“Avatar”, James Cameron (2009) December 18, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in Adventure, American Cinema.Tags: Avatar, James Cameron, Na'vi, Pandora, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver
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( *some spoilers ahoy*)
Avatar is all eye-candy, but we knew that already. James Cameron’s eye to detail paid off in this film, from the look of the humans’ machines to the skin texture of the Na’vi people to even the tiniest jungle insects. If the film didn’t have an explosion its entire duration it still would’ve been fun to watch, as no movie before has looked, and dare I say felt, like this. You can tell the $200-500 million used to make this film weren’t wasted, and that’s a breath of fresh air, especially after the banal piece of special effects that was 2012.
But to say this film is destined to greatness would be an overstatement. The technical achievements in Avatar are rock solid, but the story is nothing more than a mixture of FernGully and Pocahontas, just set on a distant planet. Cameron can direct a film to a billion dollar box-office– literally– but he doesn’t have the screenwriting chops of other modern day writer-directors, like Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino for instance. His stories have nothing but plot in them, and everything else (i.e. dialogue, sub-plots, and anything non-action oriented) comes across as an afterthought. This is true of everything Cameron’s made since The Terminator. True Lies was probably the best of his films when it came to dialogue, but the movie was still mostly plot driven. Even Titanic was essentially just a story about two lovers on a sinking ship. Cameron’s weaknesses as a writer, though, are compensated for the fact that he is a master technician behind the camera, and he knows how to direct actors to overcome the mediocre dialogue he gives them. Avatar is definitely not an exception to this, and if anything it’s the perfect example of it all.
The film takes place on Pandora, a moon of a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, the star closest to Earth other than the sun. Humans have been trying to harvest an extremely valuable mineral found in Pandora, named unobtanium (I literally cringed when I heard them call it that). The occupation of Pandora shamelessly parallels the US’ occupations of countries over the years, and that’s only the beginning of the film’s very liberal satire. Pandora’s predominant race are ten feet tall, blue-skinned hunter gatherers called the Na’vi. The humans generally don’t care about the Na’vi, and would rather not deal with them at all. Unfortunately, a large collection of unobtanium is buried underneath a large tree a tribe of Na’vi call home. So there THAT goes. A small group of humans, though, have devoted themselves to studying the Na’vi and have created host Na’vi bodies, called avatars, each controlled by one particular person. When Marine corporal Jake Sulley’s scientist twin brother is killed, he is sent to Pandora to take control of the host-less avatar his brother left behind. After some time living with the Na’vi he eventually starts adopting their mentality and leaving his human way of thinking behind, and I’ll end there lest I spoil the entire movie.
The acting of the film is mostly top notch, though Sigourney Weaver’s character seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick when it came to corny lines. All the Na’vi characters were well acted and really do set a new standard for motion captured performances and visual effects. Zoe Saldana as the main female lead “Neytiri” deserves to be on the short list for the Oscars, which says a lot because you never actually see her, only the Na’vi her. The only actor who’s performance I didn’t really dig was Stephen Lang as Col. Quaritch. Everyone else seemed so well developed (which may had been written out in the script but also can be attributed to good acting), but Quaritch as the rough, hot headed military man was a major detractor from a mostly high quality cast.*
Avatar is a well crafted film, and there are only a few weak moments in the story. The acting, directing, cinematography, editing, sound, and special effects all deserve attention by the Academy, but I’m hesitant to throw too much praise onto a film whose achievement over a normal blockbuster movie is in its craftsmanship and acting. James Cameron knows how to make a good film that people will like, and he knows how to use satire in a smart way (the film is a love letter to environmentalism, though of course its large cost in the time of a recession raise questions), but it’ll take the test of time to really judge how good a film Avatar is.
*Well, I did hate Michelle Rodriguez’s performance, but that’s a given.
