Paranormal Activity (2009)

Just in time for Halloween, a RETURN TO EXTREME UNCTION!!!

Just a general note, I've decided I'm going to make my posts much shorter in general, so I will be more likely to get them up, rather than let them pile up.

Now to the good stuff:

Paranormal Activity was directed by Oren Peli, and stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat as themselves.

This movie's been kicking around film festivals since 2007, and it seemed to get good reviews, though not much hype until recently. I really wasn't too enthused to be seeing it until I actually got into the theatre. I mean, it's a found footage movie about a haunting, meaning it could have gotten real hokey, real fast. I was expecting the same old Amityville Horror House nonsense, with flies and dripping blood, but the actual movie was much more subtle.

Basically, the director did something really smart and avoided the obvious. No cats jumped out of trashcans; no hideous visages appeared in reflections from behind the camera. Each effect was well placed and timed, so that each new occurrence built on the previous with almost no lag in between. This allowed the director to get the most out of each paranormal event, winding the audience up in a way that one really doesn't see in horror anymore.

I mean, the audience never sees anything truly tangible beyond shadows or footprints. The first scare is a door moving slightly one way, stopping, then swinging back in place. The end scene, out of context, could be considered on par with an opening scare in other movies, but when I saw it, the entire audience screeched. I was genuinely scared even after I left the theatre.

The only problem I had was in the advertising. Like Quarantine, (2008) the end shot is shown in the trailer. It just seems counter-productive, and trivializes the suspense the movie works so hard to build.

Movie: A

Trailer: C

Geraldo Rivera Is Silly

Really, how could anyone take this as anything BUT sensationalism?

Speaking of exorcism...

This has been out for awhile, but I thought I'd post it.



Now, what to think of this? I think even an extremely conservative believer in exorcism would find this offensive. Hypothetically, even if one believed it was a sin to be gay, exorcising someone for that sin could be seen as forgiving culpability. If one can be exorcised for homosexuality, it's not a far stretch to see other sins as similarly external. It forgives responsibility, which seems like an abuse of the rite of exorcism itself.

Add to this how offensive it is to equate homosexuality with evil, and I don't see how anyone could NOT find this disturbing.
-DR

The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio

I've been reading The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio, and so far it's been really fascinating, especially concerning the reality of demonic possession compared to possession in cinema. For instance, most exorcisms take only about twenty minutes to subdue the demon, and reactions to the exorcism can vary from screaming, speaking in tongues or unknown languages, or threatening violence to coughing and yawning, depending on the intensity of the infestation. However, I found this passage particularly interesting, so I thought I'd include it:


"In the lore of exorcism, perhaps nothing is more infamous (because it it so spectacular) as the victim vomiting strange objects or copious amounts of fluid, sometimes even blood. Most of us remember Linda Blair's projectile vomit in the film The Exorcist, and Father Carmine [a priest profiled in the book] had a case wherein a woman vomited buckets of sperm. Such action typically signifies a curse; the person has eaten cursed food that he or she needs to eject. Vomiting objects such as finely woven hair or beads, or even blood clots, is a common indication of a curse as well. Or, in the case of a voodoo doll, the victim may vomit up a nail.

Note that exorcists believe these objects don't necessarily come from the person's stomach, but instead materialize in the mouth. In this way, such people are not harmed physically even though they appear to vomit sharp objects such as pieces of glass or needles...

Other exorcists have seen things that defy explanations, such as pools of mysterious black liquid appearing on the floor, or live animals- including crabs and scorpions- vomited up. Father Carmine once saw a woman vomit a small black toad that was alive. When he went to catch it, it fizzled away into saliva" (Baglio, 151).

However, Baglio goes on to assure that, as "psychotic patients swallow strange objects and them routinely," this can not be held as sole proof of possession. I don't know about this. Could a person really swallow a live animal and bring it back up still kickin'? I would think such a thing would be definitive proof.

Anyway, whether or not one believes, this is a fascinating book to pick up for some summer beach reading. :) Once I'm done, I'll post a full review.

-DR