READERS' CHOICE #36: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, at least once, and I'm almost certain I've seen it multiple times. However, I couldn't say how many times total, or even when the last time was

BEST SEQUENCE

The original ending, which was changed after Paramount acquired the movie but which is still available on YouTube

BEST LINE

None worth mentioning

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

83%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Using its low-budget effects and mockumentary method to great result, Paranormal Activity turns a simple haunted house story into 90 minutes of relentless suspense."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence."

DIRECTOR

Oren Peli

MAIN CAST

Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

THOUGHTS

• 8/10 is a perfectly respectable Thrill Score, but in my memory it was higher, maybe even approaching a 10/10. It's still good, but this speaks to the movie's effectiveness upon first watch, before you know all the tricks it has up its sleeve. If you haven't seen Paranormal Activity, you should watch it, and hopefully your first viewing experience will also be a 10/10. Also, stop reading, because of spoilers
• Of certain horror movies, it's often said that your imagination can create things far scarier than the filmmakers ever can, and Paranormal Activity subscribes to this belief. And while I don't disagree with this in principle, I also think it makes a difference when there's still the potential to see something terrifying. Paranormal Activity plays with dark spaces and things happening just out of your field of vision, and on first viewing you may be afraid that something will suddenly appear in frame, or be right there when the camera turns a corner. However, knowing that this never really happens in this movie deflated some of the tension for me, especially combined with having a pretty good memory of all the big scares. Don't get me wrong, I still jumped a few times, but I also knew what to expect and when
• A while back, during my review of REC, when talking about horror found footage I made the claim that Paranormal Activity is pretty flawless in its execution of the idea. Upon rewatch this may have been giving a little too much credit, as there are still times when it strains belief that Micah would rush to grab the camera while spooky things are happening. However, what really stood out in my memory, and what still makes this movie far more believable than most found footage horror, is the fact that the majority of the scares, especially the big ones, happen while the camera is unmanned and passively watching Katie and Micah sleep. Of the found footage movies I've reviewed so far I can now say that REC is quite a lot scarier, but kudos to Paranormal Activity for being thoughtful about its logic. And by the way, eventually we'll be watching The Blair Witch Project, film #20 on the readers' list
• Also of utmost importance for found footage movies is the conviction of the actors, and Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are both pretty convincing, especially late in the movie when they're scared out of their minds. Earlier in the movie there are times when they still come across a little actorly, but hey, they're also playing characters who are fully aware that they're being filmed, so maybe this is intentional. Also, Micah's kind of a jackass, huh?
• Depending on your metrics, Paranormal Activity was the most profitable movie ever made. Initially costing $15 000 to make, it had a worldwide box office of $193 355 800. Therefore, it's not surprising in the least that it spawned sequels. I definitely saw the first two sequels, but beyond that I couldn't say for sure. And finally, beyond just spawning a franchise, some might say it also spawned a horror empire. It was the first horror movie produced by Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions, the company which would also bring us Insidious, Sinister and The Purge, as well as many others, including Jordan Peele's first two movies, Get Out and Us

Up next: Another movie I've seen before, but not for a very long time, Donnie Darko from way back in 2001 

BONUS REVIEW: FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, several times, but most recently in May of 2016

BEST SEQUENCE

Gotta go with the final jump scare. I knew it was coming, I knew exactly what would happen and what it would look like, but it still got me

BEST LINE

"Did you know that a young boy drowned? The year before those two others were killed? The counsellors weren't paying any attention. They were making love while that young boy drowned! His name was Jason."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

64%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Rather quaint by today's standards, Friday the 13th still has its share of bloody surprises and a '70s-holdover aesthetic to slightly compel."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A group of camp counsellors trying to reopen a summer camp called Crystal Lake, which has a grim past, are stalked by a mysterious killer."

DIRECTOR

Sean S. Cunningham

MAIN CAST

Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, a bunch of people you've never heard of, and Kevin Bacon