“Paper Heart”, Nicholas Jasenovec (2009) December 16, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema.Tags: Charlyne Yi, hipster, indie, Michael Cera, Nicholas Jasenovec, Paper Heart
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I was talking to a friend not too long ago about my theory that people– particularly people in my 20-something demographic– have a tendency to watch an indie/hipster film and automatically label whatever movie that may be as the “best thing ever”. Garden State’s legions of fans, for instance, suffer from this disease, as did anyone who thought Where the Wild Things Are wouldn’t actually suck. Now I don’t mean say all indie films should be avoided, as labeling something as “independent” only denotes how it was financed. It’d be safe for me to assume the majority of my favorite films are indies. My real beef is with the hipster vibe so many indies give off, and in increasing numbers nowadays it seems. I’m all down for the latent sadness, daddy issues, and fashion style points these films possess, that’s cool with me. Don’t believe in religion? Neither do I. Don’t believe in love? Sure, you can live your life however you want. Wear ironic tees, listen to music no one’s ever heard of, read rare J.D. Salinger stories, and/or quote Karl Marx whenever you feel like it? Bad ass. I draw the line, however, at judging a whole film– as serious as it may or may not be– and automatically assuming it has artistic merit just because it looks like it does. When I was talking to my friend about this I was referring to (500) Days of Summer and how, despite it being a super hipster film, I still thought it’s story and directing were solid enough for these “tendencies” to take a backseat to everything else. But I don’t have anything good to say about Paper Heart. At all.
The film– which is part fiction– is about a girl, Charlyne Yi, who is traveling around the United States and filming a documentary about love, which apparently is the only thing she supposedly doesn’t understand. She thinks she’s incapable of romantically loving another person, and her documentary is supposed to help her figure this quirk of hers out. I think. In the process of filming this, she meets and begins to fall for a boy, Michael Cera, and as the movie progresses, we start realizing that maybe, just maybe, Charylyne can actually… love.
Or something like that. The first of many travesties against cinema the film commits are assuming we gave a damn about Charlyne in the first place. She’ s had minor roles in such films as Knocked Up and Semi-Pro, and has been on a few TV shows. Nothing she’s done has made a real impact, and she makes for a very shaky foundation to base a whole feature off of (“But she wrote this film!” some may argue, of which I have nothing but foul language to say to these people). She friends with people such as Seth Rogen and Demetri Martin, and that seems enough to make her a celebrity of sorts. That’s the first problem with Paper Heart, the first out of maybe a couple hundred. The next major issue I had with this film is that Charlyne, whether or not she’s playing a satire of herself, is a totally unlikable character. She seems so helpless, and is switched into “woe is me” mode almost the entire time. By the end of the film (the finale being all types of unwatchable) I found myself disliking the character so much that I wanted nothing but the worst things imaginable to fall upon her. Her voice, her face, her general demeanor all pissed me off something fierce, and I left the movie with the realization that I just wasted the last 88 minutes of my life. Michael Cera’s character didn’t help much, which is disappointing because I am a mild fan of his. He seemed so plain and too much like the Michael Cera from Arrested Development and all his films. Surely he’s different in person than he is on screen, right? Ironically, he’s supposed to be the character with depth, which just says tons about the whole film. The talks about love also aren’t very enlightening. Charlyne seems to land upon each interview equipped with nothing but dull sarcasm and a closed mind, and despite devoting so much time to learning about love in the film, the only personal growth she makes at the end is admitting that yes, she is pretty stupid.
“Magnifico”, Maryo J. De Los Reyes (2003) November 23, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in Drama, Filipino Cinema, Foreign Film.Tags: Magnifico, Maryo J. De Los Reyes, Michiko Yamamoto, Philippines Cinema
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Before she wrote the wonderful Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Michiko Yamamoto penned Magnifico, and in some (but not all) ways this film has a more distinct power to drag the audience into its world via emotions than its newer, more mature cousin does. Whereas Ang Pagdadalaga is a realistic look into a young boy’s plight in a Manila barrio, Magnifico maintains a surreal feeling, though it is strongly rooted in reality. Ang Pagdadalaga very much relies on its setting to move the film forward; Magnifico takes place in a much more ambiguous environment (whilst watching it I constantly remarked on how this barangay of an unnamed town in Luzon was eerily similar to the city in Mindanao where I went to school), and could have easily been set in almost any small town in the Philippines.
I don’t want to compare Magnifico to Ang Pagdadalaga anymore than I already have, because the former film — though definitely a more minor work — has the key qualities to stand on its own, apart from cousin films, and even from its own writer and director. Lately, it seems that I’ve been getting increasingly irritated with the growing tendency in Filipino filmmakers to create slum porn films (think almost everything by Brillante Mendoza), having found the third worldness of the Philippines to be an enchanting place. Though I respect these filmmakers for delving into the realm of taboo (though Ishmael Bernal and Lino Brocka did it so much better decades ago), it does get old, and sometimes humor is needed, and oftentimes helpful, to showcase the plight of the country’s impoverished, and this method can be more powerful than a direct showcase (think Chaplin’s dictator speech).
