Review: Paranormal Activity

We both have an interest in the parnormal which was the main draw for a movie that was made to look like a real life account of actual paranormal activity. Although we both thought the movie for the most part accurately portrayed the events of a real haunting, we believe that it made for a dull movie. Our expectations for the film were not really high, due to the overwhelming hype it recieved when it first came out. Needless to say, we were not impressed.

Quick Spoiler Free Summary
The movie followed a young couple, Micah and Katie, who attempted to document paranormal activity that had been occuring in their house for some time. They set up a video camera in their bedroom to attempt to capture any possible activity occuring while they slept. After several negative experiences, they decide to call on the help of a psychic. The psychic reveals to the couple that the entity is centered around Katie. The rest of the film is short intervals of paranormal activity captured on video, subsequantly causing the two to become more and more aggrivated with eachother, and their situation. Then the movie ends. No really, we mean it.

Review
Plot- 3/5
The concept of a couple documenting their own supernatural occurences makes for a promising experience. However, the way the plot was developed was less than satisfactory. There was a lot of needless dialogue that broke the flow of the film that made the demonic activity seem like punctuation to a story about a troubled relationship.

Acting- 3/5
The acting in the movie was not terrible, however they didn't have much to work with. They were either angry at each other, or scared of whatever supernatural experiences they were having. There were a few points that seemed overly dramatic, but for the most part, the acting was believable, as it truly seemed like these were two people enountering supernatural phenomena.

Special Effects- 1/5
The extent of the good special effects were footprints made by the entity as it walked through baby powder, left as a test by Micah. At the end, Katie's face turned into a demon face, and that looked kind of cool. The rest of the special effects, like a moving chandelier and Ouija board catching fire, were not impressive.

Fear- 0/5
Before you throw this review away, we need to say that we honestly were not frightened at any point in this film. The pace was so slow that there was no tension being built up. The parts with the supernatural phenomena were so dull that it did not induce fear (promised by every trailer/commercial) into either of us. As soon as the movie began, it ended. The "too scary for theatres" alternate ending on the DVD was just Katie slitting her throat very quickly and falling out of site. There wasn't even any blood.

In Conclusion- 1.8/5
The hype surrounding this movie, and the dozens of emphatic viewer testemonials leaves us curious. What was it about this movie that scared people? Why was this branded to be the scariest movie in a long time? We are not trying to be douchebags about not liking this movie. We saw it with open minds, and were ultimately disappointed. Please comment this post, in all seriousness, explaining why you felt this movie was a truly scary film.