As noted by Guateliving this morning, at around ten last night there occurred a very strange rumbling sound, which I equated with that of a Tube train passing beneath my house...except that it lasted almost half a minute.
The unfortunate thing was that this phenomenon — which had been preceded by spooky tapping noises on the wall behind our bed — came about while we were watching Paranornal Activity, a 'scary' movie of the kind which, under other circumstances, wouldn't really have had the power to unsettle me.
We too were surprised that none of our animals reacted to this subterranean groan. But our cat Bali was clearly petrified every time the action in the movie switched to Micah and Katie's bedroom, where the camera on its tripod was filming their sleeping forms on the bed.
My conclusion is that the wide-eyed look of terror on Bali's face as he stared intensely at the TV (having already jumped on the bed and snuggled up to me) was the product of a subliminal effect produced by the sound engineers to mark the arrival of the demonic presence in this San Diego household.
If this had been the first mainstream movie presented to us as disturbing found footage I might have been a little more impressed. But tired formula or not, this has emerged as the most profitable Hollywood production of all time.
Grade: B
