Okay, I know I’m way late on this one. But I just got around to watching the movie Paranormal Activity, and I have to say, I was very impressed.

Paranormal Activity follows in the Blair Witch style (or even the Cloverfield style, for that matter), in which most of the filming is made to look intentionally amateur, so as to seem like home movies.

This style really works for me. Even though I know that it’s not real, I still get sucked in. The camera work isn’t great. There is only one set; the house where these people live. The special effects aren’t any better than what I could do my self. However, despite all of this, the movie comes off as scary. In this case, the low budget actually works for the movie, instead of against it.

I thought this movie was crazy scary. I watch a lot of horror movies (well, not so many lately) and I rarely find them creepy. This movie scared me more than any movie I’ve seen in years.

The thing is, it just seems so realistic. Like it could really happen to anybody. Not seeing any sort of special effects monster is actually better, more creepy. The tension is intense.

Not to say there aren’t any problems with the movie. Sure, you could sit there and pick it apart, if you want to. The acting isn’t great. The decisions of the characters are sometimes very unbelievable. I mean, after you have 10 hours of video evidence of the most crazy haunting stuff the world has ever seen, I don’t buy that you’d just keep sleeping in that same bedroom every night. I don’t believe you’d be able to fall asleep at all. And I don’t believe you would keep that footage to yourself.

When you watch a movie like this, you need to set the mood. Watch it at home, in the dark, the way it was intended. Not in broad daylight, with 20 other people, who are all laughing and making fun.

I’m not joking when I said it was scary. I’m still scared to be downstairs alone in the dark, 3 days later. The night after we watched the movie, Sara woke me up at 2 a.m. and made me come to the bathroom with her, so she wouldn’t have to go alone! And when Evie woke up the other night and said she had a bad dream and something was sitting on her bookshelf, my skin tried to crawl right off my back.

On the other hand, I think we would be significantly harder to haunt than the family in the movie. First off, eerie rumbles in the night are probably just a passing train. Footsteps are from the neighbors upstairs. Quite frankly, anything up to and including 2 a.m. dance parties is going to look a little lame in comparison. And if something is scratching at our door, it is likely to get a spray bottle in the face, before I stumble sleepily back to bed.

So, anyway, in summary, go watch this movie, it will scare the daylights out of you. And if you already saw it, and you weren’t impressed, then I’m sorry that a really cool piece of cinema was ruined for you, by outside circumstances.