During the recent Christmas holidays, I took it upon myself to catch-up on all the best and worst films of 2009 – all those wee gems I’d missed. After the impressive District 9, surprisingly good Funny People and refreshingly entertaining comedy The Hangover, I was particularly excited about Paranormal Activity.

The film had clearly marketed itself as Blair Witch set in a house… basically. So, in a nutshell (and this is all you really need to know), a young couple – Katie and Micah – are terrorized by an entity, which has been following Katie since the age of eight.

The story was shallow, the players were very two-dimensional and the “scary moments” were awful, and believe me, I scare very easily. Katie and Micah were unbelievable as a “couple”, and really bloody annoying. Micah seemed intent on doing everything he could to aggravate the entity from his filming their every mundane moment in the house, to bringing in a Ouija board – all against his girlfriend’s wishes. The frights always happened at night whilst the couple were in bed, so really, you know what’s coming and that doesn’t actually make it scary at all.

It's night, there's a ghost – big surprise eh?

The film ends quite quickly and built-up to nothing. It was possibly the worst horror and worst film I’d seen of 2009′s releases. Yes, even more terrible than that ridiculous Wolverine film. It’s just wholly disappointing that we’re constantly fed this regurgitated nonsense again and again. I felt like I’d lost 92-minutes of my life and you know what? I’ll never get those 92-minutes back again!

If you’re into your horror and want to see something that really chills your bones then watch A Tale of Two Sisters – a truly beautiful and tragic story, where the frights are secondary to the amazing acting and direction. I guess, this is another example of “banging one out” for a quick buck. I’m hoping 2010 brings me something I can really get my teeth into.