Paranormal Activity (2009)

Story

The story is a chronicling of the demonic attacks on a woman and her boyfriend in a suburban home in 2006. What begins as a series of frightening yet largely benign ghostly activity begins to get more serious as the couple attempt to capture footage of the "ghost" on camera. As things go from bad to worse it becomes clear that it is a case of evil spiritual activity and, eventually, demonization.

Style

Rated R for language. The profanity is casual in most instances and in the more intense scenes it is completely understandable! The film has very little violence (but what is there is rather shocking). There is no [clear] gore, no nudity, and no sexual activity. The movie is a personal documentary-style film that is shot entirely from the perspective of the video camera the boyfriend sets up. It is therefore very true-to-life.

Suppositions

While the film sends a good message (see below), this is a case where background can be as or more important than the overt message. American Christians have for some time now bought into occult rather than biblical ideas concerning the demonic, and this film may very well reinforce that situation. Very often in movies, demonic issues are explained in non-biblical ways which are simply accepted without much consideration, even by bible-believing Christians. The Bible is largely silent on issues of cause and effect when it comes to demonization and exorcism. The lack of drama in biblical accounts does not make for good horror, and so it is often supplanted by occultic teachings. In this film there is almost no recourse to biblical teachings (which I think is part of the problem!). Rather, a psychic is consulted who basically can't do anything about their problem. His advice is to consult a "demonologist" (who is never brought in). The book the boyfriend consults during his never-ending research is "Picture Book of Devils, Demons and Witchcraft", by Ernst and Johanna Lehner. So, while demons need to be taken seriously (and this is the main point), we need to be careful not to think we are being informed about the spirit world by occultic sources even if they do increase the "cool factor" (as the boyfriend might say).

Significance

The point of the movie is clear: don't mess around with demons. This is the constant problem of the film and causes much friction between the boyfriend (who just wants to kick some butt) and his girlfriend who respects what is happening but doesn't know what to do about it. There was also a subtle sub-text of anti-naturalism in the way the boyfriend approaches the issue. His reliance throughout the film on research and empirical tests are ridiculed by the girlfriend and are clearly shown to be of no avail. This is a good message as well - the world is not, despite our many successes, under our total control (much less available to scientific understanding).