Paranormal Activity

[Day]

So most people saying it's pretty good eh? I love scary movies, I'm also pretty pumped about "The Fourth Kind" or whatever that owl movie I keep seeing previews for.

[SephYuyX]

One of the few generes (ghosts and hauntings) that I think are complete BS and just look completely hoaxy, but since yall seem to like it, I might as well watch it online.

Never even heard of this movie till today seeing a random 5 second commercial on TV.

[Day]

Really these type of movies and movies like The Strangers scare me more than anything like Saw or just blood and gore movies. Anything that gives me chills is doing it's job... the trailer alone did that, so I'd go see it for sure.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I thought it was pretty lame, which is a shame because there was a ton of potential to add creepy shit instead of WAIT TILL 3AM TO TRIGGER EVENT. Knowing me, I probably missed something like:

Spoiler: show

What was up with the bird footprints? I mean I know it's the demon but was there any significance as to why it was bird prints? And I wish they talked more about Diana instead of throwing it in towards the end and saying "oh looks like this website says the possessions happens randomly." Kindda irritating to have Micah make stupid decisions too.

The dragging scene and that ending scream was pretty gnarly though

Spoiler: show

The randomness makes it scarier imo. Us fantasy nerds are so used to lore and explanations but shit like that where it's so vague and mysterious and can happen to anyone regardless, is pretty fucking intense over saying like, a gypsy cursed her great great great great grandmother in 1739.

And Micah antagonizing it was the perfect balance, completely disassembled the male bravado in situations like that, created more tension between him and her. Remember when the psychic said it feeds off of negative energy? Well what happened the more of a pompous prick he acted like? It upset her and they began to fight, and in turn things got much worse.

That's not to say during the movie I was right there with everyone else saying "Micah seriously are you fucking retarded?" But him doing that shit is what drove the plot forward.

[Milkster]

This movie was scary because there wasn't blood and gore every 30 seconds. Very suspenseful, pretty good overall. I was quite scared that I made sort of dying cow scream and scaring me isn't easy. Well... nevermind. Micah made me so angry sometimes though with his stupidity.

Spoiler: show

I think the part where the door slammed on them and locked them out the room was fucking trippy. And the Wigi (sp) Board shit was ridic.

[BerenTebogo]

Blood and gore > stupid shit that only illogical people could find plausible.

[Milkster]

Cut 'em up movies are so predictable, now its ridiculous. There is no depth to any of those movies. This could be entirely plausible. Unexplainable, yet plausible.

[BadKarma]

Blood and gore > stupid shit that only illogical people could find plausible.

Clearly, flying rubber intestines > psychological horror. I guess thats why Friday the 13 part 5638252 is better than Ju-on right, Sath?

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

This movie was scary because there wasn't blood and gore every 30 seconds. Very suspenseful, pretty good overall. I was quite scared that I made sort of dying cow scream and scaring me isn't easy. Well... nevermind. Micah made me so angry sometimes though with his stupidity.

Spoiler: show

I think the part where the door slammed on them and locked them out the room was fucking trippy. And the Wigi (sp) Board shit was ridic.

Ouija*

[BerenTebogo]

Clearly, flying rubber intestines > psychological horror. I guess thats why Friday the 13 part 5638252 is better than Ju-on right, Sath?

Both are terrible.

You are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000x more likely to be cut up by some guy in a scream mask than you are to be haunted by anything other than your own stupidity.

[Pringles]

Saw it this evening and it was a decent movie. It didn't nearly come off as bad as everyone made it out to be. Kinda annoying to sit a theater and hear everyone gasp or scream at predictable things they knew were going to happen. Still one of the better horror style movies I've seen in a while. The only scary part was the guy at the movie theater concession stand that was able to upsell me on my simple hot dog and coke without me even understanding what the hell he was saying to me.

Although reading about the original endings would have made it a better ending, either one of the two:

Spoiler: show

Roger really: The endings of Paranormal Activity
The word is director Oren Peli has been tinkering with his cut of the film over the last year and may even have ditched the film's original ending for a an alternative ending. As this site reported, an alternate ending was screened with the film at various festivals over the last 12 months, including the Sydney Film Festival. Unfortunately, as I wrote in my review, the ending was the one time I felt the film went Hollywood and utilised more conventional shock tactics and even added an annoying, self-referential touch. So it made sense when I found out the ending was actually an alternate ending and there was an original ending said to be much longer and much more horrific.

