ONE WILD WEEKEND | REVIEW: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Spike Jonze's $100 million opus Where The Wild Things Are performed extremely well this past weekend at the top of the box office, taking in $32.5 million. The Warner Brothers' film is an adaptation of the popular children's book of the same title with an all-star cast which includes Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Chris Cooper and newcomer Max Records in the starring role. The arthouse fantasy has been garnering some strong reviews overall with its main critique being that its tone is perhaps too dark to be a truly faithful adaptation to its original story.

Law Abiding Citizen headlined by the hunky duo of Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx also performed very well in second with $21.5 million in ticket sales. On any other weekend, this would've propelled it into top spot. The thriller has received some scathing reviews, citing that it includes some absurd storytelling, yet this still wasn't enough to deter moviegoers from getting their fix of Mancandy.

Closing out the top three was Paramount Pictures' Paranormal Activity which is easily this year's biggest sleeper hit. It continues to pull in some impressive numbers as it expands into more theatres. From just over 700 theatres alone this weekend, it earned $20.1 million in ticket sales. To put this into perspective, Law Abiding Citizen earned just over $1 million more having opened in 2,900 theatres.

Couples Retreat which slipped from first to fourth position this week, is still doing well enough bringing in $18 million this weekend. The Stepfather from Sony Screen Gems, which brought us the positively amazing Obsessed earlier this year, accounted for fifth spot with $12.3 million. Not bad considering it was made for $20 million. The film stars Gossip Girl hunk Penn Badgely and undoubtedly received a boost from that show's demographic of fans.



I caught Paranormal Activity earlier this evening and must say that it was utterly terrifying. Filmed entirely on a handheld camera, much in the same vein as The Blair Witch Project, the movie centers around a couple (Katie and Micah) who move into a new home in suburban San Diego. Katie (Katie Featherston) has a history of demonic hauntings since childhood and the demons inexplicably return again. Hoping to better understand these hauntings, Micah (Micah Sloat) buys a video camera and keeps it running throughout the day to document any paranormal activity which might be occurring in their home. From here, the story gets increasingly eery as the audience watches the hauntings escalate through late night camera footage as the couple sleeps or better yet, tries to sleep. Katie and Micah call in a psychic to assist them in ridding their home of the demons, but they learn that it just might be too late. They are up against one angry demon.

Director and Screenwriter Oran Peli was inspired to write this mockumentary based on hauntings that had occurred in his own home and I must say this film truly does a number on you. I am still terrified as I type this. Peli brings out some great performances from Featherston and Sloat who are relatively unknown still, but definitely not for long. Paranormal Activity has been marketed brilliantly from word-of-mouth buzz on the internet and it is always fun seeing a film that is conceptualized outside the box on a paltry budget, go on to gain commercial success. A horifically gratifying way to spend 100 minutes with friends. Not alone. Grade: A-