Magnifico is the story of a young boy (Magnifico) living in the northern Philippine’s provinces whose family is going through some rough times. It seems the family can never get a break, first with Magnifico’s sister Helen being stricken with cerebral palsy, then kuya Miong losing his scholarship, and finally lola getting sick with pancreatic cancer and whose days are now numbered. The financial woes are serious, and it seems almost all but impossible to withstand. Magnifico, however, who is not the smartest child in the world, remains optimistic nonetheless. He finds simple solutions to some of these problems and, along with his friend, helps touch the heart of everyone he encounters, even the most bitter woman in town.
Magnifico is a serious film with a bit of humor inserted here and there, which may be a metaphor to a child’s lack of fully grasping the weight of serious situations. Though this is no Maximo Oliveros, Magnifico delivers a bundle of emotions in a small package, and may even bring about a few tears when it’s all over.
“The Foot Fist Way”, Jody Hill (2006) November 7, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema, Comedy.Tags: comedy film, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, The Foot Fist Way
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Before Jody Hill made the lackluster Seth Rogen comedy Observe and Report, he co-wrote and directed the much better but equally flawed film The Foot Fist Way. This movie, about a small town Tae Kwon Do instructor who has nothing but his martial arts studio to keep him afloat, survives through a copious amount of short monologues and one-liners, which in themselves are very entertaining, but fail to make this it’s potential scope reach out from the DVD rental bin it’s now in.
Fred: If you were in prison, you’d be raped because you exude feminine qualities. You’re also a big ‘ol fat piece of ass.
Fred: Let me think about that for a second. Ok, I’ve thought about it and I think my answer to that question would have to be “fuck you”. I don’t care if you wake up in a ditch with grown men shitting on you and jumping on top of your head. Maybe your nose will turn into a big ole dick and you can stroke that all the time. I hope your hair turns into dog shit one day. You wake up and you run your comb through it and all that it is, is little trundles of dog shit. The worst shit that you could imagine. AIDS… it’s cool. Everything comes around sweetheart.
Mike: I’m glad we have this time to talk. Right away, I want to establish a code of Conduct. This trip we’re going on is for men and not little boys. You guys are gonna see things You never saw before. So when we get back no one is going to tattle, right Julio? Cause I’m gonna do a lot of bad things. And you guys aren’t gonna to stop me.
Julio, Henry: Yes Sir
Mike: You guys ever had sex?
The film’s heart and soul resides in these and other quotes as well as in their delivery. Like what Will Ferrel said when talking about it, The Foot Fist Way seems to be a little rough around the edges, but that seems to be its charm. This is a new filmmaker’s debut feature after all, but Hill got a big break with Danny McBride’s excellent performance as the hot-shot TKD instructor who’s bark is worse than his bite. McBride’s character is willing to hit a child if it means his brownie points go up with the rest of his students. He believes TKD is the best martial art around and is willing to berate everything else in a matter-of-fact way (“I heard jiu-jitsu is good for balance.” “No, jiu-jitsu sucks.”). The film’s protagonist strongly believes in his skills as a martial artist, but at the same time knows his personal/social skills are under par, resulting in his almost universal over-compensation. It is on McBride’s shoulders that this film rests on, and in his credit, he carries it all effortlessly.
However, we as the audience are never given a break from McBride’s antics, and by the end of the film we feel as violated and shot-down as his character does, the result of almost an hour and a half of awkwardness. We are given a break, though, in the second act when “Mike McAlister” (played by the director) enters the film. He doesn’t look it, but he is very similar to McBride’s character, being as willing to live as dangerously as he does, though Mike seems infinitely more skilled than McBride’s “Fred”. Mike McAlister’s appearance is nice, but it’s far too brief, and he leaves the film as quickly as he entered it.
The Foot Fist Way does have replay value, though. The characters and the jokes don’t easily get old, and though this is by all means a minor film it’s also a pleasant one. It isn’t something I myself could watch more than once every so many years, but its humor is smart, and unlike Hill’s follow-up film, Observe and Report, we don’t finish this feeling like we just got roundhoused in the head by Chuck “The Truck” Wallace.