THOUGHTS

• You may be wondering how I can pinpoint with such precision the last time I saw this movie, in May of 2016. Well, there's an easy answer for that: ever since my wife and I started dating, in 2016, with every Friday the 13th that rolled around on the calendar we would watch the next movie in the franchise. Always in order, never watching the next movie when it wasn't on a Friday the 13th, and finally, after almost 7 years, we finished the franchise this past January by watching the 2009 reboot. And now, appropriately enough in October, we have the next Friday the 13th, so we decided to start all over again and we plan on keeping the tradition going. We'll have a fair while before the next one, though; the next Friday the 13th isn't until September of 2024
• I feel like I should stop worrying about spoilers, especially with movies like this. If you haven't already seen Friday the 13th, you probably don't care about spoilers for a movie that's 43 years old (which, of course, is a way of saying that spoilers shall follow)
• Franchise antagonist Jason Voorhees, one of the most famous slasher villains of all time, and one of the most prolific by body count, only appears in this movie for about 10 seconds as a child, and it might be debatable if he even appears at all. Instead, the killer is Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees. Not seen on camera for the majority of the movie, when Betsy Palmer finally shows up as Pamela, she gives us a fantastically campy performance (pun unintended), while still being chillingly unnerving, especially when we see the closeups of her face and her imitations of her son's voice
• Hell of a way for Pamela to go, too, when things come to a head
• Before Pamela shows up, since we can't actually see her during the kill scenes, the deaths are most effective due to the pretty impressive gore effects. These were provided by the legendary Tom Savini, whom I have mentioned in these reviews before - he worked with George Romero on Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead
• The best death scene was probably Kevin Bacon getting an arrow through the throat. This was only Kevin Bacon's fourth movie, by the way, and perhaps because of this he gets knocked off pretty early. He also doesn't make much of an impression, unless you count a particular shot of him in a speedo. If you know, you know
• Even though I've seen this before, a few times, I didn't know going into it what I would score it on the Thrill Scale. Early in the movie the score was sitting pretty low, but it did gradually tick higher as the movie went on. Despite this, I am definitely of the opinion that Halloween is miles better than Friday the 13th (being two slasher movies cut from the same cloth). If you have the opposite view and think that Friday the 13th is the superior movie, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this
• I kept wondering why I considered Halloween to be better, and I came up with two possible explanations: firstly, Halloween absolutely benefits from Jamie Lee Curtis's lead performance as Laurie Strode, and Friday the 13th doesn't have any characters who even come close to that level of relatability or personality. Secondly, the obscuring of Pamela Voorhees as a killer leads to an unexpected antagonist, and there are some effective first-person shots from Pamela's perspective, but to be unable to see who's doing the killing does lessen the impact, at least for me
• And, now that we've restarted the Friday the 13th rotation, there's a pretty good chance that I'll keep up the movie review tradition and keep reviewing each movie in the series as the day comes along. So for now we shall say farewell to Pamela Voorhees, but next time we'll properly say hello to Jason, although still perhaps not how most people picture him; he doesn't get his hockey mask until movie number 3. See you next September, Jason with a bag on his head!

READERS' CHOICE #37: THE BABADOOK (2014)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

10

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, shortly after it was released

BEST SEQUENCE

When the Babadook enters Amelia's bedroom, or when Samuel sees the Babadook in the car

BEST LINE

“I’ll soon take off my funny disguise

(Take heed of what you’ve read…)

And once you see what’s underneath…

YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU WERE DEAD”

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

98%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Babadook relies on real horror rather than cheap jump scares -- and boasts a heartfelt, genuinely moving story to boot."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home."

