Paranormal Activity: things that go bump in the night….

One of the scariest things about seeing the film Paranormal Activity was the £12.70 ticket price…

 The film made on a shoe string budget of $15,000 by Oren Peli in his own home has now grossed a massive $100 million! It is a stylish film with hand held wobbly camera effects, you get used to it once your eyes adjusted. It is one of these films that pronounces the story as true from the start credits (thanks to the San Diego police department).

Micah and Katie live in an ordinary house but there’s an overall sense of something paranormal that is seemingly possessing Katie. Hence the introduction of the video camera to capture paranormal activity while they are asleep. A very good premise of a story, a narrative based on something that is invading your safe haven exposing that vulnerability of sleep state…just what goes on during that period. Katie is determined to find out what is happening but believes the video camera will only provoke the entity while Micah is more wise cracking in his skepticism and cynicism especially when she invites around a psychic who also believes there is an evil force at work.

What is engaging and clever about the film is that the two leads (they use their real names as to give further naturalism to the film) are utterly convincing as a couple. The dialogue bounces off each other which creates a realistic dynamic. Both are supportive and loving to each other but there are times when they argue, they represent an everyday ordinary kinda couple. We also witness, over the several weeks, the breakdown of the whole fabric of their being, lack of sleep along with the fear of the unknown starts to have negative consequences on their relationship.

Much of the activity takes place at night, starting with loud bumps, lights switching on/off, unexplained movements. The scenes where a swaying Katie standing with a fixed stare next to her bed is genuinely unnerving coupled with her shocked state in the morning where she has no recollection of even getting out of bed. I think, as well, the film highlights and exposes our own fears of sleep and of the night. Fear of the unknown invading a safe space. And weaving the realities of night terrors and sleep walking into the demonic storyline. There is a brief glimpse into Katie’s childhood when she speaks to the psychic and some of those childhood experiences are replicated in her adult life.

The paranormal activity worsens, video footage depicts weird and unexplainable actions. Micah and Katie try to make sense of this by trawling the internet to find similar experiences and making appointments with an expert in demons. Obviously the viewer’s own sense of rationality is suspended. While the possession worsens the cracks in the foundation of their own sanity and despair becomes full blown with a horrific denouement. The reason why this demonic force is choosing Katie is never explored as opposed to Micah.

On a general point, when it comes to films depicting demonic entities they always seem to kinda possess women….. very rarely men. Strange that, eh?!

And in the patriarchal misogynistic scheme of things, women historically, have been described as ‘possessed’ with an evil entity usually corresponding with sexuality, sex and regarding emotional responses differing from men.

Was I scared? Yes and no. It was a good stab at a horror film (pardon the pun) but it just didn’t fit together, there were times it wasn’t subtle and sometimes less is more….leave it to the imagination of the viewer especially the ending which over egged the suspense and terror, which caused groans of ‘c’mon..lame’ to giggles from the audience as opposed to thrills and delights of chilly spooked-out-your-seat unremitting terror. It wasn’t, there were some outstanding scenes that related to your own night time fears of the unknown, the continuous thuds (is that just the central heating…or…??) to night terror hallucinations (what is that I am seeing in the corner of my eye …it is real?!). Or is it some demonic force lurking and skulking desperately intent on invading your psyche? Again, this plays on our own primal fears during the times when we are probably at the most vulnerable and powerless.

The film is reminiscent of The Exorcist especially the attic scene, the filming/cinematographic style similar to The Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast. As someone who regularly suspends their rationality and reason due to enjoying horror film genre then this one is impressive and creative as it does emphasise our fears of the unknown….but less is more…

Good luck with national climate march

Good luck with the climate march today and the surrounding Parliament for ‘The Wave’ at 3pm. Couldn’t make the demo rather sad I won’t be wearing my fine ‘Domestic Extremist’ t-shirt but there will be other times. Also I was hoping to go to Copenhagen but can’t get to that either….

The demand from the demo today includes:

10% cuts by the end 2010

A million Green Jobs by end 2010

Ban domestic flights

55mph speed limit – scrap the roads programme

End Agrofuel use

Hopefully, Random Blowe will have pix and a report from the day today.

Mental distress, CBT and employment

From Monday the DWP will announce that mental health co-ordinators will be based in Jobcentres.

The plans, which will make mental health treatment and particularly cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) central to the fight to get Britain back to work after the recession, will eventually see centres providing CBT set up around the country.

Jobcentre Plus will be, at some stage, encouraged to send unemployed people for CBT without a doctor’s referral.

Under the plans, unemployed people would be eligible for eight therapy sessions immediately. Within five years anyone, including people in work, would be allowed to “refer themselves in” for treatment.

One in four people are likely to experience a mental health problem and the effects on the jobs market are acute. Some 6 million adults in the UK have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety, many of whom are on incapacity benefit.

The move follows years of lobbying by Tony Blair’s “happiness tsar”, economist Lord Layard. Provision of cognitive behaviour therapy on the NHS was his earlier triumph but Layard has continued to lobby for it to be central to the jobs strategy.

But shouldn’t the role of the Jobcentre be about administering the benefits system which is difficult and bureaucratic enough? What kind of training have these mental health co-ordinators had? Will they be civil servants trained up or actual mental health professionals? Also, these proposals only offer CBT to people who are out of work? Is this therapy going to be used as a useful tool in getting people back into the job market or will it be about bullying and cajoling? Will they be sanctioned if they refuse? How much say does the claimant get? What about others who may believe that they will benefit from a course of CBT but can’t get access to it as the waiting lists are unbelievably long. These proposals also bypass the GP, what are their views on this? The reasons I ask these questions is I am utterly cynical, skeptical and knowing the MO of NL there’s the inevitable sting in the tail…..

And it is rather pathetic (but hey, not a surprise) that Purnell said that ‘mild depression doesn’t have to be a barrier to work’…

What precisely is ‘mild depression’ how does he categorise/classify it? He also underestimates the destructiveness of depression. And it how vary from day to day, life experience to life experience, throw that into the mix of a complex and contradictory society. Also, tell that to employers when they discard someone’s application form ‘cos they experience(d) mental distress!!

A society based fundamentally on exploitation and alienation (even more alienating in some job sectors with the implementation of the LEAN mean production scheme) with increased stress, anxiety, distress and misery coupled with the impact of the recession. These proposals don’t really demonstrate good intentions for people with depression getting back into the job market  or about their needs (I mean, how about therapy tailored for the individual?) They smack of supply-side economics, the unemployed depressed drone given x number of sessions of CBT is thrown back on the conveyor belt of rat race quicker than you can say Marx’s labour theory of value. And where the hell are these mythical jobs..??!!

A society that devalues and belittles….and they wonder why so many people are so depressed.

Oh, and I was waiting for ‘tsar’ Layard to pop up with his sugar coated happiness corporate capitalist approved prescriptions.

The early theorising of neo-liberalism was about creating a new kind of self reliant human indifferent to the needs and wants of others except as expressed through money. We need a society that gives people the space to be happy. You cannot be happy in a social environment where you face continual dispossession and exploitation. The citizen of an industrial society today can be no more happy than the subsistence farmer confronting plagues of locusts and the depredations of the local landowner.

And let’s face these proposals are not about what is best suited to the individual based on clinical judgement instead it is driven by government policy and ideology.