Based on a true story (because it's a true story that there was a movie made with the exact premise you're about to see)

Ever pull over for lunch at one of those suburban diners with less character than a Michael Bay movie? You know the type. Neon sign hanging over the awning, mismatched furniture inside, a menu so lazy it can’t even spellcheck ‘mozzarella’ or list the choice in salad dressings? You’re expecting Jamie the waitress to bring you a spotty spoon with soup-from-a-can special and paper-thin cheeseburger straight out of a freezer chest. If you’re lucky.

Then something strange happens. The chicken noodle is smooth and filled with actual meat from a once living bird. Your fries are crispy enough and the burger drips with genuine juice. Sure, the Diet Coke is flat, coleslaw soggy, and Jamie seems to get lost in a vortex during her cigarette break, but overall, you’re pleased enough with your experience and feel a tad guilty for being such a quick judge of cuisine character.

Such was my recent experience with Paranormal Entity--yes, that’s not a misprint--the latest offering from The Asylum, the studio that brought you such classy and timely direct-to-DVD titles as Transmorphers, Snakes On a Train, and The Day the Earth Stopped. Having never seen these or any of the two dozen other titles, I assumed that all were speedy cash-ins primarily designed to trick those movie buyers without finely honed reading skills or 20/20 vision. For some of their films, that may indeed be the case, but I was pretty shocked to discover that Paranormal Entity, in the words of Hans Landa, is... not so terrible.

Quick Plot: Some all-too-familiar text informs us of the Finley family tragedy, something better left to the next 85 minutes of screentime to show. We then hear a frantic 911 call from big brother Tom (I think...note most character details will be shoddy as IMDB has yet to acknowledge this is a movie) telling the operator about the brutal attack on his sister Sam. It’s a creepy way to start a film, but a tad too self-spoilery as well.

Flash back a month when Tom buys some fancy camera equipment (you mean just like--Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer?) to document the ‘haunting’ of his kid sister. Along with their mother, the 19 year old Sam and early twentysomething Tom have spent the past year dealing with the sudden death of their father in a car accident. Some questionable advice inspired Mom to write letters to her late husband and in doing so, opened some sort of portal for an annoying and amorous--paranormal even--entity to slip through.

Much like some other found footage ghost story of 2009, Paranormal Entity is something of an experience in whether minimal effects and suggested evil can still scare an audience raised on 3D bloodshed and torture porn. Whether it works or not depends a good deal on the individual, just as The Blair Witch Project had little room for those with in-between opinions. 

Early scenes focus a tad too hard on mysterious phone calls and TV static, but later touches--such as the demon nastily stomping about in Daddy’s ashes and a jarring cut that sets off the final mayhem--do succeed in creating a disturbing atmosphere. The actual entity, though never fully identified, has a truly mean nature that makes you genuinely concerned for the innocent-enough object of its obsession.

Is this a great film? Goodness no. A good deal of the scares are predictable, while stretches of run time slog through Tom’s shaky cam investigations without the payoffs we’re hoping for. The script is a little less clever than its source of inspiration and the performances not quite as charming, but I quickly found myself invested in the fates of these characters. Like Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Entity creates an unseen villain whose steeply escalating fixation on a clueless young woman is eerily frightening. Viewers who felt let down by the final shots of Paranormal Activity may be more satisfied with the final chaotic moments of this harder R film (side note: I’m still trying to figure out where that original rating came from) while those who prefer a more suggestive ghost story will find it gratuitous. 

High Points

The choice to include the late Finley father adds a solid touch of sympathy for the family, particularly when we realize the ironic sadness that it’s the mother’s inability to let go of her husband that leads to her and kids’ eventual demise

Low Points

Considering the gimmick of its low budget, every post-production effect (such as the too-loud phone rings and TV static) stand out like the CGI recuts in the not-so-special edition releases of the original Star Wars trilogy

Unlike Paranormal Activity, where viewers quickly gain a clear map of the house due to some careful plotting and camera tours, it’s a challenge to navigate through the oddly door-heavy hallways of the Finley home. In a film so confined to one space, this is something of a problem.

Lessons Learned

Incubi have a soft spot for young women with minimalist taste in bedroom decoration and who prepare for bedtime at 3 in the afternoon

Always invest in a spill-proof urn following the cremation of a dear relation

As Cloverfield, Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, and countless other films have taught, the dude holding the camera is inevitably a really big jerk

Rent/Bury/Buy

While I appreciated Paranormal Entity as a far stronger film than its reputation could possibly have suggested, I have a hard time deciding what kind of audience will actually enjoy it. Moviegoers who loathed Paranormal Activity will have the same problems with the minimalist Paranormal Entity, while those who long to marry and mate with Oren Peli’s juggernaut of an original will be offended by the very existence of this film. If, on the third hand, you’re like me--someone who liked without loving Paranormal Activity--then Paranormal Entity is certainly worth checking out, if only to see how a recycled concept fares in different hands. Whatever your thoughts, be sure to come back and share them. This film is, not surprisingly, receiving its share of verbal hatred, so I’m curious to hear if my expectations were simply so low that it passed by default, or if indeed this was a refreshingly okay little cheapie worth a free rental and hour fifteen minutes of your time.