The Paranormal Activity Films

As I finished the fourth Paranormal Activity film, the most recent of the series to date, I found myself reliving the same disappointments I experienced with the first three films. As I reflected upon these consistent problems--problems for my enjoyment, at least--I realized that maybe these aren't so much flaws in the films as they are a new narrative approach to horror. While I don't particularly enjoy this narrative approach, the series' millions of fans suggests it is working. This leaves me with a lot of questions. Why do I keep coming back to the Paranormal Activity films? What is it they're doing that isn't 'doing it' for me but is for so many others? Why is this approach so popular? I can answer some of these questions better than others, but mostly I want to ponder them.

The basic progression of every Paranormal Activity film is the same. A camera-obsessed family member records nearly every waking minute of mundane household life. This coincides with the eruption of some supernatural evil that takes its sweet time manifesting itself. Highly repetitive, static shots of inactivity are presented rhythmically until, finally, something of a spooky nature happens in one of those spaces. While the characters may discuss these events and the emotional effects of them, ultimately they do nothing until the supernatural evil possesses someone and kills everyone else.

Basic narrative functions much as your high school English teacher taught you. You have your exposition, rising action, climax, and denouement. A protagonist fits in there, centering the action and either triumphing or falling in the climax. Harry Potter always triumphs and Hamlet always dies. The Paranormal Activity movies can be pinned to that structure in some sense. You get to meet the characters, the supernatural evil takes a while to appear, and then it kills everyone--I guess that's a climax. However, this pinning comes loose the more you scrutinize it. A fiction editor for Weird Tales used to say, "A protagonist must protag." The Paranormal Activity protagonists do not. They observe. Then they die. They never fight back against the spiritual force. Nobody calls an exorcist, breaks out the holy water, tries a circle of protection, or any other supernatural movie bullshit. They just die, because the supernatural force can throw them like ragdolls.

This is what I don't like about the Paranormal Activity movies. Static shots of mundane life is lightly touched by creepy incidents for a little over an hour, then everyone dies without making any effort to extricate themselves from the nightmare. What keeps me coming back is that there are some creepy moments and they are quite well done. I just keep imagining that, as narrative invades the barebones approach that was the first Paranormal Activity film, a protagonist might actually emerge. So far, no luck.

What is it about this lack of a protagonist that pleases so much of contemporary horror viewers? There was a time when the plucky, resourceful heroine was the stuff of which great horror films are made. Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, David Arquette in Scream--all great heroines of horror. Perhaps self-confidence, the ability to fight and defend oneself against horror is too predictable, too old, too contrary to reality. Or perhaps it is too similar to reality. Perhaps we need horror movies that makes us feel powerless and doomed in the face of an omnipotent evil that wants us dead not because we need to be punished, but just because it doesn't like our faces. Is that an American phenomenon? Or is there a guilt to being human that's only gotten worse without any true adversity? Maybe it's just that life is too peaceful and mundane in the West today and the thought that a supernatural evil may just destroy us at any time is the kind of horror we need; it's exciting. I don't know.

Perhaps there's just a purity to the Paranormal Activity movies that the youtube generation enjoys. With the Paranormal Activity movies, you get a series of isolated, almost abstract creepy scenes, like youtube vignettes or even an animated gif dropped on tumblr. "Wouldn't it be creepy if you just turned around in the dark and there were like fifty people standing there looking at you?" Boom! Climax to Paranormal Activity 4. Yes, that would be creepy. Good work. With these movies, you aren't bothered by the tedium of a story, a narrative you have to follow and get behind emotionally or intellectually. You just get creepy moments. Of course, wouldn't they be a lot better with a story? With emotional investment? With the sophistication to order them in a mounting way? I think so; but I am in the minority.