Lot!! One of the most horrific looking vampires ever!
Also the scene where the old doctor hears something upstairs, opens the door and this newly turned vampire is sitting slowly rocking back & forth.. "LOOK AT ME DOCTOR!! LOOOOOK AT ME!!!" in this slavering gravely voice... almost stopped my heart!!!
Stephen King once said that nothing the author or filmmaker can show you in regards to "what's on the other side of the door" is ever as scary as what the reader, viewer's imagination can produce.
I partially agree with that. But still, no amount of imagination can make up for a true disturbing image that somebody else has planted in your mind.
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