I'll let you know if it's any better after I watch the Rifftrax-ed version.

[amanuensis1]

Note to self and others: even if you don't believe in the supernatural, watching Paranormal Activity will result in your waking in the night and hearing every little noise in the house. And not sleeping. Even if you do not actually believe something is going to grab you or come through your bedroom door, you will still lie there awake, thinking about all the scenes in the film. Trying to turn the thoughts into an educated analysis of the methods each scene used to ramp up the tension does not work.

*staggers to work blearily on insufficent sleep*

Comments

[aunty_marion]

I cannot read Whitley Strieber's 'The Wolfen' at night. I don't dare. I can *hear* them coming through the closed windows and locked doors.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Telling yourself "There's no such thing" does not help you to sleep when it's 1:30 am, darnit!

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

Eugh. I can't watch anything like that. I mean...like, I don't believe in ghosts in the slightest, but just the idea that there could be, like, a person. Randomly appearing anywhere in my apartment. And I would have NO WAY TO DEAL WITH IT....freaks me the fuck out, seriously. :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It was a really good flick, though. Worth it for one night's rotten sleep! (If it persists, though, I'll have to re-think the equation.)

[rane-ab.livejournal.com]

Haha, yay, now I now what movie to watch next. ;o)

ETA: Ugh, by the way, I was not trying to mock your lack of sleep. That sucks. :/ I just like a good horror movie.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Didn't think you were mocking at all! :D And it really is the sort of film I like, the "Blair Witch" style fake-docu. That and "Cloverfield" are right up there with this one on my list.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. This is what happened to me after I read Silence of the Lambs. I was too terrified by the book to even THINK about watching the movie.

Hope you are able to get a nap later!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Bz...whu? Hm? I'M AWAKE, NO HONEST.

I did like the film a lot, though! Even though I watched parts of it through peeky-fingers.

[nishizono.livejournal.com]

It's funny how varied people's reactions are to that movie. I was personally disappointed in it (partially because everyone hyped it to me as OMFGTHEBESTHORRORMOVIEEVER before I saw it), but one of my not-easily-frightened friends didn't sleep for like four days after seeing it.

Oh, and lest anyone think I'm just trying to act tough by saying Paranormal Activity didn't bother me, I will soothe your concerns with the following confession: the Doctor Who episode with the Library and the things in the shadows? Nightmares for three days. Trufax.

[shiraz_wine]

The Cybermen from Doctor Who completely freaked me out, to the point where I thought I could hear the mechanical "whoosh" sound of them walking towards my bedroom door at night.

Paranormal Activity made me laugh hysterically. As did Saw. But The Others also freaked me out to no end. As did The Nutty Professor. Clearly, my horror-scale is a bit skewed.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think if any horror film made me laugh hysterically. Beyond the sort of MST-y fodder bad ones, I mean.

[shiraz_wine]

I love the horror genre, so I've seen a LOT of horror movies. The problem with doing that is that you can begin to predict all of the plotlines very early in the movie. Case in point, I figured out the plot of Shutter Island from the commercials.

I find most American horror movies to be thoroughly predictable. The exception to that are well-made psychological thrillers; The Talented Mr. Ripley chilled me to the bone. The plot of Paranormal Activity completely bored me, so I laughed at the predictable "scary effects". I probably still would have enjoyed the movie if she hadn't leapt at the camera at the end. If she had just smiled at the camera, I felt that would have been much creepier. Also, I read about the alternate endings and they sounded much more interesting than the ending they chose.

I have NO idea why I was so creeped out by The Nutty Professor when I saw it in theaters. I had nightmares for days afterwards.

[nishizono.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who is surprisingly good at being creepy sometimes. The "are you my mummy" episode got to me a bit because I have a love/hate relationship with gas masks (almost a kink, but they also freak me out). And my partner now refuses to re-watch the episodes with "The Family" because the brother's Awkward Mouth Situation bothers him.

[shiraz_wine]

What I really like about Doctor Who is that they're amazing with sound effects. (I'm a sound designer for theater.) The villains that creeped me out the most had the greatest sound effects: Cybermen and the Clockwork Men.

Another cool/creepy episode was Midnight, where they turned the sound of your own voice into something sinister. They did a similar effect in Blink, where your own gaze works against you. I LOVE horror that's based in turning the mundane into the malevolent. It's subtle, but I feel it's infinitely more effective than SCARY SPECIAL EFFECTS. That's probably why I'm such a big fan of The Twilight Zone too.

