Movie Defense Force: Paranormal Activity

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
0
0
Yeah, Jim, I'm pretty sure the general consensus on this one is "swing and a miss" purely because - for the most part - the first one was pretty well received. As I recall it's actually one of the most profitable movies of all time considering it took like $5K to make it and yet it made MILLIONS of dollars at the box office. Shoulda gone with one of the sequels.

P.S. I always thought the chick in this move was hot. :3

P.P.S. Come on, Jim, when are you going to do Aliens vs Predator? Or how about it's sequel? :mad:
 

pretzil

New member
Jan 30, 2010
97
0
0
I didn't think anyone disliked the first paranormal activity, I thought it was the other 20 installments...
Same goes for SAW I suppose
 

piinyouri

New member
Mar 18, 2012
2,708
0
0
This is the strongest case of "This needed defending?" I can think of.

I've only seen the first film (the very fact that they made sequels was enough to put me off of them) and, if I'm frank, I think it's one of the greatest achievements of atmosphere in new age horror movies. Near perfect.
Would've been perfect if not for the male lead. He became so outlandishly stupid and dickish towards the middle and end of the film that it almost ruins the whole thing and you're (I was) HOPING something kills him.
Which is bad cause this is not a slasher flick.
 

emeraldrafael

New member
Jul 17, 2010
8,589
0
0
So is twilight going to be done as well then? Though I'm going to be in it seems vocal agreement, PA1 isnt really bad at all.
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
14,334
0
0
I haven't seen Paranormal Activity or any of it's sequels, but I didn't think it needed defending. After all a movie that got 5 friggan sequels couldn't have been that unpopular.
 

chozo_hybrid

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
Jul 15, 2009
3,479
14
43
tangoprime said:
Jimothy Sterling said:
Paranormal Activity

Defending the Twilight of horror movies.

Watch Video
The hidden footage / low budget handheld ones are my kind of bag too :)
What did you think of Quarantine? That would could probably use a Movie Defense Force mobilization.
I preferred Rec myself, if you haven't seen it, it's the movie Quarantine is a remake of. Not sure why it needed a remake exactly, the Spanish one, Rec only came out a year before. They're both fine, but Rec being in another language (so you will have to read subtitles) made it that bit more scary/unfamiliar I guess.
 

Saltyk

Sane among the insane.
Sep 12, 2010
16,755
0
0
Okay, I was a bit worried about this one. All I could think was "People dislike this movie?" But it seems pretty much everyone does like this movie, going by the comments.

I only have watched the first one (not that big into horror) but I liked it. So, if I am some kind of film sinner, so be it. I'll simply have to burn in Hell for liking this one.
 

Akytalusia

New member
Nov 11, 2010
1,374
0
0
keep bein' awesome, sterling.

OT: i've never seen the movies, but i'd probably feel the same way. i'm not much of a hater, so i have a very high tolerance level for consensually sub-par entertainment.
 

Zorg Machine

New member
Jul 28, 2008
1,304
0
0
I didn't think that the jump scares were cheap or that there is anything wrong with found footage films, I just thought the movie wasn't scary or interesting. The characters (especially the "boyfriend" character) were unlikeable and dull, there are too many plot holes, the majority of the movie is just plain boring conversations about boring things with boring people and the actual "scares" range from meh to just plain silly.
 

Mr Fist

New member
Jun 16, 2010
12
0
0
PA1 is pretty good. PA2 is alright. I loved PA3. PA4, however, did nothing for me.
 

daxterx2005

New member
Dec 19, 2009
1,615
0
0
Im with Jim on this one, first one was great. Can't really defend much of the later ones.
 

Orekoya

New member
Sep 24, 2008
485
0
0
piinyouri said:
This is the strongest case of "This needed defending?" I can think of.
Yea truly, my first thought at seeing the video's image link on the front page was that before even starting the video. I mean the movie has an 83% score [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paranormal_activity/] on rotten tomatoes. The highest score prior to this one was, I think, Transformers one with its 57%.

After a second look though, this movie does have surprisingly low audience approval for its critic score at 56% and has a surprising amount of negative user scores [http://www.metacritic.com/movie/paranormal-activity] on metacritic. So I guess there's some reasoning for the need to defend it, however vestigial it may seem.
 

Callate

New member
Dec 5, 2008
5,118
0
0
I thought the first one was okay. Not "blow my socks off", not "this is revolutionary film-making that will show the way for modern horror", but... okay. Competent. At times, pretty well done. At times, effectively scary, and better, effectively creepy, which can be harder to pull off. Getting people to tense up isn't really that hard, but getting them to take the scenes seriously enough over time for an ongoing sense of dread to be created... that takes some work. And while you can prepare yourself for a "jump scare", you can't stay tense all the time, which is when an over-arching sense of doom becomes really effective.

But they kept making them, and while I've only seen bits of the sequels, everything I've seen has the term "diminishing returns" stamped all over it. At a basic level, once something is documented- which is what "found footage" films amount to- you need people to start having some basic awareness of the situation they're in. Otherwise, it's much harder to build that sense of doom for the need to roll your eyes at the people who keep showing stupid judgment.
 

deathzero021

New member
Feb 3, 2012
335
0
0
Honestly, I loved all 4 of them. The story is interesting and the horror is good stuff. The first one had the biggest impact being a new experience. The 2nd seemed like it brought things to new levels and was pretty strong as well. The 3rd I liked the most as a movie though, the final scenes are amazing and the conclusion so dark that I had to applaud it.

However the series is starting to drag on a bit. The 4th movie was good but didn't do anything new, interesting or powerful. I'm not sure if there's anything else left they can do with the remaining cast and characters but they would really have to try a lot harder to impress me in a 5th movie.

Why people want to hate on it? I'm not sure why. People like to jump on the bandwagon for a lot of things and often don't have much to argue for their cause. I chalk it up to that. The series was successful more than any other recent horror movies and I think there's a reason for it. People may talk shit but they still go see the movie. I did have some problems while watching the 4th movie in the theater though. Some people apparently weren't impressed with it's low budget effects and so they yelled out obscenities during various parts of the film.

This is why i always prefer to watch these movies at home, by myself, in the dark, with headphones on. I did that for the 1st movie and nearly shat myself. (and i don't scare easily)
 

Extra-Ordinary

Elite Member
Mar 17, 2010
2,065
0
41
Personally, I always thought the first one's great, and I liked each consecutive sequel less and less. I was still scared by them, but I found their growing lack of subtlety and the new information coming forward and filling in the holes made me look back on them and think "it wasn't as good as the last one."
That's just me, I don't *hate* the sequels, but after 3, I don't have very positive things to say about them.
 

Littaly

New member
Jun 26, 2008
1,810
0
0
I'm just gonna chime in with everybody else, I remember the first Paranormal Activity was actually really well recieved by fans.
 

erbkaiser

Romanorum Imperator
Jun 20, 2009
1,137
0
0
Hopping on the bandwagon here, the first movie in particular does not need defending. It only draws flak from people who absolutely hate found footage movies.
Now the third... they ought to have stopped after #2.

And thank you for not including any stupid jump scares in this defense video.
 

Darth Sea Bass

New member
Mar 3, 2009
1,139
0
0
I thought the first one was alright can't say anything about the others as I've not seen them I'll try catching them sometime.