First and foremost, this movie is in not even the same league as Blair Witch. In Blair Witch you didn't see anything scary. Just "what they were hearing" in which case half the movie the viewer didn't hear anything. The camera work made you feel like you were going to have a seizure, and the movie concludes completely ridiculous because you don't even know what they are after, what happened, etc.
In Paranormal, you actually hear sounds, noises, groans, etc. In two scenes you see reflections of the demon's shadow on the door/floor. You see creepy footprints appear, an the demon even does things to the people that show things are physically happening to them (I won't go into detail and spoil it for those who want to see it). Point being, you actually KNOW something is there in this movie. The camera work from the most part is shot from a tripod, so you don't get a headache watching this, and even when he is "investigating", the camera work still is manageable. For a movie that only cost 15K to make, they've made about 30-million on it so far. It is a theater movie I believe. It won't have the same effect at home, unless you have a big screen and surround sound, lol.
It creeped me out, and I don't get creeped out by movies at all, lol. The theater was literally screaming at parts, just like they showed in the previews. It was a good watch. Starts out slow, but gets rolling pretty quick. You have to get into it to get the full effect. You can't just go and be like "this is going to be gay" and expect to be scared. Get into it and enjoy it.
Yes it was an indy film. It was actually made 3 years ago, and Paramount sponsored it to go mainstream. It was on limited release, but based on how much those releases were selling out, they put it out to most theaters now. We went last week on Friday to see Stepfather, and the lines for Paranormal were outrageous. The 8:15 was sold out, and there was a girl by us trying to get tickets for 9:15 and the guy was telling them that it was at 95% and was going to sell out within 10-minutes. When we were leaving Stepfather, the 10:20 was sold out as well. I already have pre-bought tickets for the next day to see Paranormal. When we got there, my showing was sold out, and the line was around the theater (Crestwood). When we got out of the movie, the next showing, was from the hallway leading to the theaters, outside the building, and starting to loop around the building. I've never seen a movie with this kind of turn out. It was bigger lines then where were when Rocky 6 came out.