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Title: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: TheFuriousWombat on 04 Oct 2009, 16:32
Anyone seen this? The previews look pretty cool. From what I've read, it's one of the better horror films in a long time, not relying on CG or crazy gore effects to "scare" people. Instead, it's subtle, minimal, and actually, well, scary. Which would be nice, for a change, from a recent horror film. In any case, I wanna take this really cool girl to see it and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile. Thoughts?
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 05 Oct 2009, 00:04
Milla Jovovonovich stars. I'm already there.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: TheFuriousWombat on 06 Oct 2009, 17:02
Huh? Pretty sure you're thinking of a different movie.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 06 Oct 2009, 17:16
saw a preview for this last night for the first time; looks interesting.

i didn't hear anything about Milla Jovovich being in it but then again it was a pretty short trailer. if she is in it though, consider me all  fucking over it.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Cartilage Head on 06 Oct 2009, 20:20
She's not. I don't know, lthis movie ooks like another uncreative BOO-fest. Plus I am kind of tired of the "found film" thing, although I loved Home Movie.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 06 Oct 2009, 21:06
Oops, I confused it with this movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220198/)
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: KvP on 08 Oct 2009, 19:55
AV Club says yes (http://www.avclub.com/articles/paranormal-activity,33858/), and I trust them dudes.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 09 Oct 2009, 01:31
The commercials are awful but the movie seems like it could be good. Any time a trailer shows audience reactions instead of, oh let's think, the movie I get angry.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Blue Kitty on 09 Oct 2009, 21:06
I don't know, watching other people freak out doesn't make me want to see a movie.   Plus I'm also tired of, "This is real we just found it"
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: TheFuriousWombat on 10 Oct 2009, 11:34
So I went and saw this last night. It was surprisingly pretty cool. Very unsettling, genuinely frightening at several points. It was well acted and Pelli obviously has a flair for building tension. I rarely feel even a little uneasy in horror films, especially modern ones, but this one had me ill at ease as I was going to sleep and I definitely feel like that's saying something.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Aurjay on 10 Oct 2009, 16:36
Went and saw it today. Was definitely up to the hype. I enjoy movies that rely more on tension then graphics. I think i read somewhere this movie was made for 11,000 which is amazing to me.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 10 Oct 2009, 18:00
Oh man so it's actually scary? I am totes going to have to go watch this one... as soon as I find someone to go with me whose hand I can hold like a little baby.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Aurjay on 11 Oct 2009, 07:29
Not sure if it was scary or just really creepy. Something very unique to it was you knew something was going to happen you just didnt know what and when that thing did happen it just freaked you out.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: TheFuriousWombat on 11 Oct 2009, 08:13
It is a pretty odd movie in that sense. I think if it was made any other way it wouldn't have been the least bit creepy. Somehow the mockumentary style infused it with a level of unease that wouldn't have come across if it was structured more traditionally. I've seen Blair Witch comparisons which are apt up to a point but this is actually much better and definitely scarier. Blair Witch played on the typical, innate fear of the woods at night. Pretty standard stuff. This movie, however, plays on something, literally, much closer to home. As long as you're not out lost in the woods at night, the fear Blair Witch plays on is absent. Paranormal Activity turns a creaking floorboard or a closed door or even the very act of falling asleep into something completely imbued with dread which is why, for me, it was so effective as a horror film. Pelli obviously realizes that you don't need to have some asshole with a fucked up face and a rusty chainsaw mutilating co-eds in order to be scary. In fact, turning the everyday and banal into instruments of fear is much scarier than said asshole could ever be.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 11 Oct 2009, 10:07
It is not showing anywhere near me.

FML.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Aurjay on 11 Oct 2009, 12:24
Their main site says they reached the required 1million reguest to release the movie nationwide. So have faith hopefully it will be showing wherever you live soon enough.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 22 Oct 2009, 14:10
I haven't checked yet to see if it's playing here but why wouldn't it be playing in Chicago? I am looking forward to seeing this, plus if this movie isn't playing near my fiancee's sister (she lives in Ohio) then we can make her jealous (she loves horror movies.)
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 22 Oct 2009, 14:13
couple of my friends went and saw this the other day and unanimously dubbed it the single worst movie any of them had ever seen, ever.

they lovingly loathingly refer to it as "Bitch Gets Scared" which is actually a pretty good title, i think. Then again, they have pretty shitty taste in just about everything so maybe they're exagerrating it's shittiness? I'll wait for dvd, at any rate.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 22 Oct 2009, 16:03
Whenever someone dubs something "the single worst [whatever] ever" I always want to argue with them.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 22 Oct 2009, 16:39
We actually have a comittee. Before this our Worst Movie Evar was M. Night. Shmslsalalalamahayn's "Lady In The Water" followed by "Rescue Dawn" and then "Twilight"
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 22 Oct 2009, 17:04
wow all of the worst movies evar came out within the last three years
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 22 Oct 2009, 17:09
we don't take our job very seriously
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 22 Oct 2009, 23:18
"Lady in the Water" actually is the worst movie ever though.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: pilsner on 22 Oct 2009, 23:23
M. Night Shyamalan and Uwe Boll write and direct a movie.  That movie is never seen.  Instead, its only print is put on a rocket and flown into the sun.  The day the rocket hits the sun is celebrated all around the world.  World peace ensues.

