So You Think “Paranormal Activity” Is Real?
I’m sure by now many have seen “Paranormal Activity”. If you haven’t, then don’t continue reading, there are some spoilers ahead.
One of our readers, BellaBoo, posted a link to the James Randi website (skeptical website) in which a writer reviews “Paranormal Activity”. I must tell you that I really don’t understand where the review is going. I think it is by far the worst review I have read about the movie. Why? For the simple reason that it’s written in the “pseudo-skeptic” mentality. The one where a person claims to be skeptic by nature, but really are just close-minded individuals.
Joe, Gary and Myself are skeptics. We DOUBT everything we see, read and report on. We doubt that ghosts haunt and torment people (at least I do). “Doubt” being the keyword here. We are always open to the possibility that maybe there are external forces that cannot be cataloged by science. Forces that have yet to be measured by any known device. Forces that are either from a person’s psyche or from an ethereal place. We DOUBT, but not deny.
The review was given by Alison Smith, from the Randi.org web site. I have read plenty of articles by Alison Smith. I enjoyed a lot of them. I think she has a good head on her shoulders most of the time and is a good writer. When I came across this particular article, I was reminded of how pseudo-skeptics operate.
Let’s look at the second and third paragraphs in the article:
Because of Paranormal Activity’s dishonesty, you also wouldn’t know that the film starred actors Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. You wouldn’t know that the film was shot over seven consecutive days in a home that Peli purchased that has no record of paranormal activity. Peli doesn’t want you to know that by seeing the movie, which appears to be composed entirely of found footage given to filmmakers by a local police department (according to a caption at the beginning of the film).
But, let me back up for a moment and let you know – Paranormal Activity is a massive waste of time, even ignoring its deception. The film documents the trials of a couple, Katie and Micah, and their difficulties with a demon that has been following Katie since she was a child. They call in a psychic, who apparently has a PhD in something since they refer to him as ‘Doctor’. They think about calling a demonologist. They play with a Ouija board against advisement.
So it talks about the Writer/Director Oren Peli. How his film was dishonest and was shot entirely in the director’s home. Mentioning again that the film is deceptive and in the article, Alison Smith points out that the main protagonists are just actors. That the psychic that went in to investigate the home could possibly be a fake doctor.
OK, so it’s at this point in the article that I don’t understand if Alison really thought that this was supposed to be real.
So I continue reading…
But the real problem here is not the plot, which is nonexistent, or the writing, which I’m pretty sure actually was nonexistent. The problem is that the film is cashing in on the appearance of being a true documentary. It’s cashing in the way The Blair Witch Project did, except The Blair Witch Project wasn’t dishonest.
The film was altered (the theatrical ending is different from the original), and re-released by Dreamworks and Paramount with the help of Spielberg, which is why you can now see it in theaters everywhere (though I hope you don’t).
I’ve never recommended boycotting a movie, a book, or a piece of music based on the belief system it represented. But I would love it if we all boycotted Paranormal Activity. Not because it’s phenomenally bad, though I feel better that it is since you won’t be missing much, but because its intent and its success have both feet firmly planted in deceit.
As I left the theater, all the people who left before me milled around outside the doors, talking to one another in loud voices about their belief that the footage was real. They shared their own paranormal experiences. They had a grand discussion about ghosts.
And I wondered, as I often do, why we, the public, keep allowing ourselves to be defrauded to line someone else’s pockets.
In the article, Alison Smith then starts to attack the way the film was written. Saying that there is no plot. A plot is a storyline. The movie has a story line. A minimal script was written, but mainly the actors had to “act” out scenes. Although it’s a new way that filmmakers are finding effective, improv on screen seems to bring out the real talent in actors. Alison then states:
The problem is that the film is cashing in on the appearance of being a true documentary. It’s cashing in the way The Blair Witch Project did, except The Blair Witch Project wasn’t dishonest.
OK, so now I understand. She’s upset because the film was painted as being a true documentary. OK, I understand how someone can be upset over that. Just like the article I wrote about the upcoming UFO movie “The fourth kind“. The only difference is that I had a real reason to gripe.
The movie “The fourth kind” purposely created fake evidence and fake doctors and their websites and threw them all online to help sell the idea that this was all real. That is a major screw up. (read my article)
Alison is complaining that this movie is deceptive because it presented itself as a true documentary.
I understand that, but as a fellow writer and “skeptic”, I feel that you can’t mislead your audience by attacking a horror movie in such manner. You are not debunking anything. The movie is completely made up. Imaginative and effective.
This is what horror movies are. They play on your emotions and relate to you in such ways where you sit there watching them and think to yourself…”I know what that’s like”.
