As Halloween comes around every year, cinemas are always packed with the latest horror films to startle all of the latest moviegoers. I am positive that most of everyone has seen the typical Friday the 13th films, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, but this year brings a new and unique scary movie to the genre.
On October 13th tickets went on sale for the new horror film Paranormal Activity, which has had midnight only sellouts at select movie theaters two weeks prior to the day of full release to most theaters across America. With only a $15,000 budget, the film was only released at midnight sessions in 13 selected cities. The film was a hit, catching over 1 million votes across the nation that the film be played at theaters across the nation, which was released on October 16th.
The plot of the film involves a young couple who move into a normal suburban home, but during the night they tend to hear noises in their house. Disturbed about the noises, the couple decides to set up a night vision video camera while they sleep to hopefully notice any activity. For a month in the house the tension builds, until the footage is later found to unravel all the thrilling and paranormal footage that took place as they slept (similar to The Blair Witch Project).
After the film was shown at various film festivals, numerous viewers were reported to have problems sleeping at night. As quoted from Rolling Stone, “Make no mistake, this potent fright fest will fry your nerves and creep you out big time without spending a dime on obvious special effects.”