I grew up hearing coyotes howls too. I fucking hate those things (plus, they eat your deer if you don't get to it fast enough).

I went on Friday and watched Paranormal Activity and loved it, even though the ending was underwhelming. I REALLY would like to see the original ending. I can see why people are upset with the "teaser trailer" that was released. Looking back now, it kind of pisses me off too. Don't get me wrong I LOVE trailers, but when they give up too much, after you actually see the movie, you kind of feel cheated.

Couple of movies about to come out that I REALLY want to see:

The Fourth Kind: Real footage mixed into this alien abduction movie thats based on actual events. Looks fricken freaky

The Men Who Stare at Goats: Movie looks worth while just on the CAST alone.

I actually want to see Where The Wild Things Are.

Just wanted to say that your avatar bleeds awesomness.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum".

"They Live" is so cheesy yet, I love the shit out of it. Roddy Piper is beyond cool. Did anyone catch him on "It's Always Sunny"?

Paranormal Activity actually exploits similar fears to great effect. While it's not so much a matter of being murdered in your sleep, most of the truly terrifying stuff happens while the couple are asleep, and it does become quite clear that the lack of sleep is really wearing on them. This certainly adds to the confusion and terror they are experiencing, as they don't get much sleep as the film progresses. I'm not at all arguing that Nightmare on Elm Street is a fantastic film, I personally love it, and find it very scary for many of the reasons you cite.



OK, now you lost me. I thought it was very clear throughout that it was NOT simply some person in the bush trying to scare them, but there was some terrible, malevolent force. I think that's what's so scary, imagining exactly what this witch truly is, and the extent of her power. Our three intrepid explorers clearly are losing their minds, whether that be from hunger, exhaustion or fear. The witch does such marvelously bizarre and creepy things, none of which really have any explanation (what's with the stick figures? Or leaving a little pouch of bloody pieces of Josh? We don't know, and it's better that way.) I reiterate then that the film is masterful exploration and examination of our deep-seated fear of the unknown, and wallows in a suffocating sense of dread and doom, as it looks more and more hopeless for our filmmaker friends.



I don't know, coyotes never really bothered me, and I'm actually thrilled to hear them baying at night around here. A little nervous for the welfare of my cats, but otherwise I see coyotes as fairly harmless; smaller than most dogs and far less likely to approach you. Bears, on the other hand...



Unfortunate, but totally understandable given how personal fear is. With that said, it does become apparent, as I mentioned earlier, that some powerful supernatural being is involved, and not merely stupid teens.

SPOILER ALERT
In terms of the ending of Paranormal Activity, I feel they definitely cheapened the ending by resorting to such a cheesy shock tactic at the end. The film had been deadly serious all throughout, and while Micah's body being hurled at the camera was certainly the loudest single reaction of the film, it was nowhere near the scariest. For a split second, half the theater shrieked, but they all quickly got over it, whereas the slightly less loud but far more prolonged screaming and moaning as Katie is dragged out of bed was far and a way the film's pinnacle in terms of crowd reaction. Maybe it's just me, but while I found the case study they found on the internet an interesting detail, the final reveal that she's possessed and somehow superhuman in strength and able to contort her face beyond human just ruined the final moments of the film for me. My favourite ending would be the one where she returns upstairs without Micah (I like the idea of not knowing for sure what happened to him), and remains catatonic for a day before the demon, in its final act of malice startles the police into killing her.

they played with it in blair witch with the lore of the witch in the woods but its not like they ever said what it really was

as far as paranormal activity from the reviews i have read the acting is horrible therefore ruining any attempts at the movie being scary

again like blair witch paranormal is just another over hyped peice of shit to scam people out of their money with promises of being terrified and all it is is some one with snot running down their nose screaming inot a camera for an hour and a half

I didn't think the acting was bad. I mean, no one's going to get an Oscar nod, but it seemed like realistic responses from real people.

And no one screams into the camera or anything in "Paranormal;" it's mostly shots of how the demon's terrorizing the couple with a few shots of their reactions. Usually, the camera cuts away pretty quickly so it never becomes maudlin. I was pleasantly surprised with how much of it was just their attempts to figure out what was after them and the actual acts of the demon; it was very little of their actual responses, which kind of left it open to you to react to it of your own free will.

The Descent: An excellent sophomore effort from the man who brought us the fun yet tense werewolf flick Dog Soldiers (along with Ginger Snaps the best lycanthrope movies of recent memory). The Descent almost plays like two separate horror films in one, starting out slowly with a spelunking expedition that goes terribly wrong when a tunnel collapses behind our six adventure-seeking female friends, sealing them in a previously uncharted cave system. They are forced to go deeper into the darkness in the blind hope that it will lead them somewhere. Now this alone is the subject of nightmares, with some of the most claustrophobic scenes I can recall ever seeing; and really, how much worse can it get than slowly starving in a wet, treacherous and pitch black tomb?

Matters go from gloomy and dreadful to downright terrifying as we learn (about 2/3 of the way through the film) that our girls aren't alone down there. I won't spoil it for you, but let me say that the eventual reveal of the creatures is one of the most startling, terrifying and just flat-out perfect scare moments I can think of. While there are certainly some great moments as the film shifts from real-life cave-diving nightmare to monster picture, it almost starts to feel at points like the director is throwing out all kinds of loud noises as things jump into frame just because he can. It's a lot harder to truly creep out an audience or make them actually fearful when watching a horror film then merely startle them. The director shows early on that he can very adeptly do the former, but almost seems to get a little lazy as the film wears on.

With that said, the suspense doesn't really wane throughout the running time, the film really exploiting one's innate fear of the dark and what horrid beasts might be lurking therein. The actors all do a great job, and while some of the actions and motivations later on seem a little strange, if one looks at the title as a reference not only to a descent into an unknown cave but also into madness and possibly hell itself, I suppose I can accept some of the unrealistic twists.

I watched DVD version that contains the director's original, marvelously downbeat ending (although one could argue it's a happy ending as our heroine is able to overcome her plight in one sense and make peace with an inner demon before the screen fades to black) that was strangely cut from the US theatrical cut. This ending is ignored to set up the sequel which is already finished, and while it's apparently a step down I will still eagerly watch it.

In all The Descent is a film that examines in turn many of our deepest fears, whether that be of tight spaces and being cut off from the rest of world, or of ghouls and the dark. It moves along at a very good clip, never letting up the tension once shit starts to hit the fan, and I will say it contains two of the greatest shock sequences in cinema history.