"Paranormal Activity" (*** 1/2 out of four) takes the prize as the recent film people have asked me about most in my unofficial capacity as "the movie guy," and that's appropriate, because ever since it arrived on the pop culture radar, the film -- which mostly lives up to the hype that preceded it -- has been all about anticipation.

At first, this haunted-house thriller made for $11,000 was released in a handful of cities, showing only at midnight, and then, in a clever if transparent marketing ploy, the studios in charge of it "agreed" to distribute the movie nationwide if a million people went online and "demanded" that it be shown in their towns. (As if there was any chance they would refuse when gobs of money stood to be made.)

But anticipation also plays a key role in the act of watching the film. If you plan to see "Paranormal Activity," go when there's likely to be the most people in the theater, even if you hate crowds, and look around at the audience when the movie shifts to one of the scenes where the couple in the film sets up a video camera in its bedroom to capture evidence of unexplainable happenings. At the start of each of these scenes, which are labeled "Night #19," or whatever night it happens to be, you can see the people in the theater shifting uncomfortably in their seats and murmuring aloud, wondering what terrible thing could possibly happen next. The show in front of the screen is almost as entertaining as the one on the screen.

None of these things would happen, of course, if "Paranormal Activity," the debut film of writer-director Oren Peli, wasn't the brutally efficient shocker that we all hoped it would be. Katie Featherston plays Katie, a woman who is convinced that she's been haunted all her life by a presence that's followed her from home to home and has taken up residence in the new house she shares with Micah (Micah Sloat), her boyfriend. Micah buys some sophisticated video equipment in the hopes of catching the demon on film, and, despite Katie's insistence that he's taunting the supernatural presence by using the camera and a Ouija board to try to flush it out, goes ahead and does just that.

At first, the occurrences are simply amusing: A strange noise turns out to be the ice maker in the refrigerator, and a set of keys lying on the floor prompts Micah to tell Katie that "evil forces came from beyond the grave to move your keys." But things get stranger from there, prompting the couple to call in a psychic (Mark Fredrichs, the movie's only other actor), who tells Katie that she's "going to be fine" -- and then gives her the name and phone number of a reliable demonologist. (The demonologist is out of town and never arrives, darn the luck.)

During the night, Katie and Micah hear strange noises and see strange things, and during the daytime, they review the previous night's footage and, along with us, enjoy the respite the sunlight provides them ... until darkness comes and they're once again plunged into this horrifying nightmare.

"Paranormal Activity" presents itself as a genuine documentary made from footage found in the house after the incident -- there are no opening or closing credits and the movie begins by thanking the couple's families for participating in the film -- but unlike "The Blair Witch Project," you never quite believe that the events in "Paranormal Activity" actually could have happened. The dialogue and performances are natural enough (though Featherston gets a little less convincing as the film goes on), but the movie itself is too slick to be confused with authentic camerawork.

Still, it all works beautifully, demonstrating once again that when it comes to scaring people, loud noises and special-effects monsters are no match for silence, psychological horror and, yes, anticipation.

Contact Ben Ford at bford@etruth.com, or follow him at twitter.com/thereelworld

DOUBLE FEATURE

The tradition of presenting a fictional horror film as a documentary goes way back. Before "Paranormal Activity" and "The Blair Witch Project," there was "Haxan" (***), a 1922 Danish silent film directed by Benjamin Christensen that purported to show the influence of witchcraft throughout history. Christensen himself plays Satan in this thoroughly odd, sometimes silly, but always fascinating film.