Paranormal Activity VS Devil

[jonnymobs]

The horror genre is one of the few things left on this world that excite me. but I'm notoriously hard to please on the subject because I feel a truly excellent horror movie is one that scares you so much that you want to look away but are rooted to the spot through dumbfounded terror, and achieves this not with constant jumpy moments but with fantastic storytelling and atmospheric pacing. And so many Horror movie producers fail to grasp this and instead try to scare us with chainsaw wielding, hockey mask wearing thugs that do little more than make me raise a hand to stifle my yawns. See I always feel the best horror movies are the ones where the antagonist is Non-Human. that way its totally unpredictable. also the simple ones with no great back story other than "because he's fucking evil." and it's a small line to walk and so far the only truly shining examples are the likes of "1408" and "Paranormal Activity." Recently however I watched "Devil" and felt that while it wasn't bad as such it was still a very good How-not-to-do-it guide so lets get cracking.

now "Paranormal Activity" and "Devil" are really very similar in concept of an evil demon out for blood but while PA executes this through phycological mind-buggery devil flips between jumpy moments and cheap lighting effects. I won't lie PA has its flaws. the biggest one being large portions of nothing at all happen but I get the feeling this is what the movie wants because as soon as I start to let my guard down something incredibly spooky will occur. often you are left looking at what seems to be a rather peaceful bedroom but your eyes are drawn to small details witch make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. the movie really makes you work for your thrills because half of them coming from your own sense of mounting paranoia.

Devil on the other hand spoon feeds you the horror throughout. there was one scene *SPOILER ALERT* where a security monitor in the elevator flickers to a deformed face, at this point I thought "Ah-Ha the mind games begin." but then a security guard rewinds back to it and reveals all. in my mind it would have been better to just leave it and let the viewer speculate while their pants begin to fill with terror. also while paranormal activity makes the most of a unique plot Devil misses some massive opportunities. Come on guys you are provided with the situation where four unlucky souls are trapped in an elevator with no less than the fucking devil. I was expecting the walls to close in or for a fire to build below or for the elevator doors to open and the people find themselves in hell. but no. the movie just does the same cheap lighting trick four or five times before saying goodnight. this frustrates me in a way that few other movies do. Because there was potential for it to become a true Cult Classic with its very name striking fear into all who have seen it. as it stands all it becomes is a fairly generic demon horror film and a shining example of How-Not-To-Do-It.

The reason that I feel PA deserves such credit is the imagination that went into it. Devil cost 10 million USD to make. but in my mind it doesn't even come close to the greatness of Paranormal Activity which weighs in at just a cool 15 Grand. I've had Family Holidays that cost more than that and here we have a true cult classic.

both of these movies have sequels lined up and to be honest I'm looking forward to both because both have true potential to achieve more. with PA2 there will be a sort of CCTV system in place in the house which will give us more to look at I'm sure but I want to see if they can make more happen without losing that vital grasp of atmospheric pacing. and with devil the could expand into a true horror wonderland if only they get their heads out of their asses for five minutes

 

[jonnymobs]

Devil is the classic example of 'spielbergian' horror. I say spielbergian because none of his post temple of doom films (schindlers list aside) were actually that good on any level except perhaps a technical one. Devil treats its audience like idiots, just like almost every horror movie spielberg was ever accociated with, everything is explained, very little is left to the imagination. Think poltergeist, or the haunting remake...

 

[Deguasser]

Paranormal Activity was boring all the way through in my opinion.

Haven't seen Devil yet but I plan to this weekend.

 

[jonnymobs]

Paranormal Activity was boring all the way through in my opinion.

Haven't seen Devil yet but I plan to this weekend.

have fun. its worth a watch but don't expect it to make you shit yourself

 

[Haxxident]

Iv not heard good things about Devil so unsure if ill check it out

Paranormal Activity wasnt great but I liked the idea of it, i didnt know they were making a second one, i just hope they made it better. CCTV style could be better than "blair Whitch" style, i just hope it doesnt end up being a lame movie version of most haunted.

 

[Sacman]

lol I went to go see Devil with some friends and we ended up laughing our asses off and throwing Swedish fish at everyone around us... it would be a great movie if it was a comedy, and the fact that it expects you to take that stuff seriously makes it funnier...

 

[Therumancer]

Well, I guess what makes a horror movie good varies from person to person. I expect a horror movie to make me uncomfortable, but also I'm the opposite of a lot of people who frequent this site in that I think the best horror explains itself and still manages to remain at least creepy. Typically the whole "the best terror is left to the imagination" stuff winds up turning into an excuse to do random wierd stuff, for no other purpose than to do random wierd stuff. Mind games are fine, as long as that is what they are, and it's a game that winds up making sense as opposed to random usage of an FX budget.

I tend to look at Lovecraftian horror as a sort of ideal, which can be hard to do since people so rarely understand it. See Lovecraft's work all has a very consistant and structured mythology behind it. In the end everything winds up making sense, and typically it's the understanding of how everything makes sense being revealed to the protaganist that forms the final nail in the coffin so to speak. Works of the mythos are also fairly unpredictable, whether HP himself was writing, or just editing, you never knew if the protaganist was going to live or die. Contrary to what many thing the protaganists do not all die or go insane, that happens with some frequency, but you see enough people more or less managing to walk away (sometimes after having dome heroic stuff like running down an aquatic monstrosity with a large boat and slicing it to ribbons) that it can keep you guessing.

