"What Happens When You Sleep?"

By Alexandra Schroeder

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The visual essay, “What Happens When You Sleep? Multiple Layers of Voyeurism in the Paranormal Activity Trilogy,” focuses on the particular filming technique of the series, which not only causes the films to appear more realistic, but also creates a multi-layered, voyeuristic sensation. This is particularly the case in the first film, where most paranormal events occur while the characters are sleeping: the demon watches them while they sleep, and the audience watches both the demon and the characters. The effect of such an implementation of technique is an extremely intrusive and chilling feeling.

Author bio:

Alexandra Schroeder received her MA from UCLA in the Cinema & Media Studies program. Her main interests are the Horror genre, smaller national cinemas (especially Nordic Cinema), and film theory. She is currently applying to PhD programs across the country, planning to write her dissertation on horror television for children and young adults.

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"What Happens When You Sleep?": Multiple Layers of Voyeurism in the Paranormal Activity Trilogy by Alexandra Schroeder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License