Paranormally scared
Apparently, Spielberg got a copy of the movie and he sat down to watch it on his home theatre system, which was more expensive than the budget of the film. He saw it for sometime and then got so scared that he stopped it and saw it next day in the morning with all the windows open. Thats a story making rounds about the movie Paranormal Activity. I am saying this here because I did the same thing. I always knew that he and I were a lot like each other 
The hype about the movie made me see it. And I was scared. Am glad there are my parents in the house, I wouldn’t survive the darkness and theunexplained sounds of the night for few more days otherwise. Many might not actually share the same opinion but it was really scary for me. It took me a second viewing to look at it as a film. During the first viewing it looked like everything shown was real. And its after the second viewing that I was able to appreciate the film as a maker. I think the director has great sense of story telling. That is all that a filmmaker needs to know – To simply tell a story well.
How he made the film, the films budget, other trivia etc etc can be found on the net. I wont repeat that here. I want to talk about the usage of digital medium. All of us new filmmakers often think that we must make a film using digital medium, but then somewhere while working on it, we give up. It is because the story we are trying to tell cant be told in a digital format, and by digital format I mean our handycams etc. Highend digital format will give output similar to film these days. The director of Paranormal activity wrote the script in a way that it would need a handy cam. Even if he had all the money he would have done it with a handy cam. And that is why when we are seeing the movie, we dont complain about the flat lighting, the lack of DOF, colors, focus etc etc. I have seen many normal stories narrated using digital formats, but while seeing them you always feel that these films needed to be shot on film and was done this way because of lack of budgets. The storytelling didn’t ask for low end digital output. But that is reality, After saying all this I might still end up doing the same mistake soon.
The script. Very well thought over. He makes us build stories in our head. When we are seeing the movie we are not really thinking of the characters as much as we think about our own sleep time. Its freaky. Imagine your wife/husband standing next to you and looking at you for hours while you are asleep. Doors opening and closing. He just made a movie to use it a s a platform to make us write stories in our own heads. So the movie is unique to each viewer. We all imagine our own rooms, the people in our house, the doors and windows etc.
After the second viewing I have a doubt if the claims are true. That it was all made by a few people using just one camera etc. There is a scene of one of the nights where we can see a shadow on the door. From whatever I know of filming, that effect is very tough to achieve, isn’t it? Its a wide shot and there is very low light and still a full size shadow!!!! How!? I guess a lot more has been done. But I hope I am wrong and the filmmaker is actually brilliant enough to have got it all by himself.
Excellent low budget film. New filmmakers with big blocks in the head about writing should see it. And do something and make 150 million USD by spending only 15k USD.
Its late now. I am wondering how I will make it to the room and sleep. I have to switch the light off here and then walk in the dark for about 5 mts and then jump into the bed. What if I bump into someone invisible!!!