History Headscratchers / ParanormalActivity

** [[Enfant Terrible]] Aaaaaaaah!

** What?

* Why the ''fuck'' was ''anyone'' actually scared by this piece of shit movie? Three year olds could fall asleep watching it. I mean, I've seen ''comedy'' horrors that were scarier, like ''DragMeToHell''. I mean, sure, they advertised it to be really scary and maybe it was just the placebo effect. However, I saw through it all along; I never thought it would be scary (mainly because I'm pretty critical of the whole horror genre.) Most of the film was clearly just trying to build up to a big scare later that didn't come until the end. Though, the ending was only a huge surprise just because something finally happened. This, however, does not justify how boring the whole movie was up to that scene. It was simply cheap, and they didn't even manage to do cheap, easy scares correctly. The ''ANightmareOnElmStreet'' remake was ''nothing'' except cheap scares, for example, but still scared me half to death in the theater.
** The reason why people thought it was scary was because of the "suspense", I guess you could call it. Modern horror films tell us that any long, silent, quiet, drawn out scene will include a jump scare at some point. Paranormal Activity used this to its advantage by putting in a lot of scenes that included all of the elements of a scene that would include such a scare, so that people would get tense waiting for it, but only rarely did it ever actually act on it; not really until the surprise body at the end. That might be why the ending was changed from the Katie-walks-in-the-room-with-the-knife thing to her throwing [[spoiler: Micah's]] body at the camera. It was more surprising, and the audience would hopefully have, at this point, stopped expecting a jump scare, thus amplifying the shock factor.
*** Maybe I fell asleep from boredom, but I don't recall any suspenseful scenes. All I saw were a bitch and an asshole screaming at each other for an hour and a half.
** Also depends greatly on what scares you. Many people are more freaked out by quiet, unseen horrors than by jump scares or on-screen gore. There's a reason the NothingIsScarier trope exists. There's also the fact that they were fighting a being that they couldn't even ''see'' or ''touch'' unless it wanted them to - that alone can be a major source of NightmareFuel.

** Nearly every night the characters go to sleep, they leave the bed room door open with Katie sleeping closest to the door. The night after the Demon walks into the room, stands right next to Katie's side of the bed (as evidenced by the foot prints), and "fiddles" with the sheets (as evidenced by the video recording of that night), they go to sleep with The Door Open and Katie Sleeping Closest To The Door! You'd think that even if they weren't going to leave, Micah might suggest they switch positions in bed, possibly close the door and lock it. They both knew it was there, even if it could smash the door open or walk through walls, no sense making it easy on the damn thing! But NOOOOO, even after the Demon DRAGS KATIE OUT OF BED KICKING AND SCREAMING, INTO THE HALLWAY, AND BITES HER ON THE LEG....

* He's also a major JERK, because he kept toying and making fun of the entity without thinking that this entity ''was after his girlfriend. And Katie? Was she into self-harming or what? Why didn't she just move out? The demon would still be after her, but she wouldn't have an asshole who kept on messing things for her.

** Also depends greatly on what scares you. I myself, for example, am more freaked out by unseen horrors than by jump scares. I agree that the characters could have cooperated a little better, especially after it was obvious that the demon was ''real,'' but otherwise it was one of the most frightening movies I've seen.

*** Maybe I fell asleep from boredom, but I don't recall any suspensful scenes. All I saw were a bitch and an asshole screaming at each other for an hour and a half.

** The reason why people thought it was scary was because of the "suspense", I guess you could call it. Modern horror films tell us that any long, silent, quiet, drawn out scene will include a jump scare at some point. Paranormal Activity used this to its advantage by putting in a low of scenes that included all of the elements of a scene that would include such a scare, so that people would get tense waiting for it, but only rarely did it ever actually act on it; not really until the surprise body at the end. That's most likely why the ending was changed from the Katie-walks-in-the-room-with-the-knife thing to her throwing [[spoiler: Micah's]] body at the camera. It was more surprising, and the audience would hopefully have, at this point, stopped expecting a jump scare, thus amplifying the shock factor.

* Why the ''fuck'' were people actually scared by this piece of shit movie? I've seen ''comedy'' horrors that were scarier, like ''DragMeToHell''. I mean, sure, they advertised it to be really scary and maybe it was just the placebo effect. However, I saw through it all along; I never thought it would be scary (mainly because I'm pretty critical of the whole horror genre.) Most of the film was clearly just trying to build up to a big scare later that didn't come until the end. Though, the ending was only a huge surprise just because something finally happened. This, however, does not justify how boring the whole movie was up to that scene. It was simply cheap, and they didn't even manage to do cheap, easy scares correctly. The ''ANightmareOnElmStreet'' remake was ''nothing'' except cheap scares, for example, but still scared me half to death in the theater.