Alison’s goal of boycotting the movie is overly dramatic. Maybe we can just boycott the people who actually believe such marketing ploys are real….and there are a lot of them.
I check my websites stats daily. I’ve notice an increase of hits from search engine searches that start off with “Is Paranormal Activity real”. A lot of people believe that what they saw on screen is a real life haunting captured on tape. Don’t ask me why, I just look at the stats.
So I think it would be more effective to educate the public so that they can be more aware of what they are reading or watching. Attacking a movie in such manner like this review of like “Paranormal Activity” seems like an easy way of getting approval by other “skeptics”.
The movie is not an Oscar winner or intellectually stimulating, it’s just simple, raw and effective terror.
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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I want to tell you just one thing about that post for the movie: “Paranormal activity”. I think that pseudo-skeptic it’s just a word used by you in a very bad way and without knowing the definition of that word. You associated the word skeptic with closed mind persons. That’s not true, because in my opinion, it means rational person and thinking in positive way. If a person believes in ghosts and demons (such as paranormal activities) he is thinking negative and he attracts those thoughs and he really convinces himself that those “things” are real. So think positive and rational. Be a rational person and read a lot of books so you can see things more critically then a normal person. Act smart and don’t think stupid. Sorry about my bad english i’m not english or american so if there are any errors in my grammatics please just correct me
. Goodbye all.
thugdebil89,
By pseudo-skeptic, I didn’t mean skeptics, I mean people who claim to be skeptical but in reality are very biased and one sided in the argument about the paranormal.
-Javier
I just saw this movie and I thought it was terrible. That being said, I have to disagree with the person who wrote the article. She said that the Blair Witch didn’t try to make itself look like a true story/documentary and wasn’t dishonest. YES IT DID and YES IT WAS! There was a “special” that aired on the Sci-Fi channel shortly before Blair Witch came out that had the obvious purpose of fooling people into believing that the legend AND the footage in the movie was something that really happened. There were NO disclaimers on this show that it was fiction and only meant to advertise the movie. I knew a lot of people at the time that saw that show on Sci-Fi and thought that the whole “Blair Witch” thing was real. I have to admit that after watching it, I wondered for a bit before researching it myself and the show really was creepy. It was only when one of the actors appeared on the Tonight Show that most of these people I knew finally realized they’d been duped! They had people on it saying they were investigators or police that had “found” the missing footage, etc etc etc. They really made it sound like it was a real, true, legend and that there really had been 3 students that had disappeared…and again, there were absolutely NO disclaimers that it or the movie was fiction. To be honest with you though, I liked Blair Witch much more than Paranormal Activity.
I just finished watching Paranormal activity…and i thought it was better than Blair witch project…and man if that footage wasnt real it cetainly was believable…i am creeped out ! ! I am a believer that there are good and bad spirits around us..and no im not a crackhead or pot head..i am a mother of 5 girls and ive had true experiences..nothing scary..just unusual where it left me thinking WTF..anyway..it was a good movie..wont be sleeping well tonite i dont think..lol..
im shannon & im with my friend shauna, we just watched paranormal activity. it was abit freaky, but not petrifing but we were wondering if it was a true story so were searching online ;]
but half say it is and half say its not :/ oh and i couldnt be arsed to read that ^ so can someone just tell me if its true or not please
noooo… it isn`t real at all! (in short)
there is no way that this is real. i watched it and even though i thought it was going to be scary it wasnt.when producers have a lot of expensive equipment they can make anything look real.(if you want to see a cheesy movey watch 100 million BC)
I watched this movie 2 nights ago…I just noticed that when the police came in, they didn’t say what police…usually they say “richmond police” or “LAPD” or so and so police department, come out. Something like that. Police know that they need to identify themselve upon entering property. I guess they thanked the rancho penasquitos because..welp I don’t know that one.
I was searching to find some kind of actual report or extra footage, but I see it wasn’t really real. Maybe some things were real stuff…but they just tweeked it a little some’m some’m..I mean hey, they came along way with the recording, so if they wanted to put it on screen,they had to realize it gotta be waay interesting. so they might had taken their little expireinces and said..you know what, this is too boring…we gotta add this and add that.
well, something about movies like that ARE more interesting to me because it’s alot of suspense and eye covering scenes. OK, it wasn’t the best film and it didn’t have monsters and all this goar, but i’m kinda glad it didn’t because the damn movie had my heart pumping faster than any real scripted movie that we’re all used to.
It’s just more fascinating because in those movies you don’t find yourself fussing at the screen; you’re eyes are wide, you’re clinched to something/someone, and very quiet.