In that sense, I can see why some people found Paranormal Activity to be scary; as amanuensis1 said, she was kept awake by the normal creaks and groans of her house. I just personally didn't feel the movie was successful.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I liked it big-time, because I love the fake-docu type of horror; Blair Witch and Cloverfield are tops on my list as well!

[nishizono.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Cloverfield! I did like Blair Witch, though. And if you're into fake documentary horror, check out the original version of Quarantine (a Spanish movie called REC). Quarantine itself wasn't very good, but I really enjoyed the original.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. And what's more, Dominus had zero interest, so I rented it and watched it alone one night. It literally rewrote my ideas of what constitutes 'scary', and within a week, I nearly gave him a black eye when he loomed a little bit too long before waking me up one morning.

It's been a looooong time since a horror film actually *scared* me, you know?

So query on another topic: Are you remotely chattable today?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*laughs like mad about Dominus's near black-eye*

Look for me this evening! Does your 'puter support Y!M these days, or is IRC chatting still your preference?

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I can fly Trillian, which gets me into the neighborhood of Y!M, at least. But I'll be packing tonight, so I might not be able to actually chat, alas. I'm just nibbling at something new (yes, again, with all that unfinished stuff still on my plate; I know I'm pathetic.) and wanted to chew it over with a fellow creatrix. No, actually, let's be honest, I wanted to chew it over with YOU, not just anybody, hence my asking YOU.

It's not a crisis though. El Dorado Road has kept this long, it'll keep a bit more, I figure.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you know how much I love chewing on your new stuff! So, while not a crisis, I am eager! Send me an email, at least, if you're available tonight.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heh! Yes, I had the same reaction, even though all I ever watched were the commercials and one trailer. I'm semi-curious about the movie, I keep telling myself it'd be safe to watch because I don't believe in that stuff at all, but that the trailer scared me so badly is probably good indication that I should resist. (Seriously, goosebumps from head to toe...)

Hope you sleep better soon!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It's funny, even though I kept hearing the noises all night, I didn't actually feel creeped out; I told myself, "Now, there was a precedent in that film for the whole 'haunting' thing; you have no such precedent, such things don't exist, there's nothing to be creeped out about." And yet I still couldn't fall asleep because I kept THINKING and HEARING, gah.

I recommend the film for anyone who liked The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield, because I love that sort of fake-docu storytelling!

[dmlpacker.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I was unsettled, but not in the OMG-I'M-GOING-TO-BE-POSSESSED way. I just couldn't quit thinking about shadows and thumping sounds.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

That was exactly it. I knew if I looked over at the door there would be nothing there, and yet...I didn't want to look at the door. I wanted to keep my eyes shut and FALL ASLEEP and it just wasn't happening because I kept thinking about the door.

[belleamant.livejournal.com]

*shudders* I kept hearing her scream his name at the end. That movie creeped me out. Maybe more afterwards than during. :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Even worse for me, the screams on the penultimate night. *shivers*

[dementordelta.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh I just saw that as well and was very creeped out! Luckily the last few seconds sort of ruined the suspense for me because up until then it was spooky and eerie but the give away at the end sort of made it slide over into the realm of contrived horror. Or so I keep telling myself....

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

The thing hasn't haunted my subsequent nights of sleep, so, I guess I'm all better now! But I still really liked the film. The ouija board scene still gives me the creeps to think about it!

[perfica.livejournal.com]

And that is why I rarely watch horror movies and, if I do, it's in daylight or surrounded by other people. Actually, that's how I read most Stephen King books too.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I once was reading a Stephen King novel and thought, "I'll go to sleep after I finish this chapter." UM, NO, NOT SO MUCH.

[one-short-fuse.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree... maybe I'm weird. I spent nearly the whole time in the theater waiting for something to happen... and nothing really did, IMO. I was bored and couldn't wait for it to end so I could go have a smoke.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It's one of those movies that works on a subtler creep-you-out level. See, I knew that we would never ever have anything actually manifest in a "Look! Here's the scary thing that's been creeping you out all this time!" way. It would stay in the subtle-creepy mode to the very end, so, I wasn't disappointed.