“28 Days Later”, Danny Boyle (2002) November 2, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in British Cinema, Horror.Tags: 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle, horror film, infected, zombie
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Infections and the undead have been a prominent subject matter in films, even long before George A. Romero made Night of the Living Dead. Unfortunately, today’s audience isn’t so scared of something or someone coming back from the dead to eat them. Rather, what really strikes fear into today’s populace is the new pandemic on the horizon, whether bird flu or swine flu, which hits without warning and threatens to destroy the world without any care of who or what you are. No matter how unfounded, irrational, or illogical these fears may be, mass hysteria always takes a hold of people, and these folks are deathly afraid of these maladies. And long before the video game Left 4 Dead addicted gamers or Quarantine only mildly entertained some people, a British director by the name of Danny Boyle came and frightened audiences with the horrific film that is 28 Days Later.
This film is a lot of things; part drama film, part horror film, part post-apocalyptic sci-fi film, it’s one of the finest crafted incarnations of this genre that has been made yet. Cillian Murphy plays Jim, a lowly London bicycle courier who was knocked into a coma before waking up from it twenty-eight days after a mass infection (“rage”) has more or less destroyed Great Britain population. He doesn’t know what’s happened or where everyone’s gone, and leaves the hospital collecting small items and cash along the way, until a run in with a church full of infected Brits causes him to be saved by a woman named Selena and the doomed Mark, who fill him in on all he’s missed. The trio eventually become a duo, which then eventually becomes a family when a man named Frank and his adolescent daughter Hannah join the group, but the family quickly turns back into a trio, as is the fashion of any “infected persons” film. The story is all about survival in the face of annihilation and how the people who have been spared from being killed by their infected countrymen carry on with their lives when they know any day could be their last.
One of the film’s major charms is it’s look, which wasn’t photographed on normal 35mm film stock but rather taped on digital video via a Canon XL1 camcorder by Anthony Dod Mantle, who would go on to win an Oscar for his cinematography on Slumdog Millionaire, also directed by Boyle. The aesthetics accurately capture the mood of each scene, and even when something isn’t chasing our protagonists we never feel like they’re completely safe. The film’s soundtrack is also well thought out, ranging from songs like Grandaddy’s “AM 180″ to Faure’s “In Paradisum”, and the original score by John Murphy sets the tone for each scene, matching fantastic crescendos to the character’s rising emotional tension. 28 Days Later is the “zombie” movie that normal zombie movies just can’t touch, and despite having been released seven years ago, it still lives at the top.
“(500) Days of Summer”, Marc Webb (2009) October 30, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema, Romantic Comedy.Tags: 500 Days of Summer, drama film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marc Webb, Zooey Deschanel
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[some spoilers ahoy]
Marc Webb’s ambitious debut feature, (500) Days of Summer, starts off with the narrator informing (or warning) us that the following film is “not a love story”. It’s the opposite in fact, chronicling the events of a couple from the day they met to their inevitable break-up. Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, whom I can’t recall seeing in anything since 10 Things I Hate About You) is looking back at the last 500 days, wondering where he went wrong with Summer (portrayed by the always lovely Zooey Deschanel), the quirky office assistant who captured his heart and then tore it to pieces. It’s this simple yet emotionally complicated plot that makes the film work, and the idea that almost any audience can relate to the characters adds to the appeal.
The film tries its best to make us hate Summer early on but simultaneously shows us the faults of Tom and the roads not taken by him. But like Tom, we grow frustrated with Summer’s antics and blatantly obvious insecurities, and just as we’re about to explode from withholding the seemingly obvious solutions to this couple’s problems, the film shoots us back to an early day, when colors still shined bright and food still had a taste for our protagonist. By the end of the film, the character of Summer is more or less withered and destroyed, but she still tries one last attempt at redemption in both Tom’s eyes and in ours, but it’s too little too late and we’re left with Tom to brood over everything that’s occurred.
The film’s cleverness relies in its structure, which is played out of chronological order and places together scenes of opposite emotions for us to better understand how events played out for Tom and Summer. There are times, however, that the structure gets in the way of the story, and we have to quickly sort things out or the film threatens to leave us behind. While watching this film I got the notion that Webb was trying to fill up each scene’s capacity for furthering the plot, and it would’ve been nice if he had paced himself a little better. This is a minor criticism, though, and the ending gives us a nice breath of fresh air and sums things up tidily enough.
It may not be perfect but (500) Days of Summer hits all the marks with enough force that anyone who watches it will remember all the details, as small as they may be. The film seldom lags behind itself, and the dialogue is fresh and clever the entire time. But most importantly, this film provokes the audience — guy and gal — to remember and learn from their own Summers.
