Recently I viewed the new movie Paranormal Activities mostly because I was curious as to how scary it was. The advertisements had all been saying that it was the scariest movie ever, and there was a buzz among my peers that this was true. There was even talk that people had left the theaters they were so scared. Not being one to be that scared by horror movies I was interested to see how scared I would be. I can confirm that this movie is indeed scary, but I still slept like a baby the night after. It followed a recent trend in movies where instead of Hollywood style cinematography, the story is told through a home video camera. This gives the movie a more life like feeling in that there are imperfections in the film and it makes it feel more real. Another successful movie following this same strategy that I witnessed was Cloverfield. These two movies also used a similar advertising strategy in that they did not reveal much of the movie in the previews. Paranormal Activities did not reveal what was haunting the couple, and Cloverfield did not reveal any footage of the monster that was terrorizing NYC. They left the majority of the movie a complete mystery so that curiosity would drive you to see the movie. I would say in my case that this strategy was a success. A third clever marketing strategy that Paranormal Activities used was to state that it was showing in select theaters and that if you wished for it to be viewed in your area you could request it. So when it appeared in the local Roxy Theater one was lead to believe that it was there by popular demand. This ties into the popularity aspect in that it leads you to believe everyone else wants to see this movie, you should as well. Overall the movie was worth the admission and provided a nights worth of good entertainment and nail biting suspense.
-Matthew Cloud
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Although I have not seen this movie I have heard it said that the two main characters were generally likable. I think that the ability to sympathize with the characters is very important in making a movie scary. Often in a lot of recent horror movies I have seen the central characters are so unlikable that I end up practically rooting against them.
ReplyDeleteI watched Paranormal Activity last week and unlike most scary movies for me I was not scared during the showing of the movie. However after I had seen the movie I became more scared in times where I was alone at night because my mind would wander into the storyline. I think that this movie was an effective scary movie due to the effects it had on me after I saw it.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen Paranomal Activity yet, but I have seen Cloverfield. I wasn't a big fan of the way that the movie was shot, but others that I know loved it, and also liked the way Paranormal Activity was shot as well. I guess it just depends on the viewer. I know for Cloverfield, it was supposed to feel like you were right along side of the main characters but it just wasn't my forte. Like Matthew said, the previews didn't show much, and I like being able to see what's going to happen in a movie, and it wasn't until word of mouth that I decided to go.
ReplyDeleteI saw Paranormal Activity over Halloween weekend. I am not one to ever watch a scary movie but as was said before, it was advertised as "the scariest movie ever". The commercials and trailers for this movie were played on television constantly and it really got me intrigued. I must say that the advertising for this movie definitely got the better of me and drew me to the theater to spend $10 on a ticket and $10 on food for a movie where all the scary parts were already shown on television. I was highly disappointed and now know to be very very wary of advertising, especially for films.
ReplyDeleteParanormal Activity was the first movie I had gone to the theatre to watch in a long time, but all the hype made me go. The movie was genuinely scary or I should say the end was. The rest of the movie in my opinion was slow and dull. I must give credit though because if the online information that it only cost $15K to make, they made quite a profit and in my opinion tricked most into forking out the cash.
ReplyDeleteI think a big key to the success of this movie was the new approach to advertising they used. Unlike movies before, this movie required consumers to go online and vote for the movie to be released in their area. I aslo saw the movie and enjoyed the thrills and suspense. I recently read that they plan on making a sequel to the movie which I think is a bad idea, unless they can manage to re-create the hype as they did before.
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