Some movies are a more shared experience than others, and that's certainly the case with "Paranormal Activity," a budget horror flick about things that go bump in the you-know-what in a new home.

It opened in select college towns with midnight-only showings in a handful of theaters but expanded this week (to include AMC-Loews). The combination of the late hour and the horror-jazzed audience could make this minimalist chill-fest the new "Blair Witch Project," or so Paramount hopes.

And at the right moments, it is genuinely hair-raising. Something about seeing terror through the viewfinder of a video camera lends it veracity. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," "Blair Witch" and "Cloverfield" cashed in on that phenomenon. So does the limply titled "Paranormal Activity."

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'Paranormal Activity'

2 1/2 stars = Average
Ratings explained

• Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat.
• Rating: R for language.
• Web site: 'Paranormal Activity'

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Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) are young, middle-class unsophisticates who share a two-story house in a San Diego subdivision. But she's hearing things. She's "haunted," she insists. Her can-do beau wires up a new camcorder with night vision to record them, day and night, to see what is making all those weird noises. Micah, a day trader, isn't buying her frights, and taunts whatever it is that's scaring her.

Katie summons a psychic, who only warns, "You can't run away from this." They should stop payment on his check.

Night after night, they gather video evidence that something is messing with their relationship, their sleep and covers on the bed.

Movies of this price range ($15,000, they say) develop a legend based on their cost, one that sometimes obscures the actual film. This is more fun than most studio horror films that drop into theaters most weekends. Is it scarier? Only occasionally.

But gather your friends, stay up past your bedtime and catch "Paranormal Activity" as the midnight movie it is. If it doesn't spoil your sleep, at least it'll put a damper on any bedroom camcorder games you have planned.

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