I’ve always loved horror, but October is when I really get to indulge in it. I love the colder weather, the darker evenings and, obviously, the fact that Halloween is just around the corner. There’s something about this time of year that makes watching horror movies feel even better. Give me a dark room, a blanket and a genuinely creepy movie and I’m pretty much sorted.
31 days of horror
Hi, welcome to 31 days of horror, where I’m challenging myself to watch one horror movie every single day for 31 days in October. Some are old favorites I haven’t seen in years, while others are films I’ve never seen before.
So this year, I’m taking my love of horror a little further. I’m challenging myself to watch one horror movie every day for 31 days, taking me from October 1 all the way through Halloween. Some of these are old favorites I haven’t watched in years and desperately need a refresher on, while others are films I’ve somehow never seen before.
For day four, I’m watching “Paranormal Activity,” the iconic found-footage horror classic that turned an ordinary suburban home into a nightmare. I’ve recorded my reaction and thoughts after watching it, so you can follow along with my 31-day horror challenge below (along with a transcript of my video). Will I make it through the month? There’s only one way to find out.
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What is ‘Paranormal Activity’ about?
Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) are a young couple who have recently moved into a suburban home in San Diego. Katie tells Micah that a strange presence has been following her since childhood, and after several unexplained incidents around the house, Micah decides to investigate. He sets up a camera in their bedroom and begins recording them overnight, hoping to capture evidence of whatever is happening while they sleep.
At first, the footage shows relatively small disturbances, including strange noises, flickering lights and doors moving on their own. But the activity gradually becomes more intense, with objects shifting, loud bangs echoing through the house and increasingly frightening incidents involving Katie. Now the couple must figure out what is happening to them before it gets worse.
My thoughts after watching ‘Paranormal Activity’
“Paranormal Activity” wasn’t as scary as I remembered. When I first watched it when I was younger, it absolutely terrified me, and I had countless nightmares about it. Watching it again now, the scares don’t have quite the same impact, but it still maintains that same sense of tension and dread that made it so effective in the first place. A big part of what makes the movie work is its unique format.
We watch the haunting unfold across a series of nights, allowing the supernatural activity to gradually escalate. Katie and Micah also feel like a genuinely believable couple dealing with something completely bizarre together, and the naturalistic performances make their relationship feel much more convincing.
The filmmaking is remarkably effective considering how simple the setup is. The camera often remains completely static, leaving you staring at an apparently empty room and waiting for something to happen. The sound design does a lot of the heavy lifting too, particularly the low, almost constant drone that appears during some of the nighttime scenes. It creates an uneasy atmosphere without needing to rely on constant jump scares.
It’s even more impressive when you remember just how cheaply “Paranormal Activity” was made. The movie reportedly had a budget of only $15,000 and was shot inside director Oren Peli’s actual house at the time. For such a small-scale project, it ended up having an enormous impact and became one of the defining found footage horror movies of its era.
The film does show its age now, though, and I don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism. Its impact has inevitably been lessened by the sheer number of found footage movies that have followed, as well as the countless horror films centered around hauntings, demons and poltergeists. Some of what felt genuinely fresh and frightening when “Paranormal Activity” was released has become much more familiar.
I’ve also watched both the theatrical and alternative endings, and I’d recommend sticking with the theatrical version. It’s the ending audiences originally saw when the movie was released, it fits with the canon established by the sequels, and I still find it pretty unnerving.
Despite not frightening me quite as much as it did when I was younger, “Paranormal Activity” remains one of the best examples of found footage horror and still feels like a staple of the Halloween watchlist. There’s something impressive about how much tension Oren Peli was able to create with so little, and the movie remains a great example of how you don’t necessarily need a huge budget to leave an impact.
With “Paranormal Activity 8” also on the way next year and reportedly bringing some upgraded camera technology to the franchise, I’m certainly intrigued to see whether it can recapture some of that original magic.
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