4 out of 5

Director: Oren Peli

So it came and went and you already know enough about it: Paranormal Activity is a barebones film that uses the premise of a couple trying to film a haunting to give us a constant fly-on-the-wall view of the going-ons. While the ‘this is really happening’ method has been used frequently – sometimes well, sometimes exploitative, sometimes good once and not again – I think rarely in the last couple decades has a film taken advantage of the format so effectively and respectfully as to be worth tossin’ into the ol’ DVD player every once in a while just to spook yourself again. While it’s not perfect – it is, after all, just a make-ya-jump type of film, so depth is perhaps wanting – it plays its beats well and does what it intends… i.e. unnerves the hell outta ya’. And due to its intimate and low-budget setting, it works in whatever format you watch it – in a theater with many viewers screaming in unison, or on a rainy night at home with a fellow watcher. Director Oren Peli smartly avoids most shakey-cam nonsense and keeps us on a tripod and also sllllloooowwwly amps up the scares, using a wonderful day is safe / night is not combo to really get us on edge. While the leads’ comfy house and bickering sometimes throw into question where this is taking place and why they’re together, the relationship comes across as realistic (as do their responses to events) and the script keeps dialogue to clipped, to-the-point moments so we’re not rolling our eyes waiting for the next scene. Very effective, very fun.