‘Paranormal Activity’ Is an Important Lesson in Male Fragility

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a horror movie expert by any means, though they are fascinating to watch unfold. Despite Hitchcock’s personal faults, I’m a huge fan of his psychological thrillers that helped define this genre, like Psycho, The Birds, and Rope. I would go as far as to argue that the shower scene in Psycho led to the sub-genre of slashers, where films like Halloween, Black Christmas, and Scream also featured men wielding knives into the bodies of innocent, unsuspecting victims–most often women. 

There’s much to be said about the way we are treated in this genre, from how little girls like Regan in The Exorcist become the vessel for a demon, to the sexually active teenage girls in Halloween who are brutally punished for their supposed indiscretions, to the expectant mother in Rosemary’s Baby who is raped by Satan and is fed lies by her husband and a satanic cult so she willingly gives up her child. In a man’s world, we are simultaneously the unwitting victims and perpetrators of fear. 

The first circumstance certainly holds true for Katie, the main character of 2007’s Paranormal Activity who is haunted, terrorized, and later possessed by a demon who leads her to kill. Yet, in some ways, supernatural films like PA are scarier than other sub-genres of horror because the threat here is unseen. They argue that the only thing more frightening than a fellow human hunting us is a demonic entity that we cannot fight back against in obvious ways, that we must first convince ourselves is real. 

When I sat down to watch it for the first time this weekend, I was ready for eerie found footage, spooky, unexplained occurrences, and demonic activity so frightening I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night. Admittedly, I wasn’t that taken aback by what I was supposed to be frightened of–the demonic howls, footsteps at night, inexplicably swinging chandeliers. Instead, I found myself more irritated and scared of Katie’s boyfriend Micah, who I would argue is the real villain of the story. Yes, even more than an ancient demonic entity intent on fear, murder, and human prey. 

From the first shot of the film, it’s obvious that the entire story will be told from Micah’s point of view. With brief interludes from Katie, he’s the sole cameraman, the only person filming, the one who sets up the home video camera on the tripod every night. It makes complete sense when we find out that the idea to film the demonic activity was his, with begrudging permission and little enthusiasm from Katie. Just Micah filming this movie means that she has no agency in her experience, let alone how she chooses to share and document it. She becomes an object for him to project his fantasies on, like filming her butt as she walks upstairs and asking if he can film them having sex. 

Even worse, throughout the whole film, Micah belittles, challenges, and mocks the demon and by extension, Katie herself, making the revealing of her childhood trauma feel like a forced confession on a reality show. Whereas she takes it as a serious threat, he treats it like a game, talking directly to the demon like it’s just some guy on the street looking at his girl the wrong way. “Is that all you got?” he yells into the void, while Katie all but begs him to stop.  

But of course, that’s the whole problem. He doesn’t listen when Katie asks him to stop behaving like a child, when she wants to call in a demonologist, when she demands that he stop filming, when she tells him he has no say over the situation. He either ignores her or fights back with aggression and violence because it’s not just his girlfriend’s life on the line, but also who he is as a man in the most traditional sense of the word. For him, these issues are intrinsically tied: if Katie dies, what does that say about him as a protector and provider? And what is toxic masculinity, after all, if not a man making a woman’s problems his own? 

In fact, the scariest scene in the whole movie is not when Katie is pulled from her bed by an invisible force but when she and Micah have a screaming match about bringing a Ouija board into the house to communicate with the demon when she specifically told him not to, and how he refuses to apologize, empathize with her point of view, or understand the problem in the first place. Instead, he makes himself the victim for moving in with her, even suggesting it’s her fault for being haunted by a demon from childhood. 

In that way, the demon becomes a metaphor for the deeper flaws of their relationship: Micah’s need for power and control, his lack of respect for her voice and opinions, his tendency to gaslight others and victimize himself, their unhealthy methods of communication. 

Remember, however, that Micah is complicated. It’s not just Katie or her friend or women in general whom he doesn’t respect; it’s also other men that he doesn’t deem “manly” enough to tell him what to do. When supernatural specialist Dr. Fredrichs stops by the house, it’s obvious, even to the doctor, that Micah finds him weak, meek, and stupid. Not someone to take seriously or take orders from, which makes it easy for him to dismiss the doctor and re-establish control over the house, Katie, and the demon to his detriment.  

At the very end of the movie, Katie loses any semblance of self and becomes fully possessed by the demon. We’re supposed to see her as the new villain of the story, who will go on through the next films of the franchise to mercilessly stalk, hunt, and kill. But in this moment, I don’t feel frightened of her or sorry for Micah when she throws him against the wall and kills him. 

At best, I see a woman taking back her power, voice, and agency over her life and at worst, a woman who has succumbed to the forces of evil after being tormented by both a demon and her mediocre boyfriend. Even her breaking Micah’s camera in the last frame is a form of rebellion against the male gaze that’s been plaguing her throughout the film, as though the demon has been giving Katie the tools to cut out the other obstructive forces in her life. As if the real demon all along wasn’t a mysterious supernatural entity but the male ego, the real threat a toxic masculinity and male fragility that could cost you your life. Even with a literal demon around, what could be more frightening than that?