I say this because while I am willing to accept (through all the reports) that "Devil" is not a good movie, I'm not sure if explaining itself clearly is all that bad a thing. Now on the other hand like I've heard from SPOILERS, if it's true that the reveals come from spontaneous and unjustified character exclaimation, and people doing things like throwing toast in the air to see which way it lands, that's what makes it pretty bad, not the fact that things are clearly defined.


When it comes to "Paranormal Activity" I think that movie is unfairly lionized on merits of it being "so cheap to make". I say this because that movie was promoted by a lot of big people in some rather odd ways. If a price tag was put on those endorsements I think you could say it had the equivilent of a much bigger budget. I see to remember when the movie was being promoted there was a story going around that Steven Speilburg had been watching the movie, only to have the door of his room shut and lock and he needed to call a locksmith to get him out because the door would not budge. Apparently he later recanted this statement as a joke, but it did garner attention for the movie, and help spread rumors that the film itself was somehow haunted, giving it a sort of vibe similar to "the Blair Witch" where some people seeing the movie thought it was real camcorder footage and an actual incident. The film itself might be cheap, but this film had a fortune worth of indirect marketing attached to it.

As far as the movie itself goes, it was pretty good, and managed to explain itself fairly well, with some consistancy to why things were happening and why the events wound up escalating. On the other hand I don't like suspense without an actual climax to make it worthwhile, like "The Blair Witch" I think the lack of a proper climax (despite there being a resolution of sorts) actually detracted from the whole thing. I felt more let down than scared or creeped out because of it.

I feel it was a better movie of the type than "Blair Witch" because of the fact that it was consistant and explained itself as the story was transpiring. But it really needed to show all the action when a certain brave but moronic boyfriend wound up biting it. A Potboilers are fine, as long as they eventually get there, this never really did.

 

[Broken Orange]

lol I went to go see Devil with some friends and we ended up laughing our asses off and throwing Swedish fish at everyone around us... it would be a great movie if it was a comedy, and the fact that it expects you to take that stuff seriously makes it funnier...

It is people like you that is causing the world to terrible place to live in
/joke


I have not seen Devil (not that I plan to, MovieBob sealed the deal for me), but PA was the first (that I can remember) movie that freaked me out. On my way home at 1 in the morning, traveling from the Barton Creek Mall in Austin, Texas (do you know where that is?) to my home in the hill country. It was pitch black, I was jumping at random noises my car was making, the deer, once I got home, rustling out of sight got my imagination raging at a million miles a hour. To bad that the theater full of people sort of ruined it for me. (Most memorable part of the movie was the audience. "Oh my god, that was so scary," a woman in the front jabbered, "wasn't that..." "Shut the Fuck up!" yells a man in the back)


But, like most horror movie sequels, I fear that PA2 will be terrible.

 

[UberMore]

Paranormal Activity scared the living shit out of me, but then again I'd been drinking, it was 5 in the morning and my friend (who doesn't get scared by horror films) was telling me it got to him.
It was a good film with very good pacing.

As for what I've heard of Devil, I'm gonna give it a miss.

 

[jonnymobs]

I hated paranormal activity. I have yet to see devil so i will not comment on it but paranormal activity didn't even have me jump or think wow scary. All i thought while watching it was Man this movie is bad. Seriously how people thought it was scary or good is beyond me. Nice read though Thumbs up.

 

[Racecarlock]

Let's see. Bullshit or cow shit? I pick neither. You should see cloverfield, now that shit is scary as all hell. Although you'll have to skip a few things to get to the good part, but man! It's awesome.

 

[icame]

I found Paranormal activity to not be scary at all,though i heard if you see it in a packed theater its terrifying. I have yet to see devil and don't plan on it due to the writers track record.

 

[Moriarty70]

I usually don't get affected by movies, which has made for some less than wise choices of what to send with me to sleepovers as a kid. That being said, I avoided Paranormal until the hype died down and I could watch it based on itself. I will simply say, it's one of the few movies to ever get under my skin like that. It was the kind of movie that had me not entering a room unless there was some light shining between the door and the lightswitch.

Also, I found the effects to improve the story, something very rare these days. From even the previews I've seen of Devil, the effects are more of the "Look what I can do" variety.

 

[SecondmateFlint]

I can't handle scary movies. They freak me out so so bad. I'm still a little messed up from watching Nightmare on Elm Street as a child.

That being said, Paranormal Activity got to me, but not as much as I thought.

We watched it on a laptop and during the day scenes we were laughing and thinking it was funny but as soon as the night scenes came on, we were quiet and staring intently at the screen, barely breathing, jumping at everything that moved. I also watched the director's cut, which I think is better than the theater version. The film got me later when I was at work (I worked at a haunted house, in a boiler room, which already scared me). I was literally paralyzed with fear for about a minute and had to talk myself through it.

That's never happened with any movie before. But after that initial freakout I was fine. Devil looks like it could have been good, but I won't see it because of the genre. I worry with PA2 that all of the genuineness of the first film will be ruined by corporate fat cats who only make films for money.