PARANORMAL PARODY (2011)

Directed/Written by CJ Goodman

This is not a horror film. It’s not scary. And really, it’s not meant to be. As the title suggests, PARANORMAL PARODY is a farcical take on the popular PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movie series–more accurately, the first one. And while the film is hit or miss when it comes to bringing the funny, I think this low budgeter should be recognized for sticking to the format laid out by the original film.

The premise of PARANORMAL PARODY sounds pretty familiar. Ben and Kristen are your typical young couple. Well, that’s not the case. For years, Kristen has been haunted by vague memories of childhood trauma. When paranormal things begin to happen in the home, Ben decides to buy a video camera and tape it all in order to find the answers. Though Ben is goofy and Kristen is rather mysterious, this couple plays it pretty straight in the opening moments as the film follows the original’s storyline pretty closely. As the story goes on, running jokes start to appear. Ben is continuously called an asshat and obsesses about using a Ouija Ball to contact the spirits of the house. Kristen’s obvious lesbian interests begin to pop up here as videos and pictures of her wilder days come out of the blue. Soon, a demonic force makes its presence known as seen through videotapes Ben records throughout the night.

PARANORMAL PARODY’s strength lies in the fact that almost shot for shot, scene for scene, it is a remake of the original PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Sure, jokes appear here and there. Instead of standing still at the edge of the bed, Kristen dances in her sleep over Ben while he’s snoozing as the timer speeds by in the bottom corner signifying a substantial passage of time. Instead of sitting on a chair on the porch in the middle of the freezing night, Kristen is riding a hobby horse, which is funny because the couple doesn’t own a hobby horse. Though the film is filled with gaffes which replace the shocks of the original film, it sticks almost to a fault to the story structure, which as least shows that the filmmakers were dedicated and serious about their subject matter.

The jokes hit the target about 60% of the time. Most of the biggest laughs come at Ben’s expense as he obliviously overlooks his wife’s lesbianism and is forced to watch the psychic invited into the home overtly flirt with his wife in front of him. There are a couple of great lines from Ben, who accurately observes that they never leave the house and that’s not normal–something that points out some of the more ludicrous facts about the original film. Plus there’s a screaming refrigerator, which is actually kind of scary. Then again, there are some definite clunker jokes here that come at obvious times, such as farting in the bed and having the demon walking down the hall then taking a whiz in the toilet. The story at least peppers in some wholehearted guffaws in between these clunkers to dilute the lameness.

PARANORMAL PARODY is not going to split your side, but there are some bright moments of clever observations about the first film and some genuinely funny moments at the expense of its main characters. Though not as good as SCARY MOVIE 1 or the batshit crazy SCARY MOVIE 2, it is definitely better than other horror parodies. It’s not to be taken seriously, but then again it’s a parody so that’s the point.