Movie: Paranormal Activity 3
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: Oct. 21
Grade: C
The first two Paranormal Activity films had people quivering in their seats, hanging onto the nearest loved one for dear life, and possibly caused the audiences to leave accidents on the theater floor. That's what the franchise is all about: to not only scare the customer, but to haunt the victim out of the theater. Paranormal Activity 3 fails to accomplish this, or live up to its potential.
Set in 1988, the third installment of the found-footage horrorfranchise serves as a prequel to show the lives of Katie (Katie Featherston, Paranormal Activity 2) and Kristi (Sprague Grayden, Paranormal Activity 2) as little girls. Their mother's boyfriend, Dennis (Chris Smith, Another Psycho), also has a craving for video cameras, showing that these sisters have already gone through the overnight tape-recording ordeal. Apparently this bad habit runs in the family.
Dennis believes he captured "something" on his camera one night. He automatically thinks that it's not merely a ghost, butan entity. Wow, that was fast. He must've already seen the first two movies.
The film retreads the previous PA. Right off, the audience instinctively jumps at tiny startling moments, as though the haunting entity was attempting to annoy the family to death. Then the paranormal events – most of which look extremely convincing – progressively become more intense for the characters and the audience.
Though some scenes are truly captivating, the weaker ones provide a frail counterbalance. The characters are below pointless, with the exception of the young Kristi (Jessica Brown, I Do), who spends the entirety of her screen time talking to her "imaginary friend" Toby, a relationship which is deeply creepy.
PA3 desperately requires more of this. Instead, most of the film is crammed with abrupt action solely created to shock viewers. The night scenes contain utter silence, with nothing much happening, and then an abrupt, startling sceneto create tension. Then it's onto the next day.
This unfortunately persists for a decent length of the film. Many audiences will no doubt be ecstatic over the realism that PA3 provides in its scarier moments. There will be spooky parts that will frighten and entertain many teenagers, the film's target audience.
Fundamentally, though, the Paranormal Activity franchise is no longer a legitimately scary series. The first two installments contained a group of people truly terrified of an angry presence that lurked in their home. Nobody knew who or what this "presence" was, and that's what made the movie work.
Alternatively, PA3 is about a camera-happy man who becomes excited at discovering a being from the other side. Instead of showing concern for his family – which he only does when it's too late – Dennis interrogates little Kristi about her friend Toby, determined to satisfy his ghostly curiosity.
Watching PA3 is equivalent to any average haunted house. The purpose is to peer around, jump out of shock, and then laugh about it afterwards. That's what the series has transformed into, a horror-comedy. The audience will look for whatever's creeping around on screen, and then is supposed to be amused from the shock.
The Paranormal Activity series has officially turned into the new Saw series: nothing but money-sucking, desecrated films.
And yet, many people will fall prey to becoming easily intrigued with this unstable movie. All they will receive is basic-quality entertainment, when the potential has been wasted almost entirely. If anyone wants a half-decent popcorn picture, well, here it is.
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