Only the other day I was lying in bed pondering the zombie glut, the remake glut and was pining for a good scary ghost flick. Then along comes Paranormal Activity. I haven’t copped it fright-wise like this since Ringu. Proper scared. Scared to be home alone, kind of chilled-to-the-bone scared.

Made for 10,000-odd bucks on digital video in a found-footage style, it’s become one of those runaway freak-hits in the US that Hollywood lets slip through the gaps once every ten years. Comparisons will inevitably be drawn to the now decade-old Blair Witch Project. Unlike Blair Witch, the characters of PA are well drawn, relatable, believable and sympathetic. You really don’t want bad things to happen to them.

The premise is simple: weird shit is creeping out a young couple in their new home so they buy a camera to record it all. I’d be a very bad man if I told you anything more plot-wise. A good scare-flick is like a rollercoaster. It’s a visceral experience. If I told you all the loops and turns beforehand it would ruin the fun.

They say comedy is the hardest thing to do in the world of drama. I disagree. Horror, true horror, is the most difficult. True, anyone can sling a bucket of fake blood over a screaming actress and call it a horror movie – but it’s another thing to make a cinema full of people forget that they are safe and actually experience fear during a screening. If that fear follows you home afterwards and gives everything familiar a definite air of malevolence, well that my friends is true horror.

Horror films are, as I’ve said, a visceral, participatory event. You have to allow yourself to be scared. Nervous laughter throughout is always a sign that people are being scared. Folks talking furiously afterwards is only something that occurs after a good fright flick. There’s 
a jagged, uneasy energy that stays with a crowd afterwards. 

The coolsters laughed as the credits rolled, picking the movie apart over its relatively miniscule budget… yeah, you, I saw you jump during the scary bits. It’s okay to be scared though: it’s good fun.

By the way… I’m watching you read 
this right now.  - Aaron