Playlist: Paranormal Activity

I was fortunate to see The Blair Witch Project before it blew up. At the time I was really into following the film scene (shocking, right?) and had read all about how this no-budget faux doc had taken Sundance by storm. I even made a trip into the famed Angelika Film Center in NYC as soon as it was released. And wasn't disappointed. The magic of it was that even though I knew it wasn't real, even though I knew the entire backstory was an orchestrated studio ruse, even though I'm not generally an idiot, I was scared. It worked, and worked well.

Jump to the present--literally, I just watched it--and the "new Blair Witch," Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity. Same idea in play: pieced together, after-the-fact found footage of an unexplained horror. But it's been ten years, so why not? Listen, I'm always willing to suspend my disbelief to be entertained until the filmmaker abuses that courtesy.

Now before I go on I should say I don't believe in ghosts. And even less so in recent years as the pseudo-science of shows like "Ghost Hunters" has completely warped any plausibility into ridiculousness. However, I cannot deny that we are all susceptible to our innate fear of the unknown playing tricks on us. That's why we watch horror movies and thrillers in the first place. It's almost as if we are taunting those primal emotions. So, like I said, I was all aboard for this movie.

Result? Eh. Halfway in the scenes started feeling staged and Peli chose to abuse the courtesy by building his tension through cheap scares and overplaying the monster card. It devolves into a standard possession story and the ending wasn't so much shocking as shockingly cliched. By comparison, I still remember how haunting that last shot in Blair Witch was to me.