Last week, we recommended that all six of our loyal readers go out and see "Paranormal Activity" (2009) for a good scare. We decided to take our own advice and watch "Paranormal," making sure to go during the day so we could walk out of the theater into unthreateningly sunny skies. Despite our best efforts, we left the theater mildly impressed and thoroughly shaken. As we drowned our lingering fears in Oreo cake batter ice cream from J.P. Licks, we realized that "Paranormal" wasn't as revolutionary as we were led to believe. Film critic Owen Gleiberman had boldly stated that the film "scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clichés," but we think that the film suffers from the biggest horror cliché of all — characters with poor decision-making skills.
The stupid character is an archetype that plagues movies — horror, action and comedy alike. In writing them as unintelligent, screenwriters create unbelievable characters that are difficult to empathize with. It's hard as a viewer to relate to idiotic characters, unless of course you're watching one of the "Jackass" movies. Did you see the bit where they paper-cut the webs of their fingers? Classic.
Seriously though, it's hard to care about a protagonist who's got the IQ of Forrest Gump but lacks the funny accent and ping-pong skills.
At some point in time, Hollywood executives hypothesized about a positive relationship between body counts and the quality of fright flicks. To achieve a high number of killings, scripts were written in a way that had dim-witted teenagers walking right into the murderer's arms. These characters were victims no one cared about, as disposable and relatable as tissues.
In "Paranormal," a psychic warns main character Katie to avoid provoking whatever is haunting her. Katie's obnoxiously arrogant boyfriend, Micah, disregards the psychic's advice and his girlfriend's supplications, despite the terrifying phenomena occurring in his house with increasing frequency and severity. He decides to piss the evil entity off. His macho stubbornness becomes so unbelievable that any likability his character had at the beginning of the film rapidly deteriorates. We end up rolling our eyes at his self-destructive stupidity.
Another reason so many films use the stupid character cop-out is because it's an easy way to further a storyline. Hollywood has conditioned viewers into believing that the only way to propel the plot and the scares in films is through witless decisions. We beg to differ. Strong and intelligent characters and an enthralling horror film are not mutually exclusive.
Think of "28 Days Later" (2002) or "The Shining" (1980). Here are films that thrust their characters into dire situations and let the horror play out. There's a fine line between helpless and brainless. In fact, the heroine from "28 Days Later," Selena (Naomie Harris), is always thinking about her own safety and how other people might slow her down and make her more susceptible to being attacked by the Infected. That's what we call brains — or just being a selfish jerk.
We're not saying that people can't make stupid decisions in films. Oftentimes, stupid is funny. But filmmakers have to be able to justify acts of brainlessness. An easy justification is love. No one scoffed at Leonardo DiCaprio's character's act of selflessness in "Titanic" (1997) — he dies so that Kate Winslet's character can survive. We bought it because we know that love is illogical; it makes you do things you otherwise wouldn't do. In "Paranormal," Micah just acts like an inexcusable idiot bent on screwing up his girlfriend's life.
Despite its stupid characters, "Paranormal"'s cinéma-vérité style works well, and the tension builds to monstrous levels. You won't find a better horror movie in theaters right now.
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Zach Drucker and Chris Poldoian are sophomores who have not yet declared majors. They can be reached at Zachary.Drucker@tufts.edu and Christopher.Poldoian@tufts.edu, respectively.
