Entertainment

Terrifyingly inexpensive

Less is usually more when it comes to scary movies.

“Paranormal Activity,” re portedly made for a pit tance of $11,000, delivers more shocks and shudders than most flicks costing 1,000 times that.

Like legendary producer Val Lewton in the ’40s, writer-director Oren Peli, who shot “Paranormal” in seven days in his own home, understands that what’s most frightening is what you don’t see — but which is merely suggested.

There’s nothing but the briefest glimpse of blood or violence here — and nothing but the crudest (but highly effective) visual and sound effects. Yet I felt hairs standing up on the back of my neck as the film slowly built to a series of shocks that had a preview audience screaming and laughing nervously.

Employing the same sort of supposedly found camcorder footage (though less shaky) as “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield,” the film depicts a tense three-week period in late 2006.

Micah (Micah Sloat), an entitled day trader, has just bought the camera in an attempt to record things going bump in the night at the two-story tract house in San Diego that he has recently moved into with his girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherston).

Katie, who has had problems with paranormal events in the past, brings in an expert, who warns the couple not to anger the ghost or demon that’s taken up residence in their home.

Micah, though, thinks it would be fun to capture the phenomena on tape. It’s not giving anything away to say this is a bad idea. Defying Katie and bringing in a Ouija board is probably an even worse idea.

Doors open suddenly, lights flicker on and off in the middle of the night, we hear footsteps. Is that a shadow? And what exactly is going on in their bed while they’re sleeping? It’s been a long time since I saw an audience react so viscerally to a film. There were literally gasps when a character walked off into darkness.

On the downside, there are long dull stretches, especially in the beginning. The film, which has no music except a brief burst from a computer, would be even more effective if it were 15 minutes shorter.

Even so, “Paranormal Activity” creates a highly effective mood and a pervasive sense of dread. The film’s greatest assets are strong performances by what’s basically a two-person cast. Sloat is effectively obnoxious as Micah, with Featherston even better as the increasingly high-strung Katie.

I won’t say anything about the ending except to say it’s much scarier than “The Blair Witch Project” — and report that a substantial portion of the audience spent five minutes staring at a blank screen at the end, waiting to see if it was really over.

“Paranormal Activity” may indeed be the phenomenon for which Paramount is hoping.