Lorrie’s on vacation starting today, but she wanted me to go check out the new horror film Paranormal Activity at midnight last night in Washington, D.C. The indie movie has been the talk of the Internet since advertising through a grassroots, word-of-mouth marketing campaign and opening in 13 college towns late last month. Paramount Pictures has let people “demand” the film in their areas using Eventful.com, and it opens in 20 more cities today with midnight showings only. (For a theater near you, click here. If you don’t find your area on the list, be patient — Paranormal Activity expands to a total of 40 markets next Friday.) Read below for my review and check out a trailer below.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Paranormal Activity

I really, REALLY wanted Paranormal Activity to spook me so bad that I couldn’t sleep last night. I’m the type of guy who’ll watch Flatliners with the lights off in the middle of the night — just for fun. Steven Spielberg himself was even freaked out by it. Yet the movie didn’t terrify me or many other audience members in a sold-out crowd. (Perhaps Steve hasn’t seen The Exorcist?)

Paranormal Activity owes much to its “found video” predecessor, The Blair Witch Project, which scared $250 million out of the world’s pockets 10 years ago. For Paranormal Activity, the shaky camera has moved from the Maryland woods to the San Diego suburbs. Filmed in documentary style, young couple Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) — who both lack common sense and have been studying from the Things You Never Do in a Horror Movie textbook — have just moved into a new house where all sorts of things are going bump, clang and thud during the night. Is it a ghost? Is it a demon? Whatever it is, she’s a believer, he’s a skeptic, and Micah sets up a video camera to document the haunted goings-on while they sleep to get to the bottom of things.

Those things obviously progress from creaking doors to much worse things, and the psychological anticipation of something happening (because you KNOW something bad is going to happen) is more nerve-racking than what eventually comes. Budgeted at $11,000, first-time director Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity is probably a better-made film than many that cost 10,000 times that. There are some great, creepy set pieces that will induce goosebumps, but other scare tactics come off as mere parlor tricks.

Actually, Paranormal Activity makes for a decent date movie — there are some parts that are really quite funny (including ones with the worst psychic ever). Just don’t bet on ending up in the fetal position afterward. The one thing that could totally undermine the film is the hype of it being overly frightening. It’s not. Unfortunately, Paranormal Activity proves to be slightly less scary than your average Lady Gaga performance outfit.