Kristin and I have been enjoying the big malls here in Manila, but I was really wanting to go to a movie.  That’s something that we both really enjoy but don’t make the time to do much back in the states and since we are supposedly on vacation here we looked up the listings and found a movie we would *both* enjoy.  Twilight is evidently huge over here and has overtaken many of the screens, leaving few choices.  I had read a good red box blog about Paranormal Activity, and since Kristin had been gone for Halloween when I typically try to watch a horror movie, this seemed like a good choice.  Paranormal Activity was a fantastic choice as it wound the audience tight and was a well shot and written horror movie.

The movie is about a couple who deal with a demonic haunting following Katie, the female protagonist.  Micah, the male protaganist and boyfriend who can handle whatever is going wrong in his home, decides to film and communicate with the demon.  There are only two other people in the movie and they have only bit parts.  Realistically, the best part of the movie is when the camera is set still and covers the entrance to the bedroom and the bed.  The movie is completely shot with a handheld (albeit professional grade) camera, so be prepared for some wobbly camera shots.

I get really immersed in horror movies and know that they are especially awesome when the entire theater audience gets into them.  My previous best experience at a horror movie was at a showing of The Ring, when the whole theater was gasping and nervously chuckling altogether – someones phone rang in the theater about half way through, which resulted in a short scream.  Well folks, that happened again with Paranormal Activity and it was fantastic. 

The audience was really into it and by the end of the movie, everytime we cut to a night shot the audience would start to chatter nervously and and that enourmously dialed up the tension.  When the good stuff happened, the screams filled the theater.  Speaking of the good stuff, the effects are great and I was really impressed to see that the director and editor refrained from cheap “jumps” by  not doing stuff everytime they panned the handheld camera around.  That added to the tension rather than diminishing it.

Kristin and I were creeped out all night by this movie and even into this morning, talking about what some of the things meant and how it was supposed to be interpreted.   We were very glad we didn’t watch this by ourselves, in our home.  Any couple that chooses to do that and genuinely gets into the movie is setting themselves up for a bad night!

Everything is OK after the last night.

Trust me.

A solid A for this one.

–Nat