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[quote name="Fullofkittens"]<ul><li>Darth Maul as the demon.</li> <li>The principals being transported to a spirit dimension that inexplicably looks like the hell dance from <i>Staying Alive</i>.</li> <li>The movie trying to get extra credit by making it all about parents defending their kid.</li> <li>A fake happy ending followed by the ultra cliched twist ending.</li> <li>The fact that absolutely none of the scares land and the whole thing comes off as a comedy.</li> </ul> What made <i>Paranormal Activity</i> an interesting movie is that it relies on slow builds, suspense, and spooky sound design instead of special fx and gore. (It hadn't been done in a while at the time, it's very common now in the wake of its success.) In terms of overall techniques and tone, I would say <i>Insidious</i> is a lot more like <i>The Unborn</i> or some other run-of-the-mill summer horror flick. The summarized story ("isolated family, family member is under attack by demonic forces") is common to hundreds and hundreds of movies, including <i>Poltergeist</i> and <i>The Shining</i>. The fact that they are... similar in that regard(?) doesn't mean that they're similar in the details or execution. I guess I find it odd to draw a line between these two movies when there are so many copycat Paranormal Activities out there. In October I watched a bunch of them back to back, I was going to write an article about them but I got busy playing XCOM instead. =([/quote]