Paranormal Activity Made Cheap Horror Fun

The Paranormal Activity series has become infamous for its routine of constant jumpscares and its title has become somewhat synonymous with lazy popular horror which people will line up to see year after year on opening night. Admittedly, I am not a big fan of the series in terms of its convoluted storyline and difficulty with upholding simple historical accuracy in films and sequences which flash back to previous decades. However, bearing all of that in mind, I do firmly believe that Paranormal Activity (particularly the first film in the series) is extremely important to the horror genre as a whole, even with its glaring flaws and reliance on jumpscares, simply due to the fact that it made horror films something that were easily accessible and easy to create for those who initially believed they might not have the budget for it.

Prior to Paranormal Activity perhaps the most notable cheap horror movie was The Blair Witch Project a film which might be unnerving on its first viewing for unsuspecting viewers waiting nervously to see something within the thick woods surrounding the film's protagonists, but once the credits roll people are typically disappointed with the anticlimactic realization that nothing really happens throughout the course of the film. It really is unfortunate, especially when bearing in mind the fact that there would have been no impact on their budget or loss in quality if they at least had someone lurking in the woods for the audience to catch a horrifying glimpse of.

While Paranormal Activity is hardly an incredible example of the depths of horror, it certainly gives audiences something to be startled by as it reduces a classic ghost haunt to a much more personal level through the use of the found footage subgenre complete with doors slamming and furniture moving at unexpected moments. Admittedly, it's a cheap way to get scares, but it still works and while the film is flawed that doesn't make it any less fun. Paranormal Activity made efforts to make the found footage horror genre wild and fun, it provided a fascinating excuse for the cameras (wanting to catch evidence of a ghost on film) and gave he audience exactly what they had wanted from the likes of The Blair Witch Project: things that would actually startle them and give them a reason to be mildly concerned.

The main reason I'm applauding the Paranormal Activity series is its ability to bring horror to the people in a way which might inspire future filmmakers to attempt their own low-budget horror films. Since the creation of Paranormal Activity there have been more and more independent filmmakers taking strides in utilizing the horror genre as a way to tell their stories; take for example Robert Eggers who directed the beautiful historical horror genre Witch or David Robert Mitchell, the director of It Follows. Paranormal Activity paved the way for beautiful and meaningful lower budget horror through showing that things can be horrifying without the use of fake gore spewing at the camera and computer generated imagery of terrifying demons (not that there's anything wrong with either of those scare tactics when utilized correctly).

Paranormal Activity may not be your favorite horror movie, it certainly isn't mine, but I do believe that it's an important horror movie. It made horror accessible to directors with limited budgets and it's still a fun movie to sit and watch with a group of friends while you tease each other for being startled by closet doors slamming and couches falling over.