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Paranormal Activity

When a movie that was made for just over $11,000 in 2007 has a $20 million weekend in a limited amount of packed theaters just before Halloween 2009, you have the makings of a story that bobs above the sea of pop culture static, and Paranormal Activity is just that story.

It's deceptively simple -- a couple (one of whom has conveniently purchased a new video camera) finds themselves beset with possible contact from the spirit world beyond this physical plane. And in a fashion that's both captivating and incremental, the camera captures the evidence that, well, something is going on in the dead of night. What happens next is a snowball of dread and fright that gains momentum until it smacks you in the chest at the very end, as all good horror films should.

But the real story is why this film took so long to make it to the mainstream, given that it's been killing at film festivals for the past two years. Better late than never, I guess, because this is the best horror phenomenon since The Blair Witch Project, and a more taut and compact film to boot. I've never seen an audience jump at an ending of a film like they did with Paranormal Activity, so if a film is judged by shouts and screams and little drops of urine in the underwear, then mission accomplished. See it late at night and enjoy trying to go to sleep.

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