Tell me this isn't the best idea you have ever heard.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 22 Oct 2009, 23:26
The fact that collaboration even happened hypothetically just killed fourteen babies, each of which was an instrumental part of a research team that, 40 years from now, discovered the cures to cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and chlamydia.

how do you sleep at night
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: pilsner on 22 Oct 2009, 23:33
On a double-wide mattress, often with my H.P. Lovecraft collection on the mattress next to me.  Whispering.  Always whispering.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Joseph on 23 Oct 2009, 19:30
We actually have a comittee. Before this our Worst Movie Evar was M. Night. Shmslsalalalamahayn's "Lady In The Water" followed by "Rescue Dawn" and then "Twilight"

Now I haven't seen 'Rescue Dawn', but wasn't that directed by Werner Herzog?

I have a hard time believing her could come even close to making the worst movie ever.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Lines on 24 Oct 2009, 06:30
"Lady in the Water" actually is the worst movie ever though.

If you're going to post about bad M. Night movies, then the worst is The Happening. And I can still think of worse movies.

I love horror movies. I will probably see this. Ooo, maybe even next weekend. That'd be sweet.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 24 Oct 2009, 13:07
I'm one of the few people in the universe who actually enjoyed The Happening. Was it a great movie? No. Was it a good movie? Yes (though barely). Some of the dialogue's a little stocky - "What is this event that's happening?" - the zoo-animal attack is hilarious, and the kids getting gunned down was just ridiculous, but the pros outweighed the cons. He knows when to be funny, and when to tighten the suspense. He's trying to recover from being a total hack.

And now he's doing The Last Airbender. oh well. it was a nice try.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Lines on 24 Oct 2009, 21:19
I don't understand how the Happening could be better than Lady other than the fact the first had Zooey Deschanel and the latter didn't. I mean, seriously. Plants making people kill themselves? What? (Not that Lady made much sense either, but whatever.)
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 25 Oct 2009, 02:01
I dunno, made sense to me, and it's no worse than any other B-movie plot. Even Shyamalan himself said he was making a B-movie. Quite honestly, I went into it thinking it was going to be an absolute crock of shit and left disappointed that it exceeded my expectations. It's an occasionally goofy thriller with moments of shivery and twitchy suspense.

This is all in contrast to Lady in the Water which is one of the most disgraceful, narcissistic, self-aggrandizing features in the history of cinema.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 25 Oct 2009, 14:34
I saw this movie today. It was awesome, most fun I've had watching a movie in quite a while. The dude was a cunt, glad what happened to him at the end; too bad about the chick, I think I love her.

oh also, swm your friends are dumbasses

ADDITION: I just learned there are a couple alternate endings, I'm gonna see if I can find clips of them.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: öde on 25 Oct 2009, 16:15
"Rescue Dawn"

Whaaaat
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Ozymandias on 25 Oct 2009, 16:21
Even Shyamalan himself said he was making a B-movie.

He said that after it was reviewed and universally panned as utter shit.

He backpedalled into "well duh of course it was what I was going for all along"
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 25 Oct 2009, 21:43
Either way, it works as such.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 26 Oct 2009, 05:04
Last night I got stuck in the kitchen because I couldn't walk back through the dark hallway.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: KvP on 26 Oct 2009, 09:34
So I guess we can be thankful for this film. One because it's good, two because it beat the ever-loving shit out of the latest Saw movie despite having been out for almost a month. At this point it's recouped its budget roughly 5,681 times. I'm wondering if it's going to break $100 million. I think it's a possibility.

They're probably setting up multiple sequels / knock offs as we speak. But I think it's going to turn out to be lightning in a bottle, like Blair Witch was.

And they say horror goons have bad taste.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 28 Oct 2009, 17:40
I am seeing this Friday with a bunch of girls in my choir though I would much rather go with a cute boy so I can grab his hand like a little girl when I get scared.

Too bad the boy from work is not interested...
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 28 Oct 2009, 17:44
I am seeing this Friday with a bunch of girls in my choir though I would much rather go with a cute boy so I can grab his hand upper thigh like a little girl when I get scared.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 28 Oct 2009, 17:50
Shhhhh that comes after the movie when I tell him I'm too scared to go back to my apartment alone.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 28 Oct 2009, 17:52
Devious!
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 28 Oct 2009, 18:00
Yes, now all I need is a cute boy to go to the movie with...
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: BrilliantEraser on 28 Oct 2009, 19:08
Last night I got stuck in the kitchen because I couldn't walk back through the dark hallway.

