Paranormal Activity - this thing's creepy as $%^#

Okay maybe the tag line for this one is a little dramatic...or actually maybe it's not. This is got to be if not the most creepy movie I've ever seen, then it is at least the second. Regardless of where it ranks in my hierarchy of scary movies, the thing scared me. Not to sound cocky or like a bad ass or something but there's really only been like maybe 5 movies in my life that actually, genuinely scared me. Yeah, I've been creeped out by things and I've certainly done my share of jumping in movies, but only a few have made me have chill bumps, or contemplate covering my eyes, or make me double check the locks in my house, but this one certainly did.

Paranormal Activity is kind of a phenomenon in that it was made for only around $15,000 and has made tens of millions of dollars. I give you that little tidbit for 2 reasons; 1. I'm not the only person who thought this was awesome; 2. To let you know that this isn't some big budget studio film. It's meant to look like this really happened. And maybe it really did...(insert evil laugh). The movie is filmed with one camera which is owned by the people in the movie and the events of this movie are filmed by them. Everything that happens is caught on camera by the people in the movie.

Micah (annoyingly pronounce Mee-ka) and Katie live together in a suburban home in San Diego. Katie claims that she is haunted and has been her whole life, and the haunting has followed her to she and Micah's new home together. So, in order to record these alleged "hauntings" Micah purchases a small video camera with which he intends to film everything that goes on while they are in the house. He especially plans to record them while they are asleep.

I'd say two thirds of the movie is spent during the waking hours where we witness the day to day interaction between the young couple, including their disagreements, and slowly we watch how the relationship is affecting the people in the movie. But the other one third of the movie is creepy as hell. I'm actually getting chill bumps thinking about the stuff that goes on at night while the couple is sleeping and then the things that go on as the "paranormal activity" increases.

I literally got such crazy chill bumps in this movie that the room felt like it got 20 degrees colder. I'm not a screamer or yeller in horror movies, but I literally yelled out loud during one point. My roommate, Timmy, who some of you may have noticed makes it into my reviews occasionally, will be the first to tell you that he doesn't really like scary movies. The day after we watched this one, Timmy asked if I was walking around at 4 am. I wasn't. And neither was anyone else. He was freaked. Which means, this movie was AWESOME!

Paranormal Activity doesn't scare you with in-your-face tactics. Everything is very subtle. Kind of if you blink you miss it sort of stuff. Things are done with little noises and small occurrences. The occurrences build in severity, building to an ending that can only be described as pants s---ing scary. Pardon my french kids.

Obviously, if you don't like scary movies, don't watch this one. This is more of a creepy horror than a jump out and get you horror, and it's not gorey like so many of the "horrors" today are. While I'm on that topic, I hate how "horrors" are just gore fests now. They should make a new movie genre called "gorrors" or something. Anyway. The real scare factor for this one is the fact that it seems real, like really happened, like you would see this on True TV or something. It's filmed similar to The Blair Witch Project without the motion sickness and you can actually tell what is happening and has the creepiness of The Strangers. So if you liked either one of those, you'll really like this one. If you like to be scared, watch it, if you don't stay the hell away!