Let's face it, Paranormal Activity (Filmstalker review) was not scary. The constant filming, the abrasive and difficult male lead, and the rushed, rule breaking ending didn't help - the audience I was in were laughing! - and so I don't expect much more from a copy of the film.

So along comes Paranormal Entity, get it? A film that has a very similar premise. However I was rather surprised by the first half of the trailer, there's a great setting of scene and building of tension, and I love the way it uses the emergency phone call.

Then it loses it by doing the "I'll hold the camera on you no matter what" idea, and that breaks the whole premise of it being a real person in a real situation and the film is broken for me.

That's the big problem with these types of films, where the character goes against everything that would be in your body and mind to do - you're not going to be caring about strapping a camera to your shoulder and framing perfectly, no matter how small and easy to hold it is, when a family member is in front of you in the darkness, there's blood everywhere, you've been experiencing paranormal type activity and there's a good chance your life is in danger - oh hold on, let me just adjust the light, frame, and make sure when I reach for you the camera still has your head in focus and I'm squinting through an eyepiece at you.

Ludicrous, and that for me is where these films break up, and that is where the trailer loses it too.

That said, up until that point it does a great job of building the tension and stretching it out. Then it shows just how low budget it really is.

Here's the blurb and trailer from Quiet Earth:

"Actual footage of the events leading to the 2008 "murder" of Samantha Finley. This DVD, released against the wishes of the authorities, proves that nothing human caused Samantha's death."

You can see why it's called a copy-cat. However just some innovative thinking on the part of the scriptwriters and characters and they could get round this whole hand-held camera piece, because we're quite a sophisticated audience you know.