Paranormal Activity.(possible spoilers)

It's hard to review this movie, because part of the experience comes from not knowing anything about it. If I do have to do a spoiler, it will be marked. You have been warned

This movie does so many things right. The atmosphere is incredible, the characters are believable and the scares are simple but effective. All this was done on a mere $15,000 budget. It goes to show that you don't need an insanely high budget to be effective.

I'll start with the story and characters. The story is nothing new, but it works for the movie. Katie and Micah (both played by newcomers Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. See the resemblance?) are a newly "engaged to be engaged" couple that movie into a nice suburban house. All goes well until creepy things start happening. This brings me to the characters. They are both very believable and relateable. Micah decides it would be fun to tape all of this "paranormal activity" and solve this mystery on his own. Katie is scared because we soon learn that these things have been happening to her off and on her whole life and this prevents people from using the typical "Get out of the house!" excuse.

This movie's greatest strength is the atmosphere. It follows a simple pattern; during the daytime we delve into a little drama. Katie wants Micah to stop taping and egging on whatever is causing this and Micah disagrees. Then during the night, shit happens.

This basic formula goes on through the better part of the movie when it pulls a 360 and *SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS* the paranormal activities start happening during the day. All bets are off at this point. *END SPOILERS*The real atmosphere comes during the night. During these sequences, there is no music and the only thing we ever here are the typical nighttime sounds and the camera humming.

Also during these night scenes, the movie destroys your comfort zones. As a kid, your parents probably said something along the lines of "oh don't worry, if you're in your bed and covered up with blankets, the monsters won't be able to get you." This movie takes that idea, steam rolls it, burns it, and pisses on the ashes. The buildup is incredible too, which I won't spoil at all.

My only real complaint about the movie is the ending. It just felt way too Hollywood for me.

There's not much else I can say about this movie without spoiling the experience. So go see it, you won't regret it.