By snoadmin
A few hundred strangers gather to sit askew in a dark theater, each one fixed in a contorted position as if the screen was emitting radiation. They gasp, grit their teeth and squeeze their eyes as shut as possible in effort to escape the intensity of what plays out in front of them. If it’s October, this can only mean one thing: Paranormal Activity.
The hotly-debated movie franchise returns with a third installment this Halloween season, and does so with a hefty following of horror fanatics eager to experience it. Unfortunately for them, “Paranormal Activity 3” is one lackluster video.
After giving a brief explanation of the setting, the film segues into the 1980s home videos of a young couple and their two girls. As many proud parents do, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas) and Julie (Lauren Bittner) record their lives with a few poor quality cameras. Julie’s daughters, Katie and Kristi (the main characters in the first two “Paranormal” films), are the stars of the show, and live out their adorable young lives with few incidents — until the inevitable weird occurrences begin.
Spontaneous tremors, weird figures and some unsettling interactions between Kristi and her imaginary friend, Toby, spark the interest of Dennis, who lacks a steady career to occupy his time. He devotes his filming skills to rigging the house for 24-hour surveillance.
At this point, “Paranormal Activity 3” mimics the first two by denoting one parent to be invested in the little ghost project and the other to think it’s all nonsense.
Several creepy occurrences later, Dennis discovers a cliché-looking evil symbol in the girls’ room and finally gets Julie to acknowledge the problem. Not that it would help, of course.
Finally, little Katie decides to play a round of “Bloody Mary” with her babysitter, which basically unleashes uninhibited hell on the house.
To the dismay of viewers, it’s too little, too late. The movie hastily throws a slew of events together so quickly that they cannot be fully appreciated. The plot literally flies by before it can settle, which serves as a poor contrast to the sluggish first half of the film.
Additionally, many of the big game-changing moments are cheap, obvious and not carefully calculated. The second half of the film doesn’t feel paranormal; it feels unnatural and uncomfortable.
As per usual with the “Paranormal” films, the marketing done for the movie was genius. The intense scenes shown in the trailers and teasers for the film are not part of the actual movie, which likely benefited the ticket sales and fooled movie-goers. This helps to not give away the most intense moments of the film, while still enticing people to watch.
The devotion to the 1988 setting is also enjoyable. All aesthetic details — from the now-outdated interior of the young family’s home, to the faded blue jeans worn by the characters and the side-ponytail of Katie and Kristi’s babysitter — were impeccable and humorous.
“Paranormal Activity 3” is a headache at best. While it is riddled with crowd-pleasing stressful, tense moments and cheap jump-scares, the actual plot is perplexing and creates many more questions than answers.
Viewers with cinema vertigo should also be advised that the film can easily cause nausea with its shaky-camera-footage format.
If you feel much loyalty to the first two films, “Paranormal Activity 3” might be worth watching to get whatever you can out of the continuing story. The cheap ending will likely upset many die-hard fans of the franchise who will miss the simplicity of the original.
In other words, see it if you absolutely must.
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