Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! Today, we venture into one of the lowest budget horror movies ever made, which created an iconic franchise. It is enduring, terrifying, and created Blumhouse Productions, my personal favorite horror movie studio. It is the movie that was created on a $15,000 dollar budget, and grossed hundreds of millions in profit. Before we venture in, however, I have to confess that this movie viscerally scared me. Like, I really am not scared of most of the horror movies I watch, probably because I’ve seen over 100, but this one struck something within me and I am still jittery as I write this. However, for you to understand, you’ll have to hear about it yourselves. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…

Paranormal Activity

We start our film with the POV of Micah (pronounced me-kah), as his girlfriend Katie pulls into the driveway of his house. The two kiss, and Micah reveals that he spent a ton of money on a new super cool camera (the one we view this movie through), and that he’s going to use it to film when the couple are asleep to hopefully catch any weird occurrences going on. We don’t really get this information for about 25 minutes, but Katie thinks that an evil spirit is out for her, and that’s why Micah bought the camera. The couple are moving in together into Micah’s house, so he wanted to take precautions. For 21 nights, Micah will film what happens at night, but for now, we’re still on Night 1.

Night 1 goes pretty much fine for the couple, with only a few noises being heard in the night. However, on the next day (it’s a bit hard to keep track of the timeline in this movie), Dr Frederichs (a psychic who specializes in ghosts) arrives at the house. Katie reveals that ever since she was 8 years old, and especially in the 8-13 range, she would have “night terrors” that would feel horrifically real. She would swear that her sister would see a figure at the end of Katie’s bed, and Katie feels that it followed her to Micah’s house. Our boy Dr Frederichs says that he thinks that Katie is PROBABLY being haunted by a demon (GREAT), and he STRONGLY advises against talking to it. He feels that the demon is feeding off the dark energy surrounding Katie, and that it is INTENT on either torturing her, or killing her. He gives Katie the number of a demonologist who is a colleague of his, and tells her to call him the next day. However, Micah, for SOME REASON, tells Katie not to call the man. He (for the rest of the movie, it’s very short), will keep trying to track down and eliminate the demon himself without any outside help. Micah is an interesting character folks.

For the next three weeks (yes, there is a Night #5 title card that appears if anyone was wondering), the situation gets progressively worse. THIS is what really got me really really bad. See, I’m used to seeing Michael hack up a group of teens, or Frankenstein terrorizing a town, or even Jack Torrance hunting down his family in a hotel, but I was NOT ready for the first person progressing nature of the attacks in this movie. They REALLY got me. (by REALLY got me, I mean I fell off my couch at one of the jumpscares, and I play FNAF all the time). 

Over the nights, the camera picks up progressively worsening things at night. Doors slam, noises are made, even lights flicker. On one particularly bad night, you hear a DEMON SCREECH as the door slams. On the most horrifying night (or one of them I honestly don’t know which one is worse), Katie wakes up and seems to be in a trance, standing next to the bed and staring at Micah for TWO HOURS. She then goes outside, and then gets BACK into the bedroom, immediately falling asleep (her face in the doorway is what caused me to fall off my couch). The next day, Katie remembers absolutely nothing of what happened, and Micah has to show her the tapes.

A few days later, in an absolutely GENIUS movie, our man Micah buys a Ouija board, literally doing the ONE THING the professor warned him not to do. Katie is understandably upset about this, and the couple leave the room during an argument. However, the camera picks up the pointer of the board moving on its own, and eventually the whole board LIGHTS ABLAZE. Micah tries to analyze the board, and finds that the name of a woman named “Diane” was written on it. He looks her up online, and she was a woman from the sixties with almost the EXACT same thing happening to her as Katie, even down to encountering the demon at 8 years old. Katie is getting increasingly upset with her boyfriend at this point, and tries to call the demonologist, but Micah immediately shuts this down. His next great plan comes in the form of baby powder, and the next morning after the couple wake up, they see footprints coming into their bedroom from the baby powder, stopping next to the bed and disappearing. (GREAT.) The couple follow the footsteps, leading to the attic door being ajar. Micah heads up, and FINDS A PHOTO OF A YOUNG KATIE. The picture is slightly burnt, and Katie reveals why. This picture of her is supposed to be gone. It was supposed to be lost in a house fire. Yet, somehow, the picture is back in her hands.

At this point, the mental states of BOTH of our protagonists is collapsing, so they call back Dr. Fredrichs, after learning that the demonologist is out of the country (perfect timing), and he won’t pick up his phone. Fredrichs appears back in the house the next day, and in ANOTHER personally terrifying scene, he feels the same presence in the house that Katie has been feeling. He immediately says he needs to leave, and says he will try to help the couple, before leaving the house. (GREATTTTTTTTTTTT). Immediately after this, the events are set in motion to end this movie, and leave me REELING. The next night (number 20), we see Katie RIPPED from the bedroom in horrific fashion, being dragged across the entire floor and hallway. Micah jumps into action, pulling his girlfriend back and into the bedroom once more, holding her. However, all is obviously NOT well. That morning, Micah finds a BITE MARK on Katie’s side, and she begs for him to leave the house with her. Our boy obviously obliges, making plans to leave. However, UGH, it gets worse. Micah returns a few minutes later, ready to leave, when he sees Katie on the floor. She is CLUTCHING a cross in her hand, so much so that her hand is gushing blood. Micah tries to patch her up, screaming in frustration at the demon. He then decides to BURN the cross (BRILLIANT IDEA), as Katie now says she “doesn’t want to leave the house” (this girl is SO possessed oh boy). Oh, and by the way during all of this the demon cracks a portrait of the couple, the crack ONLY appearing on Micah’s face.

Here we go guys, ending time! (by this point I was shaking, and I really wish I could say I was joking. There are SEVERAL alternate endings to the film, but I’ll only be covering the main one! It’s the scariest). It’s now night 21, and Katie rises out of bed like Dracula and stands watching Micah for two hours, just like before. She heads downstairs, and she SCREAMS, as Micah rushes downstairs to help his girlfriend. The camera stays put, as we hear sounds of violence downstairs, with thuds and Micah’s pained screams permeating the silence. We hear footsteps rising up the stairs, until Micah’s corpse is HURLED at the camera, causing it to fall to the side and off of the tripod. We see Katie in the doorway, her shirt absolutely COATED in blood. She falls to her knees, and crawls to Micah’s body like some sort of animal, eventually noticing the camera. She crawls over to it, and stares directly into it, looking directly at US, as she smiles. Her face then becomes DEMONIC, as she lunges towards the camera, and we cut to black. A final title card reads that Micah’s body was shortly discovered by police, but Katie, Katie’s whereabouts are completely unknown…

THERE WE HAVE IT. Guys, I honestly cannot say why this film affected me so much, but I am NOT joking with the things I say. This movie affected me on a deep, deep level, and I recommend it to ALL OF YOU. I honestly can’t get over this movie, and I probably won’t for the rest of the month. However, guys, tomorrow is Day 20, and you best believe I’m ready. Thank you all SO very much, and I hope you all enjoyed it! And, always remember, you cannot run…