Written by Tiffany

Opened October 2, 2009 | Runtime:1 hr. 39 min. R: For language

I’ll tell you upfront, I’m a horror movie junkie. I grew up watching the black and white B movies with my dad on Saturday afternoons. Jason, Freddie and Michael Myers are as much a part of my childhood as Bambi, Cinderella and Julie Andrews.

I was one of the masses totally freaked out when The Blair Witch Project came out. And so when I heard that Paranormal Activity was being hyped as one of the scariest movies ever made, well, obviously I just had to see it.

Since the R rating was for language only, I allowed my 13 year old to talk me into taking him too. He has inherited my love of horror movies and was totally psyched that I was letting him see this one. His friends are totally jealous. I am definitely in the running for most awesome mom ever.

Candy and sodas in hand, we were all ready to be scared out of our gourd. And we watched and waited… and watched and waited some more. And some ever so slightly weirdish stuff happened… and that escalated a bit… and well, there’s a “shocking” ending. And then we all sit there staring at the black screen going “wha? is it over?” And the lights come on and we all shuffle out slightly confused. And sadly, not all that scared.

Tad was flat out disappointed. He wasn’t scared at all. Maybe we are just too jaded. Maybe we knew too much about the movie going in. Maybe it was just over-hyped.

I will tell you that for the best experience, do NOT go researching this movie beforehand (like I did.) I knew what to expect, I knew what was going to happen. I even knew what each of the three alternate endings were. That totally sucked the scare right out of it. Big time bummer. But Tad knew almost nothing going in, and he had the same experience. Of course, he also blows up Zombies on a daily basis.

My overall review: horror movie over-hype and too much information killed this one for me.