Two months ago I thought I had found it. *SPOILER* A description from someone who had seen a screener of the film described a longer ending in which Kate kills Micah offscreen and then walks into the bedroom with a bloody knife. She then sits and rocks beside the bed for days (long enough that we hear the phone ringing and worried messages left in the background). Katie's female friend then comes to the house worried and Katie goes downstairs where you hear the friend scream. Katie comes back to the bedroom and continues rocking beside the bed as the counter records more days going past. Finally police arrive and as she approaches them with the knife they open fire on her and we fade out to the sound of police radios. It sounded much more unsettling than the ending I had seen and seemed to make better use of the dread that rendered the rest of the film so traumatic. The only thing that seemed off was the use of police - it seemed a little anti-climatic and risked providing too much closure.*SPOILER*

But I've recently learnt that ending was not the original at all. It was in fact one of THREE different endings. So which one was the original? From what I've heard I believe the description below to be that of the original ending, or at least the earliest one screened. Unlike the previous two, I regard this ending to be the perfect finish to one of the most original horror films I've ever seen. When I first heard the description, I gasped. I can't imagine how it's going to feel on screen.

I recommend you go into Paranormal Activity cold but if you've already seen the film and are curious about the original ending here is a description below:

*SPOILER*
This ending initially repeats what we see in the other two endings. We watch through the camera as the couple sleep. Then suddenly Kate sits straight up, gets out of bed, walks over to Micah and stands over him staring at him for a few hours. Then she walks out of the bedroom and we hear her going downstairs. After a few minutes tick off the clock, we hear Kate screaming. Micah wakes up, screams to Kate that he is coming to help her, and he darts out of the room. For the next few minutes you just see an empty bedroom with the ticking clock and you hear both Kate and Micah screaming and a lot of commotion like they are fighting. After a few minutes, the screaming stops and it is silent. After a minute or two of silence, you hear a loud stomping sound (like something very heavy is coming up the stairs).

From here, the ending diverges: Kate walks into the bedroom covered in blood and holding a large butcher knife down at her side. She walks into the room very heavy and stiff-like. She walks right up to the camera so that the upper half of her body is in the shot (but she isn't staring into the camera or looking at you, she's sort of looking downward), and then she simply pulls up the knife and slashes her throat in one quick, graceful movement, and falls down on the ground. The camera keeps rolling so we just see an empty bedroom for a few seconds and then the camera shuts off and the movie ends.
*SPOILER*

[BadKarma]

Both are terrible.

You are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000x more likely to be cut up by some guy in a scream mask than you are to be haunted by anything other than your own stupidity.

BG has no imagination.

[Leif]

Spoiler: show

That was the scarriest movie I've seen in a long time

Although

Spoiler: show

When I saw the bird footsteps, I thought of
http://sesamestreetlive.com/system/f...png?1244733872
and let out a light chuckle

[TacoTaru]

I thought this movie was decent. I may have thought it better, but the theater I was in completely pulled me out of the movie several times. I think if I had seen with a smaller, less "OH NAH DERS A GHST" group of people in every seat but mine I would have enjoyed it more.

That one thing that really annoyed me was:

Spoiler: show

They did the same EXACT thing they did with the Quarantine trailer and showed the ending of the movie in it. With the movie being as short as it was, it was obvious that when it finally happened that was going to be the end of the movie which took away from it for me.

[fishstix]

but you're not supposed to know when the end of the movie is!! Like several times during the movie, I wanted to check what time it was and calculate how much time is left in the movie but I resisted. Usually when I watch tv, I glance at the time and think, oh there's still 30 mins left and they thought they found the bad guy, well that's probably not him and there's enough time for another twist.

[Headspace]

I knew that was going to be the ending, but there were several moments during the movie where I thought it was going to come.

[Amarok]

Spoiler: show

They did the same EXACT thing they did with the Quarantine trailer.

Have you seen Rec? Much better than the terrible remake.

[Max™]

Scariest movies I've ever seen: Alien, and The Thing (1982).

There's something here, it isn't human, I can't trust any of you, and there is nowhere to run.

That is terror.

Up there would be Hitchcock's stuff, because the guy knew how to set a scene masterfully.

This shit? Blair Witch type shit just pisses me off.

I am the scary thing in the woods at night.

[fishstix]

YouTube - I Am The Terror That Flaps In The Night

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

Both are terrible.

You are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000x more likely to be cut up by some guy in a scream mask than you are to be haunted by anything other than your own stupidity.

You are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000x more likely to have or will at some point in your life hear a strange noise in your home late at night and be curious as to what it is. Wether it is an animal, the house creaking, other ambient noise, or even someone breaking into your house; it's a common fear we all share.

This takes it a notch up and explores the 'what if?' It's brilliant juxtaposition between our fear of the unknown and expression of our imagination in the dark.

You can see the same slasher bullshit on ABC Family these days, and we're de-sensitized to your run-of-the-mill violence on a daily basis.

If you're trying to say at any point in your life, even as a child, you were never afraid of a bump in the night or a ghost story fucked with you for a couple days you're a liar.