10 Horror Movies That Were Scarier For Making You Think They Were Real
7. Paranormal Activity
It can't be underestimated just how buzzed-about Paranormal Activity was ahead of its 2009 release.
Marketed on the strength of its minimalist style - defined largely by handheld camerawork and static night vision surveillance footage - critics gladly dubbed Oren Peli's film "the new Blair Witch Project," and in a way, they were right.
Though there's no denying that audiences had become decidedly savvier to the tricks of the genre in the decade between these two movies, Paranormal Activity nevertheless felt like a horror film for the YouTube generation, with the characters' obsessive focus on self-documentation as they investigate a possible supernatural presence in their home.
Though most rational viewers will eventually appreciate the increasingly reality-breaking set-pieces to be acts of artifice, for a great deal of its runtime, the minimalism on offer - defined by ambient creaking noises and subtle movement in the frame - is eerily relatable to anyone staying up into the early hours.
The inevitable sequels naturally felt the pressure to ramp up the absurdity of the scares - culminating in 2015's 3D misfire Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension - but there's little denying the original's quiet, stomach-knotting intensity.