AMERICAN horror sensation Paranormal Activity gets a belated UK release this week in a fright-frest which promises to have you cowering in fear.
Used by permission of their families and the police, the ‘discovered film’ follows young couple Micah Sloat and Katie Featherstone as they try to get to the bottom of strange noises in their home.
When Micah begins taping their bedroom during the night, what they believed to be just strange bumps begins to manifest into physical actions like doors opening and lights moving.
But as the paranormal activities start getting stronger and more violent, can they escape whatever is tormenting them?
Helpless
Having already garnered the title of the most profitable film ever made (considering the paltry $15,000 budget), writer/director Oren Peli's first feature cleverly taps into the fear of things happening in and around you when at your most vulnerable: when helpless and asleep.
Shot within the confines of a single house and featuring just the two main characters - bar the occasional visitor - Peli's clever use of pace and some engrossing performances makes the 86 minute runtime fly by.
Gritty and terrifying
The recent renaissance of cinéma vérité style film lends itself perfectly to the 'home movie' feel, and keeps an authenticity a glossy Hollywood picture would surely lose by mainly relying on old school tricks and palpable tension to get a rise out of an expecting audience.
And it works.
Proving there is no monster greater than what the imagination can conjure, the simply camera tricks add a gritty and terrifyingly reality to the film.
But it is the use of sound which sets the viewer up for a chilling fall.
Eerie knocking gets the senses primed, but it is the mysterious growls which send a shiver down the spine.
While not as pioneering as The Blair Witch before it, the essence of innovation and intelligence remains intact making Paranormal Activity the perfect antidote to the nauseating remakes and torture-reliant ‘horrors’ which have caused the genre's box office presence to become stagnant.
8/10 - Cerebral scares.