paranormal activity 3 mystery video

paranormal activity 3 mystery video

Paranormal Activity,” a horror film now in limited release across the country, tells the story of a young couple who move into a typical suburban house but are soon disturbed by a supernatural entity that delights in scaring them in the middle of the night. The pair (one a skeptic and one a believer, in true “X-Files” fashion) use a video camera aimed at their bed to document the strange forces that disturb them when they are trying to sleep.
The micro-budget 2007 movie features a small cast of unknown actors. Much like “The Blair Witch Project,” to which the film is being compared, “Paranormal Activity” trades on its cinémavéritérealism, the conceit that you are seeing real documentary footage of what happened– scary scenes and all.

“Real” ghosts aside, the film is realistic in some ways.
The film’s tag line, “What happens when you sleep?” is especially appropriate. Ghosts, abducting aliens, and other mysterious entities are often experienced at home at night and in bed — not during your lunch hour while buying cat food and ground beef at the supermarket.
There’s a psychological reason why these experiences often happen at night: We are more likely to be tired, drowsy, and sleeping. Medications, and even simple fatigue, can create mild hallucinations, what psychologists call waking dreams and hypnagogic experiences. They are harmless and common (especially as we drift to sleep), but can impair our perceptions and create experiences that never happened.
For example, during one haunted house investigation I conducted in Buffalo, N.Y., a man told me that a ghost had kicked his bed as he fell asleep. He had no other explanation, and firmly believed he had been attacked by a ghost. My investigation revealed that the “kicking” he experienced was actually his leg twitching as his body entered the first stages of sleep. He was completely unaware of this, and when awoken by his leg spasm, he interpreted the jerk as a ghost kicking his bed.