Paranormal Activity (2007) Director: Oren Peli

As a piece of film-making, I admire Paranormal Activity. Made for ten pence, it's one of the most profitable films ever made, grossing nearly $200 million worldwide on release. That's no mean feat. Unfortunately, I found the film dull, lacking in tension and featuring two main characters who you couldn't care for at all. Perhaps I was expecting it to be 'more scary' after all I'd heard and maybe if I'd seen it in the cinema on release with no background knowledge, it would have shit me up. But on DVD, it just didn't cut the mustard. I've seen more scary things coming out of my cat's bottom.

A boyfriend - Micah (Micah Sloat) - films his house and his girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherston) after she claims a ghostly 'thing' has been haunting her since childhood. Micah enters the filming exercise with initial glee, playing Most Haunted and analysing the tapes from each night. Not much really happens. Not much at all. When it does happen, it's not very scary. The use of the psychic Dr. Fredrichs is quite well played out, as he refers the couple to a demonologist that they can't get hold off and the frisky entity gets more antagonistic with his playing around with Katie. The problem is the pay-back just isn't as good as the set-up; there's one big shock moment but it leaves you feeling a bit cheated. You can see what's coming a mile off and there's just not enough freaky stuff to satisfy the true horror fan. You may disagree with me.

Micah and Katie are also exceptionally annoying and wingey. Sure, she's being stalked by a demon but Katie is high maintenance and Micah is a complete doofus. You're not able to believe in them or their actions. Micah keeps the camera rolling with a smile when you'd be straight out the bloody door. The films fails with characters who are not thought out well or engaging for their audience.

2/5

Here's the bit in the movie where the ouija board catches fire.