Richard and I went to see Paranormal Activity downtown yesterday. My love of scary movies has been changing of late mostly, I think, because the scare-directors of today seem more interested in grossing the audience out than making their imaginations really work.
How many of you can recall watching an old scary movie either with a parent nearby to protect you (in case the monster jumped from the tv and into your living room) or hid behind a couch, a pillow, or some such thing so you wouldn’t have to see the scary things (although you peeked)?
Can you say that the majority of today’s so called scary movies get the same reaction from you?
I hide when I see some of the new scary movies (Saw, Halloween sequels) because the scares don’t cause that delicious thumping adrenaline, but more often than not I am appalled or sickened.
Paranormal Activity is a truly, scary movie. It is a “back to the roots”, edge of your seat, hide your face in your boyfriend’s shoulder scary ride. The proof is in the box office. This is a movie that cost $11,000 to make over a seven day period.
From Cinematical:
Just take a look at that weekend box office. Sure, the critically panned Couples Retreat came in at #1, earning over $32 million on 3000 screens. But scan down the list and look at #4, which was Paranormal Activity. It earned $7.9 million on 160 screens. That’s not a typo. One hundred and sixty screens. If we take the average, Paranormal Activity earned $49,375 per screen, and Couples Retreat took in a paltry $10,666 per screen. That’s five times as many butts in the seats for the horror film than for the unfunny comedy (which means that there must have been a lot of empty seats at the latter). There’s a simple reason for this: Paranormal Activity is a genuinely scary movie.
Admittedly, I didn’t scream or jump at most of the “scary bits”. I did, however, keep Richard close, and watched a good portion with one eye open (lessens the scare impact… yeah). What was really fun was the nearly full theatre of teens and young adults. Their reactions, once they put away the cell phones, are what directors hope for. There was nervous laughter (the kind of laugh when you’re with your friends and you have to laugh or you’ll be a wuss). There were some genuine screams, too, followed by relieved laughter and exclamations of “wow, that was cool!”.
Now, why didn’t I care for it? When Richard and I leave a movie, the first question is “what did you think of it?” I can’t say I cared for the movie myself because it played upon old fears and nightmares I thought long ago gone. To be reminded of those fears is uncomfortable.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the movie, because I did. It’s also why I feel good about recommending it.
If you leave the theatre griping about “not enough blood”, and “where were the decapitations”, then you’re an idiot.
Tags: decapitation, horror, imagination, movies, nightmares, weekend
I’ve watched some of the slasher movies, but I had little taste for them from the start. They seem formulaic to me – kill a bunch of teens, or pretty people in the most creative, gore inducing ways possible. Any story there might be seems to often be superfluous.
Hellraiser – That series I think belongs in the torture scare genre. Torturing the innocent for the *cough* helluva it. Hostel also belongs there. There’s enough of that in the news that I don’t need to watch a movie about it.
Give me the old Hitchcock and Hammer style films. You were able to lose yourself for a bit, but then you could come away from the film knowing that all was right with the world.
I haven’t seen Paranormal Activity, so I’ll just say this: I’m all for truly scary movies with less graphic gore, but honestly, I’ll watch the classic slashers, too. It’s just that scary, in and of itself, might make me want to watch again; bloody, not so much.
Your second paragraph reminded me of watching ‘Salem’s Lot as a kid, sitting under the Christmas tree and holding onto a wooden stake I’d carved (and painted), myself, as a just in case sort of thing. One of the neighbor’s boys snuck over and pecked on the living room window, and I ended up staking myself in the leg. It was NOT a very effective weapon, and I’d make a sucky vampire hunter.
I see the Saw films as very different from the Halloween films, BTW, with the latter being classic slashers, and the former having a bit Hellraiser kink to them.
Oh okay, I don’t get enough of the right kind of horror then. I used to think that nooo, I have to appreciate all that blood and those horrible decapitations because that’s what horror is all about! (I cried buckets while watching Hostel. Good luck to me ‘appreciating’ those things.)
I have too much on my reading list to stick Stephen King into it like my friends pester me to, but I think watching this movie will be a good compromise. Thanks for sharing!