Paranormal Entity (2009) Movie Review
Written by: ML
Edited by: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Shane Van Dyke
Producers: David Michael Latt
Writers: Shane Van Dyke
Date Released: December 22, 2009
Cast:
Shane Van Dyke as Thomas Finley
Erin Marie Hogan as Samantha Finley
Fia Perera as Ellen Finley
Norman Saleet as Dr. Edgar Lauren
Rating = 1/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
The story is about a series of found footages that were shown to the public to prove that there is a paranormal entity trying to take over a family. The movie starts with a disclaimer saying that Thomas was convicted of raping and killing his sister Sam, and murdering the psychic who was trying to help them. This found footage was the proof to his claim that it was a paranormal entity that did the killings and all the weird stuff that happened before that.
Gore Factor
Because this is a paranormal movie, there are no blood and gore involved. There are no jump scares either. It’s just the creepiness and the impending doom from supernatural forces at play. The creepiest thing is the footage of footsteps all around the ceiling and discovering the place where it came from which is the urn of ashes in the basement. Though there are a lot of moving objects on their own, the creepiest ones are those that slam and those that suddenly pops right at the screen. One example is the bell booby trap. Another scary moment from this movie is the one where Sam was found alone staring at nothing at the attic.
The Grave Review
Right from the beginning of the movie, this found footage format has been kind of boring. The emotionless acting is probably one thing. The characters lack the emotions of being a family. They seem like random strangers living in one house. Then there’s the monotonous dialogue. The way the characters speak does not exude fear or terror from being victims of supernatural forces. They’re not scared enough in a realistic manner.
The chopped up footages of random rooms and random nights make audiences think there is something about to happen. And when there’s none, one might question what we are looking at. One useless sequence is the outdoor footage when Thomas was looking for Sam. It was quite long and dragging and nothing happened. The interview scenes were also cringe-worthy and emotionless. There are a lot of short footages that seemed like they were inserted just for the sake of building suspense that was not even there in the first place.
If there is a thing to like about this movie, it is how Dr. Lauren was able to at least give some insight as to what was happening in that house. It was interesting to know about the maron, or the germanic term for incubus. This entity entered the house when the mother was trying to get in touch with her dead husband’s spirit. This conversation happened towards the end and it’s unfortunate that he suddenly died without explanation or even seeing how he got all bloody.
As something that’s trying to enter the world of paranormal found footage genre, it is understandable that the horrors in this movie are predictable. The premise that the footage was supposed to be a proof of Sam’s supernatural cause of death in order to save Thomas from the accusations was not explained. It was just raw footage. No further clarification as to what really took place in that house and how Sam was killed.
Overall, this movie is just fine if you are looking for something to watch that is paranormal-related.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Paranormal Entity (2009) one grave out of five graves.
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