MTV Reveals Ghostly Secrets Behind 'Paranormal Activity 2'

Happy Halloween week! In honor of the spooky celebrations, let's discuss a scary movie.

'Paranormal Activity 2' director Tod Williams revealed to MTV five secrets about the movie. Not only was I attracted to the title, but the format made the article super easy to read and more structurally organized. I think this is the best way to do this with the article. Not overwhelming, not boring.

Also, a creepy, open-ended photo accompanies the story, and it leaves me aching to find out what is actually going on. I must say, all the photos from this movie make me shiver.

What I thought worked the best with this article was the use of an interview with the director. The video of the interview is placed right in the article and covers all the material that could be read. This is perfect for people who don't feel like reading and want a more leisurely way of getting the news.

Spoiler alert! This MTV article does, however, contain a few glimpses into startling, scary moments. If you want the full, pee-in-your-pants experience, I would suggest not reading it until after you see the movie. I think the spoilers are ok for this article because it is targeted towards people who have seen the movie already. The article makes much more sense for people who know the scenes they are talking about.

Fourth 'Pirates of the Carribbean' Lost at Sea

I find myself drifting with the tides a bit.

Should I be happy about the new "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," or should I be really, really upset? I seem to be vacillating between the two.

See, there is no Will Turner or Elizabeth Swan in this movie. Instead, a new damsel in distress joins the storyline. Penelope Cruz plays Jack Sparrow's "lost love" and takes over Swan's place.  Geoffrey Rush will also be coming back with Johnny Depp to make this movie happen. 

When I searched to find more out about this movie, I found a sea of nothing. Ok, not completely nothing. Many people wrote quick snippets on their blogs about how lucky the actors must be for getting to film in Hawaii. Duh. Mentions of the movie's production were only a sentence or two long. 


I noticed that The Huffington Post touched on the subject on July 26th, 2010, but it again was just one of their writer's blogs and photo of a ship they were building for the movie.


Where is all the coverage, people? The other "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies did pretty well, and I would think that a lot of people (especially the younger crowds) would be really curious and excited about this one coming out on May 20, 2011.


Apparently not.


Perhaps newspapers find it pointless to be talking of a movie that still has half a year to finish up. Or, perhaps this movie has horrible advertising methods. Either way, it needs some publicity, and people want it!


Why not interview Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz together? Why not interview the director? Even entertainment shows could get great material off of going to the set of the filming and give away a few tasty morsels of the movie's secrets.


I'm extremely intrigued by Captain Jack Sparrow's adventure to find the fountain of youth. Newspapers, magazines, and TV shows need to start doing some investigating.


I'm drowning in anticipation.

New Great Success for Kazakhstan

It's hard to forget the foreigner we all loved and hated- Borat. Even today, people can be heard quoting the movie every chance they get with sayings like "very nice, how much?" and "Wa wa wee wa!" with that absurd accent.

Others, such as the actual country of Kazakhstan, are also finding him hard to forget, or forgive.

The New York Times interviewed Erkin Rakishev, a Kazakh director who is planning on correcting everyone's opinions of the country and its people.

The article, "Taking Revenge on 'Borat,' Amorous Donkey and All," ran on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010 and took up the entire top fold of page A11 in the "International" section. I completely agree with giving this article so much space because this movie was incredibly popular and widely consumed when it came out in  theaters in 2006 and again on DVD. People still laugh about it years later.

This article was written by Clifford J. Levy who inputs his own opinion and observations throughout the article. Normally, I wouldn't think this would be the best choice for covering the upcoming debut of a movie, but in this case, his thoughts represent the troubling questions that are more than likely going through the minds of everyone reading this article as well.

For example, the whole point of Mr. Rakishev making this movie is that he was insulted by how Kazakhstan was represented in the movie. However, in his movie, his character is the brother of Borat, named Bilo (who is actually mentioned in the movie "Borat"), who escapes from a mental institute, gets rabies, and has sex with a donkey and ends up pregnant by it. Levy took it upon himself to ask in his article, "Remind us again how this is supposed to improve the image of Kazakhstan?" And this is exactly what you are wondering, too, isn't it?

Levy does a wonderful job of recording the director's reactions to his questions as well, noting giggles, fits of laughter, refusals to answer questions, etc. It really gave you a sense of who the director is, as well as a glimpse into how the movie is being made.

The quotes from the director that Levy used were character-revealing, thought-provoking, and humorous at times as well. I thought the story was brilliantly written. The article made me oddly excited and intrigued by the movie, and now I find myself hoping and praying that it does end up in the U.S. theaters one way or another.

Sacha Baron Cohen has some serious competition to look out for.