Something Spooky This Way Comes

 Anybody seen the powder?

I love horror movies, and I'm finally getting a chance to catch up on a huge -- read, nearly a decade -- backlog of titles. Thanks to the internet, I was able to check in this week with the low budget hit, "Paranormal Activity" and here's what I think...

Love the conceit of the super-fast time code to speed along the night to the "good parts" and absolutely commend the film-makers on the framing of the bedroom door and hallway, which simply begs the observer to create context out of the shadows.

Totally bought the acting -- it's harder to make "fake" casual dialogue seem real than you think, and the haunted couple totally pulled it off. 

What I hated? The boyfriend was so unlikable that I would sooner believe in demons living in the attic than I would the fact that she stayed with him throughout the entire movie. And, without spoiling the finale, let's just say that not a single one of the three endings that you might have witnessed, depending on the version you watched is really any good.

Still, given the budget and the self-promotion that it took to make this indie effort a hit complete with it's own sequel (trailer below), I have to applaud the effort... if not the entire package.