Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Oren Peli.
Cast: Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Katie Featherston
Description: Micah lives in San Diego with his girlfriend Katie, who has experienced visions of a spirit watching over her. Crippled by nightmares, Katie agrees to let Micah try to capture evidence of a haunting on his new video camera by setting up a tripod in the bedroom to record everything that happens as they sleep. Footage of a door opening and closing of its own accord is the first sign that something is terribly wrong.
Country: US. 2009. 85mins
Spooked: Katie Featherston believes her new house is haunted
There is something macho about complaining when a movie is not scary enough — the equivalent of yelling for more chilli in your Friday night curry. So let me say right now that I’m a complete wuss.
All the same, I wanted to be shaken up by Oren Peli’s $15,000 mockumentary horror which, 10 years after The Blair Witch Project, claimed the No 1 spot in the US, thanks almost entirely to word of mouth — but alas, at no point did I leap out of my seat.
If Paranormal Activity is not quite as scary as the publicity would have us believe, it is at least witty, thought-provoking and —in a woozy, stark sort of way — beautiful.
Katie (a student, training to be a teacher) and Micah (a day trader) are an average young couple who have recently purchased a fancy house in San Diego.
Micah has also bought an expensive digital camera to record some of the strange goings-on they’ve been experiencing (bumps in the night, etc). He installs the camera on a tripod in their bedroom, obviously hoping, by the by, to record a different kind of X-rated thrill. Katie keeps him in line. She’s very much the sexy, indulgent mama to his naughty, smart-alec little boy. Naturally, by the final frame, this dynamic is in tatters.
The low-key script — not to mention the invisible acting by newcomers Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat — creates an instantly convincing universe. We believe in the details of these people’s lives and their odd mix of practicality and vulnerability. Katie’s conviction that she has been haunted before is especially intriguing. She talks about “a figure” appearing at the foot of her bed when she was eight. Is it possible that Katie was sexually abused as a child? Fans of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw will appreciate the pregnant atmosphere.
Our heroine gets more interesting with every passing second. She has the kind of plumptious breasts and thighs beloved of cartoonist Robert Crumb.
Yet Micah’s camera — and, by extension, Peli’s — registers the whole woman. By turns smart and dumb, whiny and brave, she feels like one of us. Hollywood tends to put cute girls on a pedestal (in romantic comedies) or rip them apart (in horror); Katie represents a third way.
If only the film lived up to its central characters. Desperate to preserve Katie and Micah’s isolation, Peli arranges it so that California’s only demonologist is “out of town” when they call. We are also expected to believe that Micah never puts his footage on YouTube. To make matters worse, there’s some silly business with a crucifix. And the last act owes a lot to Hideo Nakata’s The Ring — homage with a twist is one thing; this is theft.
Horror films often inhabit the point where religion and paranoia meet (a spiritual dimension exists, but it’s dominated by demons, as opposed to angels). Really scary films are supposed to make us feel unhinged. Paranormal Activity, with its creaky denouement, has more limited powers and, unless you’ve already got one foot in the twilight zone, you’re simply due for a pleasant night out.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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