"Even if it's not true, it's very cool."

So said one twenty-something Helena moviegoer as he left the first showing of "Paranormal Activity" on Sunday.

The print was two days late arriving in the Queen City.

Rumor has it the cans of ghostly celluloid slithered out of the FedEx truck a couple of times and had to be rounded up and tied down with celestial string for the remainder of the journey - thus delaying our first show from Friday to Sunday.

"Paranormal Activity" would like us to believe that this "found footage" was shot by a suburban couple - and found at their haunted house after one died and the other disappeared.

So what we have is a camcorder's record of the scary final months of Katie and her boyfriend Micah. She's a college student. He's a day trader.

They've been dating for years but she only recently told him about her itsy-bitsy little secret: A ghost has haunted her since she was 8 years old.

Micah decides this tall tale deserves to be documented, so he follows Katie around the house with his camera.

Hey, maybe he can be the next Spielberg with this little handheld cam. Every day he pulls the best footage off the memory and onto his

computer.

At night he puts the camera on a stand in the corner of the bedroom where it can whir away while they sleep - capturing images, shadows and noises. (Note: the couple always turns off the camera before rolling in the hay. This film has demons that can kill you, but no sex or nudity. )

The ghost obliges with some very creepy late night shows.

To keep the illusion alive there are no credits. No cast. No director.

How could there be? This is just found footage of two sweethearts whose romance ended badly, right?

Turns out the actress Katie Featherston does have a few film credits and is making a new movie, so perhaps she survived her horror after all. Micah Sloat is a movie newcomer.

As a "Blair Witch" skeptic, I was pretty cynical about "Paranormal," but after seeing the film, I'm a believer.

Oren Peli, whose credits include working on NFL Extreme videogames, shot this film in six days in one house for $11,000.

When you're shooting on the cheap, you'd better be darn good with the fundamentals of editing, shooting and acting because there'll be no expensive F/X lab to save your butt later.

Some knowledge of Hitchcock might help. (Remember the shower scene in "Psycho"? It was all editing with no nudity, no gore.)

What most impresses me about this scary little movie is that there's a visible streak of genius in it. The simple concept of "found footage" containing ghost footage is extrapolated beautifully without ever slipping into the inevitable illogic that plagues most horror films.

I've seen lots of horror films that were compelling during the "I'm scared - what is out there?" phase, only to disintegrate into silliness when the creature is finally introduced.

"Paranormal Activity" has the restraint/courage never to introduce the ghost, thus leaving our imagination to do all the work. In some ways that's more like reading a scary book than seeing a scary movie.

"Paranormal" ends well by refusing to resolve the central mystery. That may annoy some moviegoers who like their strings tied up neatly, but it should please purists who don't want the ending to overreach the facts that have come before.

Its effectiveness rests on the way it takes "normal" household noises and turns them into terrifying nightmares. Most of us have climbed out of bed at night to investigate noises in the house. Our heart pumps, our senses are heightened.

"Paranormal" draws on those common fears for all of its power.

And then there's that creepy bedroom camera that runs all night with its timer visible in the lower right corner of the viewfinder.

We watch Katie and Micah toss and turn as the digital timer races along at high speed. Then the digital clock slows to real time - and noises arrive, and doors slam.

Sometimes Katie notices the noises - sometimes they don't realize what happened until Micah starts editing the footage the next day.

Yes, "Paranormal Activity" is scary. Peli knows how to make us jump just by walking through a dark house at night opening closet doors. The couple sometimes gathers around the computer the next day watching a ghost movie - starring them - on the computer.

How's that for an ingenious movie in a movie? We get scared watching the cast watch a movie that scares them. Clever.

The cast does a fine job of imitating reality TV - just being innocuous young lovers making small talk. Katie is a little too plump to be selected for most Hollywood horror films. Micah is a nobody who is not nearly hot enough either.

Their "ordinariness" draws us closer to them.

In the end, "Paranormal" is retro-cinema.

By eliminating special effects, the film lowers our skepticism about editing tricks. By trying to convince us that every shot is unedited handheld footage with no cinematographer the director tries to convince us: "You are not seeing a movie. Trust me. This is real."

That ploy works very well thanks to Peli's willingness to forego a cataclysmic ending.

All Peli wants to do is scare us using experiences very familiar to us. No slimy aliens. No robotic monsters. No shapeshifters. No gore. No nudity. Like I said: retro!

Just a nice guy and a nice girl shaking with fear in the night.

As the movie went along, I began carefully putting my drink in the holder before the next scary moment. I jumped enough a couple times to have spilled the Pibb.