That’s because in the back of your mind, it’s a posiblity that what you are watching actually happened…verses a regular movie that only scares you because of the sudden loud noise in the background or things jolting at the camera.
Call it what you want..call it action or comedy…by my reaction to the movie I call it terror.
My catargory of horror movies are slasher movies (a boogie man out to kill everyone)
Scary movies to me are like “Drag me to hell”..there’s a creature, suspense, alot of gross stuff and in-your-face spook action.
Anyway no one can knock the hussle.. we have all these stupid, uncalled for, REAL waste of time footage on the new reality shows out…now that I will watch a homemade terror movie any day.
-peace from the middle east (of VA)
I thought that PA, was a OK movie. If it was real then why would it have writers? I have to give some credit it does make you wonder.
La~ah I Love your name and I agree with you! It’s NOT a real movie! It’s FAKE!
So, what your saying is that documentaries (for example) don’t have writers? I wouldn’t hope to win a court case with that argument.
It’s not true if it was it wouldn’t have the way it really ended and a way it could have ended
(My Opion)There are such real forces at play all around us, which we all know about,In forms Good an Evil existed. An yes it is believed that these forces can move through realms into our world. Becuase our world seperates their realm from our worlds, our world divides the two realms from each another.Goods, is the only force that has the power to move freely in an out through realms.Evil remian powerless, Can not they needs too perform a ritual to crossover because they forbiden to cross through into our world.humans blood is required for them perform a ritual,They manifest into spirit form an crossing temparily, possesing the human body they can only remian too exist on this world.a By casting the demon out then they can only return too thier realm. By allowing yourself to wacth this movie could possible exposses your bodily form to possesing body using you as a gate-way too our world an causing choas too humans.
The movie had be going most of the time , but in the end it just did not gel with me. After watching the movie and analazing it i knew it could not be true , their were just to many inconsistentencies. But the Movie is good,different and worth the effort, Well Done.
i couldn’t say..the impact it could leave on a susceptible psyche is mos def real..as with all unknowns,possibilities are limitless..from bullshit to cover-ups,or sinister forces at work,only thorough investigation will tell..
In the end all we have is our faith which is our strength and in this world and the next thats all that matters..thank you
Good review.
I thought PA was rather entertaining, and whilst on the whole I thought the movie was quite funny and entertaining, there were a few bits that caught me by surprise (such as her being dragged out of the bed and the final scene where mickah gets thrown into the camera).
Overall I must say it performed better than what I thought it would.
As for the argument of whether disguising a movie as real, I’m totally fine with it because it adds to the terror and entertainment value. Any rational person would recognise however that in the final seconds of the film, the ‘demon screaming into the camera thing’ is a popular hollywood ploy used by directors to get that final scare from the audience – thus raises questions as to the ambiguity of the film’s ‘is it real?’ value.
I think these films are only supposed to be taken for what they are valued for, and that is, entertainment. People shouldn’t be taking it as evidence.
Furthermore, a quick Wikipedia search shows that the film is in fact false, as multiple endings were recorded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_Activity_%28film%29
Take care
P.S. Did anyone else find the leading male (Mickah?) funny? I thought he was hilarious!
well i have not seen paronormal activity and dont intend too either i am a very opened minded person and beleive that certain things that people think can be propelled into actually moving things around and negativity can be felt by other people but having experienced an episode of something and you all might say yeah right my family witnessed this and heard two distinct voices talking over mine at the same time as i was trying to talk was quite creepy so i must say that paronormal activity in my mind could be percieved to be fact but to others its just hype and stories.
Before i watch the movie i heard that it`s based on a true story & its very effective ! so i prepared myself to watch a true effective horror movie .i thought that would be great to watch it alone at midnight (cause i love horror movies). well to be honest ,the film was effective & scares me a little but the main problem was ,it wasn`t real enough !!!
you know ,it`s so clear ,when something strange & specially paranormal happen to you ,even a little thing ,it makes you scare to death .it`s very simple ,this is the reaction of our brains ,THE FEAR OF UNKNOWNS .but in this movie everything`s going very normal & both, Micah & Katie ,expecting the next happening comes to them by MR DEMON !!!
i cant believe such things like that & if you wanna know why ,place yourself instead of one of them just for 2days ,doesn`t matter who !then you`ll realize why …
I knew before going to see it that the movie wasn’t real. But after seeing it, I did realize that certain segments were ‘culled’ from actual cases. Like the loud bang. The swinging chandelier. The footprints in the baby powder. Other than that it was really interesting movie. I thought it was very entertaining.
I saw both movies knowing that they were fiction. I was just in it to be entertained and scared. Both movies failed for me. I was never scared and felt very disappointed.