Review of Paranormal Entity (2009) by Julian T — 01 Sep 2014

Believe it or not, this was still better than any of the terrible 'Paranormal Activity' films. That is not to say that this was good though. It is still a rip-off in every imaginable way, and it pretty much fails to deliver in any determinable capacity. It does manage to do a few things well however which salvage it from being an utter and total waste.

As for its positives, it definitely creates a tone and a mood. It creates the feeling that something is about to jump out at you throughout the entire film, which did keep me paying attention. Unfortunately, this feeling of jumpiness goes largely unfulfilled. But for creating an uneasy feeling throughout, I have to give some props, as it is by far the most effective thing about the movie.

As far as its flaws go, they are much more prevalent. A really terrible script is made all the more terrible by bad acting. Just really ridged and unnatural dialogue makes it exceedingly hard to take a mockumentary seriously. The fact that there are really only three characters with nothing to offset their sub-par performances make them even more noticeable. At least Erin Hogan is smoking hot, so thankfully her casting wasn't a total waste.

The story overall is where the film is its weakest. Nothing happens. As I said, you are constantly thinking 'something is going to happen. Something is going to jump out of the dark at them', but nothing ever does. The fact that is is clearly and blatantly a rehashing of prior films is reinforced by its complete lack of originality or authenticity. Does seem to have an idea or two, but it is glanced over and never explored past the point of introduction.

Even bad story and acting aside though, I can not forgive its abrupt and fulfilling ending. It seems like you might finally see what has been hinted at throughout the movie, but instead, it just cuts out all the explanatory and action stuff you might actually be interested in seeing and picks up again afterwards. I'm all for leaving things to your audiences imagination, but there's a fine line between that and just not having anything to show. This is clearly the latter, and it suffers from a lack of innovation throughout.

When all is said and done, this is a below average movie that still manages to outperform the somehow critically acclaimed 'Paranormal Activity' from which it plagiarizes. A minimalistic and edgy feel with a couple of interesting ideas and scenes offset the questionable acting and painfully slow and anticlimactic plot at least to some small degree. Can't say I'd recommend much about it, but it's a step above totally terrible.