Paranormal Activity: The horror picture of the year is here

Back in 1999, a little horror movie took the movie world by storm. It was called “The Blair Witch Project” and nobody had ever heard nothing about the Blair Witch story. Discovery Channel aired a documentary prior to the release of the film which shown how Burkittsville, a little town in the USA had always lived under the spell of a whitch who had been burned to death centuries ago. Three film students had wanted to do a class report on the woods of that village to try to discover the evil presence, but they were never seen again.

That is the premise of the film, a fake horror documentary with lots of shaky camera moving and spontaneous acting. Made with a budget of 20,000 dollars, the movie went on to make 140 millions dollar on the US Box Office alone, and a total 248 million dollar worldwide, making it the most profitable movie of all time. Furthermore, the movie was a never seen before phenomenon, with audiences going wild for it, and it started what we now call viral campaigning (fooling the audiences by introducing little glimpses in the web or on tv, making something fake look real, like what happened with the 2008 release “Cloverfield”).

Well, now in 2009, exactly ten years after the mentioned above movie, comes “Paranormal Activity”, which repeats more or less the same formula, with even more impressive results. The story tells the story of a young couple, Mika and Katie, who move into a suburban home but start feeling an unsettling presence, more prominently at night. They don't know if it is an evil presence, but they are sure they are not alone at their new house...

Filmed back in 2007, with a 15,000 dollar budget, first time director Oren Peli used his own house and a bunch of unexperienced actors to make the movie. After the good response in some Horror Festivals, the movie was finally picked up for release by Paramount, even giving the chills to a master like Steven Spielberg.

The audiences respond in the USA has been brutal. It has amassed more than 100 million dollars since it's release, making it the most profitable movie of all time, surpassing the previous owner of this distinction, The Blair Witch Project. It has also scared critics and all day people alike. Most movie critics don't hesitate on calling it one of the scariest movies of all time, and assuring the experience of watching it will leave you shacking.

Even if you can all see it in theaters in Spain as I write this, it's release has been quite peculiar: it's the first film to be released under demand. For it to be shown in our country, 200.000 people had to vote on the movie's official website. That number was surpassed weeks ago, so now, all you moviegoers, can run to the cinema and prepare to be very scared.