There are many fans in the world to watch films about the paranormal, poltergeist and other supernatural things. Even scientists cannot solve them, they freeze the blood, but still pictures about these psychophysical phenomena continue to collect full halls in cinemas. So it was with the first part of the film "Paranormal Activity", filmed by the Americans in 2007 and shown to the public in 2009.
After watching, viewers dubbed the horror film the most terrible picture. However, what is the mystery of this film? Why does he scare the audience so much? Is it really based on real events or is the plot of the picture just a figment of the imagination (and very stormy) of director Oren Peli? Perhaps we can reveal some of these questions.
A little about the plot of the film
The storyline is based on the life of a seemingly ordinary married couple. Katie and Mika moved to live in a house in the vicinity of San Diego and then strange things began to happen to them, which can be called paranormal. For several weeks in a row, the couple hear strange sounds in the house and feel someone's presence.
It turns out that a certain entity has been following the main character since the age of eight. But as soon as a couple sets up a camera in their bedroom to film it, terrible things begin to happen in the house: overturning objects, opening doors, inhuman sounds and bites. When a couple invites a psychic to him, he says that a demon lives next to the heroes. However, Mika does not want to call a specialist, but tries to contact the evil spirits.
The angry demon chasing Katie scares the spouses, and ultimately, having possessed a woman, kills Mika. The film has several endings, one of which is official and the other two are alternatives. In the first ending, Mika rushes into the room in bloody clothes, and Katie walks up to the camera and smiles terribly. This is where the film ends. In the credits, it is later written that in the morning the police called by the neighbors find Mika's body, and Katie does not remember anything about the events of the previous night.
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The opinion of film critics and ordinary viewers
Film critics liked the strange picture taken with one camera. Most of them gave her a positive assessment. Overall, Paranormal Activity received 88% of "good" reviews. On the technical side, the film is shot very realistically, there are sound and special effects, there is a sense of documentary, a gradual and unhurried development of events.
Viewer reviews fell into two categories. Some argued that they were absolutely not afraid to watch the film. Others said that they had never seen anything worse in their lives. It is strange that the picture was low-budget, and before and after it, "filmmakers" shot more than one horror movie that could scare and interest much more.
Among the reviews, you can also find the opinion that everything in the film looks "cheap and pretentious", and there are only two main characters, which also does not capture. Experts called the film a very successful project of the director, on which only 15 thousand dollars were spent, and collected dozens of times more.
The truth of the facts from the picture
According to the director Oren Peli, who also wrote the script for the film, the picture is based on the events that allegedly happened to him in reality. However, experts called the "Paranormal Activity" a pseudo-documentary. Why? Because documentaries are filmed on proven facts, using the assessments of scientists and specialists, in this matter - psychics. In the same case, none of the physicists, parapsychologists, sorcerers and other professionals confirmed the presence in the house of Mr. Peli, who was filming his "offspring" in his own suburban dwelling, of any otherworldly entity.
The first part of the film shows the ordinary life of the average American family. These shots do not resemble an excerpt from a horror film, but rather scenes from a sitcom or reality show in general. However, the transformation begins later. All the special effects become more pronounced and frightening. This is the "realism" of the film.
In theory, similar events can occur in real life. Official science has confirmed that there may be intangible things that we cannot see with the naked eye. Electromagnetic fields, ghosts or demons - all these are experts and curious people who have repeatedly tried to record with the help of powerful equipment. But such attempts were rarely successful. It is hard to believe that some otherworldly entity showed itself on an ordinary camera, or a person like Mika from the film could record his voice.
There is some truth in "Paranormal Activity", because the events described in the film could actually take place. But everything that happens in the picture scares us by the fact that it is shown close to reality, but is not shown "in all its glory", in full, and therefore, as it were, stands on the edge between two worlds - the real and the otherworldly.
Since the human psyche tends to fantasize and give out various images that appear in dreams, sometimes there is an obsessive feeling of the presence of someone else, if a person is himself in a room in a completely enclosed space. All of the above techniques and "did their job." As a result, such an objective reality appeared before the viewer, which can “shackle the brain” and scare in earnest.
Recall that most often in films, fictional facts are shown, which in order to attract the audience can be veiled and hidden under the guise of realism. As for the paranormal, experts say that of all the reports of poltergeists, ghosts and demons that "naughty" in the homes of different people, only no more than 10 percent have been proven.
Natalie Lee
