Paranormal State Too Close to Normal for Comfort?

Paranormal State Too Close to Normal for Comfort? by Roxanne McDonald

Ambivalence towards and paranoia about “Paranormal State” does not mean they are not out to “get” us….

Ambivalence towards and paranoia about “Paranormal State” does not mean they are not out to get us….

I can’t decide if I am delightfully creeped out by “Paranormal State” or am justifiably concerned and therefore bristling for a reason other than the show and its theme making for really interesting entertainment.

In one respect, the Primer tones (voiceovers in that ancestral yet futuristic speaking through a 20’s mic and from the past and future at the same time) and Blair Witch Project dubiousness (is it real? fine line) make for a fairly fresh reality TV show appearance (despite suggesting derivation).
In another respect, the exaggerated use of men of the cloth (to come in, Exorcist style, and perform rites of exorcism and blessing) and the evocation of God (right on the heels of the evocation of the malevolent spirit) suggest some kind of perverse throwback to times of hysterical Puritanism and hyperbolic dependence on GOD versus the big bad DEVIL.

Maybe I was just tired and forgetting for a moment that fine line and all its docu-drama- reality TV blurriness.

Maybe, having just come from a four-hour dental consultation (for some major surgery) I was, during my first viewing (accidental, at that) of “Paranormal State” I was especially vulnerable to the rawness of paranormal exploration.

Maybe I was feeling overly protective of kids cast on the show—concerned that if the show is “real”, is there gonna be a big ol line at the courthouse for lawsuits over

post-traumatized stress babies… or if the show is fictional, is there some cheesy, gratuitous, and continued exploitation of not only the kids as performers but the paranormal genre as it was developing so nicely for TV.
That is, for dramatic similarities we got “The X-Files,” “Medium”, and the unfortunately too-short-lived “Raines”. And for reality TV, we got “Dead Famous,” “Celebrity Paranormal Project,” “America’s Psychic Challenge….” (And this is to say little of the history of paranormal-themed TV and movies: “Lost in Space…,” “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir…,” “BeWITCHED”, for hell sake.)

Yeah, yeah. People love to be scared, and they find paranormal themes fascinating. (And quite possibly, this is what “Paranormal State” is attempting to do—combine, or marry, the two.)

But can “Paranormal State” satisfy either criterion? The questions aren’t even the kind we asked as we watched Blair Witch Project. Rather, they are questions that are much more close to home, family, and church than many might like it to be as either reality or fictional drama.

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