“The Hills Run Red”, Dave Parker (2009) October 30, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema, Horror.Tags: Babyface, blood, Dave Parker, horror film, The Hills Run Red
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When a director makes a movie about making movies a degree of self-indulgence is expected, and Dave Parker’s gory horror film The Hills Run Red is no exception to this. References to older slasher films, long forgotten filmmakers, and old camera techniques are made blatantly obvious in this film, and yes, at times, it does get in the way of the actual blood and guts occurring on the screen, though this breath of nostalgia isn’t so bad for a geek like me. The film brings back memories of the ‘ol Scream days, when horror plot devices and cliches are shoved right in front of us, lest we forget what we’re watching.
Tyler, a filmmaker and horror nut, is on a quest to discover a print of what is supposedly the scariest movie ever made (aptly entitled “The Hills Run Red”). The director of this old film hasn’t been seen for years, but nonetheless his daughter is found stripping at a club by Tyler. After imposing his own drug rehab on her (I’m not kidding), she agrees to accompany him and the shady, unlikable duo of his girlfriend and best friend in search of this forgotten film. A search in the backwoods quickly turns bloody, though, after Babyface, the fictional film’s killer himself, begins showing a taste for this foursome’s blood.
The final act of the real The Hills Run Red is quick paced and filled with three films worth of twists and violent killing, but it’s a little too light on the ingenuity after we’re force fed the film’s lessons on how NOT like a horror film this horror film is. We’re expecting this great turn of events, full of clever dialogue and decapitations, but what we end up receiving is nothing we haven’t seen before. The deaths in the film just don’t seem scary enough, the blood becomes ubiquitous and boring, and the characters’ characters just seem to melt into pudding. This is a decent rental film, sure, but it’s really not much of anything. For tomorrow’s Halloween viewing though, I think it’ll do the trick.
“Medicine for Melancholy”, Barry Jenkins (2008) October 29, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema, Drama.Tags: Barry Jenkins, film, Medicine for Melancholy, Wyatt Cenac
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I never have dug the indie romance film. The hipster style with the hipster music and the hipster dialogue never really did it for me. But then came Barry Jenkins and his debut feature film Medicine for Melancholy and my world turned upside down. Throughout the entire film my visual and emotional centers were both working overtime as I watched these images flash before my eyes. Jenkins’ writing and directing, James Laxton’s cinematography, and the acting of Tracey Heggins and The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac combine perfectly to make all 88 minutes of this film a very fulfilling experience.
The film’s story is simple enough: after a one night stand and tense breakfast, Micah and Joanne share a taxi ride home. Joanne hastily leaves, but forgets her wallet in the taxi, something Micah discovers only when it’s time for him to pay the driver. After a semi-lengthy search for Joanne (who seems to want nothing to do with him), he returns the wallet, which starts a chain reaction into the charm that is this film. Medicine for Melancholy really is nothing more than one-day love story which we’ve all seen before, but its magic lies in the subtle lessons we learn about its supporting character, San Francisco, as the film drives on. Micah sees himself as a black man in a city with only a 7% African American demographic while Joanne doesn’t see her race as anything more than the color of her skin. Questions and thoughts about race and social class always seem to be present in the film, but only are fully addressed a handful of times, making sure we don’t forget what this is all about.
In the end, Medicine for Melancholy is a love story between two people as well as a statement about San Francisco. It all goes down very smoothly and even leaves us feeling better for watching it long after it’s ended. Jenkins created a wonderfully crafted film, and for a first time filmmaker, has gotten off to a great start.
“Trick ‘r Treat”, Michael Dougherty (2008) October 28, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema, Horror.Tags: Anna Paquin, Halloween, horror film, Michael Dougherty, Trick 'r Treat
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[some spoilers ahoy]
It says tons about Hollywood when a piece of trash like Paranormal Activity is given a wide release but something as wonderful as Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat is sent straight to video. This film is destined to become the quintessential Halloween film in many households across America, including mine, and I’m quite relieved to give Michael Meyer’s hissyfits a rest.
Some may believe that the Halloween anthology has been dead for years (others proclaim it never having been alive), but with Trick ‘r Treat comes a breath of fresh air much needed in the horror film genre. Comprised of four interlocking stories (five if you include the opening), this film delivers as many chills as it does humor. The suspense and twist endings for each story (told in a non-linear way, often cutting to another story halfway through and continuing later on) keeps the film alive and leaves almost no dull moments. The film seems much more grand than its humble release suggests, and one could easily envision watching Trick ‘r Treat on the big screen.
