There is this little horror film that's been making waves since it was shown at Slamdance. It's called Paranormal Activity and the raves about it has been tremendous. So I headed over to the official website to check out the trailer.
And my initial reaction was, "Not another one of those!"
Yep, Paranormal Activity continues the current trend that we've been seeing in films like [REC] and Cloverfield. It's the shaky cam all over again. Personally, I have my reservations about this new "trick of the trade," but Dreamworks has seen the viability of this trend and picked up all domestic and remake rights to Paranormal Activity.
In hindsight, The Blair Witch Project was way ahead of its time, conceived even long before YouTube was a tiny blimp on the World Wide Web. This mockumentary style is really a love-it or hate-it thing. Watch the trailer and decide for yourself.
According to Variety, Paranormal Activity's director, Oren Peli, is slated to helm the remake, while the original film will probably be released direct-to-DVD.
"Trick of the Trade" sums it up nicely. Some people keep calling it a (sub-)genre but that's giving it too much credit I think. It's a storytelling technique at best.
Having said that, I hate shaky-cam but can't deny how utterly effective it can be, especially in horror.
At IFFR earlier this week I went to a press screening of [REC] and I've never seen a bunch of journalists being this lively during a screening! Laughter, giggles and a couple of times we all jumped 3 feet in the air.
Definitely a rush and I consider [REC] to be the best film so far which makes use of this "Trick of the Trade".
Bastards. They scared me...
seems to me, from all the reactions so far, that [REC] has to be a group experience, nothing less than that.
I saw this exact same movie years ago, except it was called IN MEMORIUM.
I'd be kinda pissed if I was the filmmaker who made that, since it got zero attention for doing precisely the same thing...
there was also THE LAST BROADCAST that came before Blair Witch. but guess who made more money.