This is exactly why I will not be seeing the movie. The boy wants to go see it, but I told him that I will only go if he agrees to sleep over for the next week. I do not think my roommate would appreciate me trying to sleep in her room instead of my own.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: David_Dovey on 29 Oct 2009, 05:25
So basically this is like Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01l1WIC9mBo)?

Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: David_Dovey on 29 Oct 2009, 05:28
And they say horror goons have bad taste.

You do not have Good Taste® just because you find a peanut in a warehouse of turds
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Aurjay on 29 Oct 2009, 06:06
So basically this is like Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01l1WIC9mBo)?



that was showing at a midnight movie last week or so and i had to miss it. Wonder if it was as good or bad as the title might suggest.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 29 Oct 2009, 06:11
The boy wants to go see it, but I told him that I will only go if he agrees to sleep over for the next week.

And this is a downside? You and/or your boyfriend may be in denial about certain crucial personality traits.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: BrilliantEraser on 29 Oct 2009, 10:25
No, he just lives/works more than thirty minutes away, and already has to get up at 6am to go to work.  :|
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 30 Oct 2009, 21:52
Oh fuck.

I am not going to be able to sleep tonight. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: syrupykeyboard on 31 Oct 2009, 01:26
Oh fuck.

I am not going to be able to sleep tonight. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
Exactly.
The Ouija board I have on the entertainment center shelf is staring at me.
Along with Uncle Henry (my plastic skull).
Uncle Henry is somewhat comforting, however.
We've known each other for quite some time.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: StaedlerMars on 31 Oct 2009, 05:07
I kept on thinking people are talking about 'The Fourth Kind' when they were talking about this movie, and I didn't really get it.

I now saw the trailer and am a little bit intrigued.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Lines on 31 Oct 2009, 07:14
I want to see both Paranormal Activity and The Fourth Kind. I must drag somebody out tomorrow night and make them see a creepy movie with me. I dunno if I'd do the jump thing, but watching horror movies alone sucks. Well, according to my mother it does because she made me watch The Exorcist alone and was then weirded out by the fact that I said I actually liked it and thought it was cool. But that was at home and not in a theater, which is way different.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: pilsner on 02 Nov 2009, 00:07
What an incredibly great movie.  Make sure you go with friends with full bladders, especially for the end which is a heartwarming exploration of how through mutual support, relationships can allow equal partners to achieve the impossible.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 06 Nov 2009, 01:17
Before I watched Paranormal Activity

(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a24/phyrexianmeatdog/before.jpg)

After I watched Paranormal Activity

(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a24/phyrexianmeatdog/after.jpg)

what was that noise

i think it's getting closerrrrrr


Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: sean on 06 Nov 2009, 13:05
puke
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: BrilliantEraser on 06 Nov 2009, 16:17
Dear Scarred,
I think I may love you.
--Ibby
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Cire27 on 06 Nov 2009, 22:46
It didn't work for me.  It was too long, or something.  Maybe it was just the people who wouldn't shut the fuck up.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Ikrik on 07 Nov 2009, 00:27
Just came back from it and HOLY FUCKING SHIT.  I think that I have an absolute favourite horror film.  Everything about it was perfect,  the actors, the slow build, the ending.  I want to see this film again SO badly.  There were small things that I wished they would have done a little bit more with, but wow, that was incredible. 

I thought it was just a little too short.  And I had a few REALLY stupid teenage girls behind me.  They were probably one of my favourite parts of the film.  They were laughing and kind of fooling around, until the really creepy stuff happens and they screamed.  Oh, how they screamed.  I don't think this film would translate at all to the small screen, being a part of the audience was totally awesome.

Oh, and if someone knows how they did the special effects for that, please tell me, I spent so much of that movie wondering "how exactly did they do that?" I'd mention certain scenes...but it's pretty much all of them.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 07 Nov 2009, 00:29
However they did it, they did it for under $15,000, and with an onset production schedule of 7 days. The post work must have been nuts.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 07 Nov 2009, 06:08
Yeah, I think I heard in an interview that they shot it in seven days and it took the director a year to do all the post production. Ridiculous.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: SonofZ3 on 07 Nov 2009, 07:38
Maybe I'm alone on this, but I was really dissapointed by the ending. The last few minutes left me feeling like I had just paid to watch a "sci fy original" (I hate those). I felt like I had been watching something that had more of a feeling of reality than most documentary style films, but the ending threw it right back to being a B horror flic.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Ikrik on 07 Nov 2009, 12:26
Go and read the original endings, there are two others.  The one they had in the film is the best.  It's easily the most effective as a scare.  I knew it was going to happen the minute it walked up the stairs right at the end. I didn't know what what going to happen but I knew whatever it was was going to do exactly what it did right at the end.