The stories involve a school principal with a big secret, a group of pre-teens wanting to visit the site of the eerie “School Bus Massacre”, a twenty-something girl (played by the lovely Anna Paquin) trying to find a guy to lose her “virginity” to, and a grumpy old man whose disrespect for Halloween brings him into an encounter with the lovable yet dangerous Sam, who’s a sort of Halloween “guardian”. Sam is more or less present in each story, but most of the time acts as an observer, though the IMDB boards have had some pretty creative theories for his role in the film. All the stories in some way involve the others, and it could easily be a confusing formula in another filmmaker’s hands, but fortunately we’re never left wondering where in the film’s time line we’re at, and so our attention is always kept where it needs to be.
Even if the film is occasionally lighthearted, Trick ‘r Treat always carries itself with pride. And though Sam may seem childlike at times, this film is definitely not for children, especially when taking into account the outcome of the children’s story. But overall none of Trick ‘r Treat fails at any point, and if you want to watch a good horror film this Halloween, I say screw Paranormal Activity and watch this instead.
“Paranormal Activity”, Oren Peli (2007) October 27, 2009
Posted by WCS Minor Circuit in American Cinema, Horror.Tags: cinema, horror film, Oren Peli, Paranormal Activity
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[spoilers ahoy]
Paranormal Activity has terrified audiences nationwide with its scenes of demonic activity and hair raising suspense. Made for only $15,000 by first time director Oren Peli, it’s gone on to make many times more than it’s budget since its humble opening in a few select cities. But after people across the US demanded to have the film open nationwide, Paramount obliged and, behold, a new horror film scarier than anything we’ve ever seen before was released to wreak havoc on a wide audience. My friend summed the film up best: OVERHYPED.
Rarely have I been so disappointed in a film that I drove home mad. Nothing in Paranormal Activity works at all to make it “the scariest movie of all time”. The film relies on a handful of “boos!” to scare its audience, though even these are few and far between. I’ve found a quick search of “ghosts” on Youtube to yield more terrifying results than this film has. The movie’s been praised for its lack of gore and steady build up to a climax, but I’ve now come to believe that’s just another way of saying Paranormal Activity is boring.
Nothing works in the film, and I believe that’s a kind way of putting it. The story is full of plot holes big enough to put the plethora of other half-assed horror films into, and the characters are so two-dimensional I felt as if I was watching a play performed by toddlers. Micah and Katie, the film’s protagonists, lack anymore depth than a puddle after a light drizzle. Micah is the stereotypical man who would rather solve problems by himself than ask anybody for help. Katie seems so weak you can tell from the beginning of the film that whatever is in their house will eventually possess her. After Katie complains of some strange activity that has been happening at night, the couple consult a psychic who informs them that a ghost haunting isn’t their problem but that a demon is following Katie, and has been doing for many years. The psychic informs them that they can’t get rid of a demon simply by leaving the house, as it’ll follow Katie wherever she goes. Just don’t try to taunt or in any way irk the demon, says the psychic, and hope for the best. Micah is prepared however. He’s confident that if he films everything that goes down in the house eventually he’ll get to the bottom of this problem.
However I found Micah and Katie’s real problem to in fact not be demons, but instead to be Peli’s inexplicably bad screenwriting. One of the appeals of any horror film is the believability of its characters so as to convey to the audience that the horrific and/or supernatural occurrences in the film are happening to people just like them. But Micah and Katie are not believable as actors or as characters (the first names of both actors actually are Micah and Katie), and we’re left feeling alienated from both characters, knowing that if we were in their same situation we’d get the hell out of the place, regardless of what a psychic (of all people) says.
Paranormal Activity tries so hard to avoid cliche’s that it inadvertently does them anyway. On The Wily Filipino’s review of this film, I mentioned that horror films have to work against some form of rational thought to work, otherwise known as the “don’t open the door” moments. He responded by saying the film doesn’t really have any of the aforementioned moments. With this I must respectfully disagree: all of Paranormal Activity is a “don’t open the door” moment, just in a different form than we’re used to. Micah and Katie should have left the house, at least to just see what would happen. Micah shouldn’t have gone out and obtained a Ouija board (and tell a pissed off Katie he “promised not to buy a Ouija board” so he borrowed one), and he sure as hell should have done something after seeing said Ouija board burst into flames in his living room. The couple should have thought that maybe, just maybe, a psychic can be full of shit. But most importantly, we — the audience — should have never made this horrible piece of cinema anything more than it is.
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