DIRECTOR

Jennifer Kent

MAIN CAST

Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

THOUGHTS

• When choosing a movie to watch, it seems like some people place high importance on the "new" compared to the "already seen". It also may not be surprising to learn that I have no such requirements; if I enjoyed a movie in the past, it's definitely up for a rewatch somewhere down the line. Despite this, and despite having extremely positive memories of The Babadook as a movie (not that it's a positive movie, it's very grim, but you get my meaning), I haven't rewatched it since shortly after it was released
• In such situations, of course, the fear is that the memory of the film will hold up better than the viewing experience upon rewatch. Fortunately, I had no such issues here. The Babadook was just as effective and just as chilling as I remembered, and perhaps even more so, with the added benefit of a modicum of surprise, since I remembered the general idea of the movie, and several of the important moments, but I didn't remember how thoroughly it chilled me to my core
• I'm talking full-body shivers, all the way up and down my spine, at many different points during the movie; practically throughout the whole thing. I'm pretty sure I felt this sensation more during The Babadook than any other movie I've reviewed so far
• I only listed two cast members above, and there are a few supporting characters I didn't include, but this really is a two-hander between Essie Davis as the mom, Amelia, and Noah Wiseman as the son, Samuel, especially towards the end and the climax of the movie. They're both fantastic. Davis goes through such a wide range of emotions, and just the way she delivers her lines provided a few of the previously mentioned full-body shivers. And this may seem like a backhanded compliment, but it's not meant to be - I like that Samuel is played as legitimately off-putting and, at times, obnoxious, and yet this doesn't affect our sympathy towards him. He's not a typical movie kid, the likes of which I've disparaged in this very blog, he's the kind of kid that you might sometimes want some time away from. And yet, his love for his mother is always very apparent, lending the events of the movie a wonderfully genuine quality
• The Babadook was critically acclaimed from the jump, and as far as I know it's still held in high regard, but I can kind of understand if some people don't find it as scary as I do. A story about a spooky goth-looking guy in a top hat who pops out of a creepy children's book, it's a pretty specific vibe that might not match your particular flavour of frights. But if we view the Babadook as a physical manifestation of Amelia's grief and depression, perhaps that will hit a little harder for some people out there
• And, somewhat related, a few times I was strongly reminded of Hereditary, another one of my favourite horror movies from the past decade, a movie I'll be reviewing eventually (#12 on the readers' list), and a movie that came five years after The Babadook
• Finally, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't mention that at some point since its release, the character of the Babadook became a gay icon of sorts. And while the common consensus is that this came about due to Netflix mistakenly categorizing The Babadook as an LGBT movie, and while I've always seen this to be one of your standard, garden-variety memes, that's not to say that one can't find meaning in some unlikely sources below the surface. So if, for you, the Babadook is openly gay, I want you to shout it loud and proud. Just remember, when you're shouting it, "Babadook" should be pronounced to rhyme with "book" and not with "toque," which is a pronunciation that my brain absolutely refuses to let me remember

Up next: One of the most profitable movies ever made, and one of the most influential, Paranormal Activity from 2007

READERS' CHOICE #38: THE WARRIORS (1979)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Never

BEST SEQUENCE

The bathroom fight between the Warriors and the Punks. In fact, I was going to give this movie a 6 on the Thrill Scale, but then I rewatched this scene and was like, "yeah, that's pretty good!" So I bumped the score up by half a point

BEST LINE

"I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

88%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"As violent as it is stylish, The Warriors is a thrilling piece of pulp filmmaking."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A street gang known as The Warriors must fight their way from the Bronx to their home turf on Coney Island when they are falsely accused of assassinating a respected gang leader."

DIRECTOR

Walter Hill

MAIN CAST

Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, David Patrick Kelly (I could list the rest of the guys who played the Warriors, but none of them were in much else)

THOUGHTS

• I think I just wasn't on this movie's wavelength
• Going into it, I had a pretty good idea of what the movie was about, but the main unknowns were what the movie would do with its premise and how violent it would be. There was some good fight choreography, but it all felt kind of bloodless. The thing is, I'm not entirely convinced that more realistic violence would have improved things, either, so this might just be a movie that didn't stand much of a chance with me
• I admire the commitment to this absolutely ridiculous premise. It's a very sincere movie, and the tongue is far removed from the cheek, unless the self-awareness is pitched at a level which is imperceptible to me
• It almost felt like the movie was writing checks it couldn't cash, what with the wide variety of creatively themed gangs shown in a couple of different montages, and then only a few of the gangs featuring in the plot of the movie itself. I was glad we got to see the Baseball Furies, though, they were pretty cool
• They definitely cast a lot of guys who look pretty great while doing a whole lot of running
• Some good needle drops, especially "Nowhere to Run," courtesy of the radio DJ character, who I liked as a plot technique. Fun fact, the DJ was only ever shown from the nose down, but if we'd seen her full face we might have recognized her as Lynne Thigpen, perhaps best known as The Chief from the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego TV show
• It was kind of hard to choose the best line for this one, as there were a few contenders. Runners-up would be David Patrick Kelly clinking the bottles on his fingers and whining "Warriors, come out to play-aaay," or Roger Hill bellowing "CAN YOU DIG IT?" to the huge assembly of gangs
• Finally, I'm almost certain that the first time I ever heard of this movie would have been when Rockstar released the 2005 video game The Warriors. I bought the game but never played it. Having watched the movie, I can now absolutely understand why it would be a perfect choice for video game adaptation. A bunch of fistfights, with thematically different groups of enemies, and while running through different parts of New York, I wouldn't be at all surprised if The Warriors influenced the format of many other video games, especially some of the arcade brawlers out there. And, I'm happy to confirm, that since watching the movie I have repurchased the video game digitally, and eventually I'll (hopefully) get around to playing it

Up next: 2014's The Babadook