And you can thank Steven Spielberg for that ending.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 07 Nov 2009, 14:11
Personally, I'm a fan of the ending where *SPOILER* she walks up the stairs and cuts her own throat.

Unfortunately, apparently that ending was only shown in theaters once. I watched the original ending of the 2007 festival cut of the film, where *SPOILER* she walks up the stairs and rocks for a while and the police find her and shoot her and it was OK, but I'd much prefer the shock value of the aforementioned.

Actually a mixture of the former ending and the current theatrical one would be fuckin' ace.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 07 Nov 2009, 18:01
Actually a mixture of the former ending and the current theatrical one would be fuckin' ace.

ooooh yeah that would be badass: *SPOILER COMBO* first she hurls the dude at the camera, and then cuts her own throat.


The dude was a cunt, glad what happened to him at the end; too bad about the chick, I think I love her.

Re-reading what I said on the last page, I'm realizing that the dude reminds me a lot of me, and the chick reminds me a lot of my fiancee. So really that would explain my feelings about them.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 07 Nov 2009, 18:09
Exactly.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Ikrik on 09 Nov 2009, 23:43
Just saw this one for the second time. 

Completely and utterly a different experience.

If you saw this one in a theatre where everyone was screaming and crapping their pants, congratulations, you just saw an amazingly terrifying film.

If you saw this one in a theatre where no one does anything except gasp...then...well...I'm sorry, you missed an awesome experience.

Seeing it for the second time totally killed it for me.  I have great memories of the first viewing but this time the whole thing was lifeless.  Also my girlfriend and I totally analyzed the film a little bit too much.   We thought a lot of stuff happened that didn't happen. I also thought the special effects were way better than they actually were.  I still think it's an awesome film...just be sure to see it on a friday night when all the silly little preteen girls scream and cry, it's WAY better that way.  When you see it with a dead audience the end cannot come quick enough.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 10 Nov 2009, 10:03
Well you can't really compare it that way. Since you'd already seen it, you knew the things that would happen before they occured, so of course it wasn't as scary.

Honestly I think seeing it for the first time in an empty theater would be creepier. Just imagine you and maybe one other person alone in a giant theater, watching this movie. That would be the ultimate in freaky if you ask me.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: BrilliantEraser on 10 Nov 2009, 10:08
Or you, by yourself, alone in a huge theatre watching it.

Love your avatar, by the way, Liz.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 10 Nov 2009, 11:09
Actually it would probably be creepier if you were watching it alone in your own bedroom. With the door open. I would crap myself if that were the case.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 10 Nov 2009, 13:21
What if you were watching it alone in your bedroom and then a gust of wind through the window made the door move.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 10 Nov 2009, 13:40
I would probably have a heart attack and keel over right there. Or just scream incredibly loudly and run out of my apartment until I found the first available person and curl up into a fetal position at their feet.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: KvP on 10 Nov 2009, 13:54
So I went to a concert at one of those venues with a jumbotron that shows texts that people send in to some number, and while I was waiting for the show to start somebody texted the ending of this movie, and an audible groan was heard from a large portion of the crowd.

It was pretty brilliant.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: jhocking on 10 Nov 2009, 14:57
that is hilarious, I wonder if that's the first time someone's done that.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 11 Nov 2009, 06:14
I actually knew the ending before I went to see it. Well, the general ending. SPOILER I knew that he ended up dead and she lived, but I had no idea how. When it started getting toward the end of the film and you could tell she was possessed, plus the thing with the picture frame, I totally knew.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Ikrik on 11 Nov 2009, 13:54
Well you can't really compare it that way. Since you'd already seen it, you knew the things that would happen before they occured, so of course it wasn't as scary.


I wasn't talking about how scary it was for me the second time.  I was going by how the audience was reacting.  Both times the theatre was pretty packed, albeit the first time way more than the second.  The second time I saw the film though no one did anything at all, there were a few gasps but nothing more.  If I had seen it with the second audience first, I would not have enjoyed it nearly as much.  This is a film that really lives or dies based on the audience you see it with.  I don't think it's really all that frightening alone.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 11 Nov 2009, 13:56
I watched it alone on my laptop in my bed with all the lights out.

It was pretty goddamn frightening.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 11 Nov 2009, 15:29
You are a brave man. I would hug you right now if I could. I can't even watch the alternate endings on my laptop by myself in broad daylight.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: scarred on 11 Nov 2009, 15:30
I have not clutched a teddy bear so ferociously since Bambi's mom died.
Title: Re: Paranormal Activity?
Post by: Liz on 11 Nov 2009, 15:43
<3