[manasecret]

Originally Posted by The Germanator

I agree with you a lot about expectations. I had similar feelings about Blair Witch Project when it first came out, but after watching Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch Project looks like a masterpiece to me again. The thing is, I did know what I was expecting. I knew I was getting a film made for $11,000 by amateurs, and I was curious how they'd go about it. Color me not impressed.

Wait, does that mean you did or didn't like Blair Witch? I liked it. And I'm going to out myself here -- while I had my doubts, I bought into the hype before I saw it and after seeing it, I believed it to be a true story. I remember thinking that the utter fear in that girl's later moments in the film to be beyond acting. How gullible I was...

I'm not sure I agree with you in terms of what I was expecting though. I was expecting to be scared, creeped out, terrified, etc. Those are the things I expect from a horror film. Instead I got poor acting and dull 20 minutes conversations in between doors closing and bed sheets moving. If the things that did happen in the film weren't that troubling, than how am I supposed to be disturbed by the things that I "can't see" or "don't happen?"

Sorry if I put words into your mouth, I was just trying to figure out what scenario might have polarized you (or someone else) on the film. And I see what you're saying. If you don't buy into the story, there is very little else in the movie to like. However, if you do buy into the story, then the fear instilled in your imagination is, in my opinion, some of the best.

As an aside, after I wrote that commonly held belief "the scariest things are what you don't see", I thought about taking that to the extreme. Imagine a film of just an empty room and nothing else. No characters, no explanation, nothing. Not scary at all. Of course, someone might randomly imagine something spooky going on in the room, but far many more would imagine nothing spooky if anything at all. I guess the "nothing is more" only works if the film makers are able to point your imagination in the right direction, through the plot and sight and sound. And if they are unable to do that with the viewer, then you're left in the empty room scenario. Your imagination doesn't fill in the blinks with anything spooky, and the film falls flat. It's like Todo came in and you're left with "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

I agree with you that this is a different style of horror movie and I think this style of horror movie can work, it just didn't this time. Drag Me To Hell was a far better horror movie, I don't care what style. It was genuinely scarier and more fun to watch. Also, I just watched "Coraline" a couple nights ago and parts of that were much scarier than anything in Paranormal Activity.

I just saw Drag Me To Hell, and I liked it a lot. But I found very little of it scary, probably the scariest part with the Gypsy old lady first lunging at the banker. But I think that comes down to me finding any of Sam Raimi's horror scenes in any movie more campy and funny than scary, because I love Army of Darkness so much. He uses the same style so I end up just laughing through the scary scenes.

Remember the Doctor Octopus tentacle scene in Spider Man 2? It was a genuinely creepy scene, but I remember laughing out loud in the theater all throughout because it's the exact same style he uses in his Evil Dead series, with the camera controlled by the tentacle in Spider Man and controlled by the trees/etc. in Evil Dead.

I also agree Coraline had some very creepy scenes.

Originally Posted by BreakABone

Or at least I think I do, much like the Blair Witch, I think people create a scenario in their head in which this could happen to them. I mean I never expect Freddy or Jason to pop up, but for weird unexplainable things to happen in your home... I'm sure that happens to us all.

I think you make a good point here. Both Paranormal and Blair Witch take place in areas most people are in often if not daily, just normal regular places. So you can easily imagine the events as if they were happening to you. And the mockumentary, barebones style adds to that illusion, that this could be you.

But I never imagined footprints or weird noises. Coming from Paranormal Activity, the scariest thing for me to think about is what happens or could happen when you are asleep and no one is there to notice. What if you woke up one night to find your girlfriend/boyfriend standing over you silently? If you set up a camera watching you sleep, what strange things might you catch?