Katie (played by Katie Featherston) believes that an evil spirit has been following her ever since she was a child. Her boyfriend, a day trader named Micah (played by Micah Sloat), decides to set up cameras all over the house so that he can record any strange things that happen. A psychic (Mark Friedrichs) tells Micah that this is a really bad idea because the demon is intent on tormenting Katie and that it gets off on creating negative energy. Micah doesn’t listen because he’s dumb.

Reading Lisa Marie’s review of The Blair Witch Project reminded me of the other great found-footage horror phenomenon of our lifetime, Paranormal Activity. The whole movie is made up of “found footage” that was recorded on the stationary cameras set up around the house. Because the cameras were all supposed to be sitting on tripods or other surfaces, this eliminated the question of “Why would anyone still be filming at this point?” It gave the first Paranormal Activity film a plausibility that, in my opinion, The Blair Witch Project lost the minute Heather and Michael decided not to turn off the camera and just make a run for it. It also helped that night vision is automatically creepy. Though there have been far too many sequels, the first Paranormal Activity shows what you can do with loud noises, dark rooms, and lots of atmosphere.

Of course, most of my friends had the same reaction to Paranormal Activity. They wonder how someone like Micah could have ever hooked up with someone as hot as Katie in the first place. Paranormal Activity briefly gave hope to dorky guys everywhere, or at least it did as long as you ignored what happened to Micah at the end of the movie. I have yet to meet anyone who watched Paranormal Activity and felt bad for Micah. There’s a lot of sympathy for Katie, but everyone seems to agree that Micah brought it all on himself.

Paranormal Activity has inspired six sequels, with a seventh scheduled to come out in 2027.