I
distinctly remember when Paranormal
Activity came to theaters the fall of my freshman year of college. I went
with some friends to one of the late-night showings not really sure what to
expect. I’ve never found scary movies particularly scary despite having an
overactive imagination. Usually, my imagination shuts down and rationalization
takes over. This didn’t happen the first time I watched Paranormal Activity. Because so much isn’t seen—rather it’s heard
or implied—my mind raced to fill the gaps with reckless abandon. By the end of
the film, I had gotten myself so worked up over the demon following Katie (one
half of the movie’s main couple) that I only heard rather than saw the final scene. Afterwards, I asked my
roommate what I had missed. She told me I hadn’t seen Katie’s face
turn into the demon’s.
It's no secret I have a fear of demons and possession that
dates back to childhood. Something about an evil, non-human entity following
you around just to make your life miserable, or worse, take over your body and
strip you of control, fills me with dread. But I always felt like a wimp for
not having the courage to keep my eyes open for the final scene. When Paranormal Activity popped up on the
list of required reading/viewing materials for Hauntings, I realized this was
my opportunity to redeem myself.
So
I watched the movie in broad daylight nice and safe under an electric blanket with a hot
cup of coffee and my cat. Because I’m cool like that.
This
time, all the gaps had been filled from years of distance and knowing what
would happen. First thing I did was face the unwatched final scene. My imagination
had done one hell of a job creating something far worse than what actually
happened. Demon face? Not so much. Creepy snarl with a side order of unresolved
ending? Absolutely. My version of the DVD had the alternate ending, so I went
ahead and watched that one, too. It was far less spectacular than the demon
face theatrical ending, yet it resolved the story. Then, with the two endings
in mind, I started from the beginning.
What
this movie does spectacularly well is leave so much up to the viewer’s
imagination. The demon is never shown—only clues to its appearance are left,
which forces viewers to create the demon in their minds. The
atmosphere of the movie is literally dark, and many of the scenes are shot in
night vision. The lack of light also forces the viewers to imagine what’s in
the shadows. But there is enough information so that viewers don’t get too
frustrated by the loud noises and implications. This movie didn’t have a
script, rather it had an outline for the actors to follow. Through the adlibbed
dialogue, the demon’s backstory is revealed, and it doesn’t feel forced or like
an info dump. Viewers learn about the monster along with the characters.
The
downside to the movie is once you’ve seen it once, there’s no real reason to
watch it again. So much of the tension relies on darkness, unexpected noises,
and the building anticipation of the viewers. Watching it again after the
initial tension of the first viewing has been released makes it lackluster, almost dull, because
nothing is unexpected.
What
I found to be the most interesting watching it again was comparing the
different endings. Most DVDs have two endings: the theatrical and the
alternate. Yet there is a third ending, the original ending, floating around on
the Internet. Each ending changes the tone of the movie. The theatrical ending
is the most dramatic: Katie is possessed by the demon who has haunted her for
most of her life and makes her kill her boyfriend, Micah. Micah’s body is
thrown at the camera, possessed Katie crawls over it, grins at the camera
demonically, then the scene fades out. It’s followed by an epilogue stating
that the police found Micah’s body several days later, but Katie has never been
found. This ending leaves much up in the air, which best fits the tone of the
movie. The demon finally wholly possesses Katie, which was its MO all along,
yet it’s still out in the world to attack someone else or to live on earth in Katie's body.
The
alternate ending has more closure. Again, possessed Katie kills Micah, but viewers only know this from what they hear. Katie walks towards the camera
covered in blood and holding a knife. The demon then makes Katie slit her
throat, and the scene fades out. This ending stops the demon’s threat by giving
it what it wants: Katie. Its reign of terror is over once it ends her life.
The original ending had the least amount of punch for
me. As with the other two endings, possessed Katie kills Micah, then sits alone
rocking the floor of her bedroom for several days. The police enter her home,
she snaps out of the near-catatonic state she’s been in, comes towards the
police with the knife she used to kill Micah, and the police shoot her down.
What I didn’t like about this ending was that the demon just sort of wanders
off screen with no hint as to what it actually wanted or if it achieved what it
set out to do. It makes the MO more about killing Micah than anything else. If
anyone wants to compare the endings, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeRzM0NdshA
While
I approached re-watching Paranormal
Activity with a hint of dread, I was able to see its strengths more clearly
than I was the first time I saw it. Granted, I have no plans to watch it
countless times over, but I can appreciate its goal: less can sometimes be
more, especially when it comes to scares.