As an actual fan of the franchise (please don't judge me) I remember seeing the first Paranormal Activity film at a test screening months before the actual movie hit mainstream knowledge. And it actually scared the bejeezus out of me. Here was a movie I knew nothing about. It was low budget, starred unknowns, was created by an unknown, and did nothing special to win my affection as a genuinely good horror movie, other than tell a personal story with very clever mood-setting techniques. Everything we saw on screen seemed possible and real. There were no chainsaw wielding psychos with masks. No stupid death-traps. No impossible little Asian dead girls looking for vengeance and sadism. Through and through, it was a story that did what Hollywood typically doesn't do nowadays--fully immerse you into believing in a horrifying situation for 2 hours without the use of CGI or excessive gore. And it was that believability that made the movie scary. That's not to say that horror movies that do use Hollywood magic can't be good or great (this year's brilliant "The Cabin in the Woods" comes to mind as a successful horror film who's strength lies in the fact that it's excessive), but more often than not, with horror movies, the rule should be less is more. In my opinion the simpler the theatrical horror movie is, the scarier it has the potential to be because it has nothing to prove to the mainstream audiences except the strength and menace of its story (Think of such low budget gems like the first Evil Dead, the amazing works of Dario Argento, John Carpenter's Halloween, and other mockumentaries like Blair Witch or Cannibal Holocaust). And sadly through in the past 4 years, the very simple, personal story that was Paranormal Activity has become *sigh* a Hollywood franchise; a Halloween tentpole staple in Paramount's annual film slate--the new Saw essentially. That means bigger budget, cheaper scares, and less thought or care into the story.
Now is the movie terrible? No. But I can safely say that of the entire series, this is the one film that literally does not contribute to the overall story constructively. In layman's terms--it's the most unnecessary. The story centers on 15-year old Alex and her family--her mother and father who have a great deal of real marital issues--and her 4 year old little brother Wyatt, and Alex's conveniently video tech-y boyfriend. When they meet their creepy 4-year old neighbor, Robbie, randomly and creepily playing in their backyard clubhouse one night, their quiet, normal, safe home ends up becoming a center of evil happenings, as they are unexpectedly forced to care for Robbie for a few days. Little by little, Robbie begins introducing Wyatt to contact with his "imaginary friend" Toby, and things go from bad to worse from there. Now the second movie acted as a mid-quel of sorts to the first movie, introducing us further into the mythology of why and what the situation was with Katie (Katie Featherson), and most importantly, introducing us to the character of Hunter, the first born male in Katie and Christy's families. The third movie was a prequel, introducing us to how the situation with the demon came to be, and what it has to do with Hunter from the second film. But this fourth movie tells us nothing, honestly. No shocking revelations that contribute to the mythology of the series. If this particular entry was never made, it honestly wouldn't affect the established series and its mythology in any way. Even worse, actually, we get a series that raises many more questions than it answers. For example (and trying my hardest to avoid spoilers), after a startling revelation is revealed about one of the characters, you end up wondering how he ended up switching families, but are given no explanation. And another example ends up being that we randomly end up losing an important character halfway through the movie, questioning the character's very existence and true identity--who exactly is that character and where did he ended up going? No answer there. Instead of a solid entry that expands the on ideas originally established in 3 other films, we simply get a confusing tangent story involving characters we've seen before with mostly the same techniques.
Additionally, being that said techniques have essentially happened twice before, the shocks and jumping points end up becoming super expected and predictable. Are some of them pretty effective? Sure. There are very eerie scenes involving silhouettes in motion under the glowing tracking dots of a Kinect system (for the record I'm happy I'm a PS3 man, and after this movie, that's not going to change ever), and a really fantastic scene involving a closed garage and a running car. But ultimately, this is everything we've seen before only more tame, more forced, and clearly professionally manufactured. A few scenes towards the end involving Katie end up going a little heavy with the CG effects. And a few cheap "invisible" attacks end up coming across as horror cliches we've seen in better movies (think sleeping girl floating above bed from the Exorcist, but much more pointless). Completely gone are the simple scares involving fishing line and baby powder. Now we have a fully manufactured, unrealistic soulless "Hollywood" franchise entry, like so many others before it. And sadly, considering that I wasn't sold on the manufactured "illusion" that was presented to me, I'll honestly be sleeping just fine tonight.
The performances overall are pretty solid. Kathryn Newton, who plays Alex, has some really challenging scenes compared to the rest of the cast, and she fares well throughout. And Brady Allen, who plays Robbie, is particularly chilling. But overall, one doesn't go to these movies expecting any sort of Oscar winning performances, so in this case they don't really matter.
In sum, it really ends up being disappointing getting a cash-cow entry into an otherwise consistently solid franchise that started with a mere hundred-thousand dollar story. Instead of saying "Oh! So that's why" for most scenes, I just ended up saying "why" throughout the entire film. Now Paramount can take my money for Paranormal 5 if the next entry (and that's most likely a given) in the franchise manages to move things forward. But until then, consider me underwhelmed, as the studio continues to flog the horse corpse that is Paranormal Activity.
Overall Rating: C
PS: My cover photo is a picture of the adorable actor who played Wyatt in the movie. He and his parents were at the screening I attended, and he completely got mobbed by people requesting to take photos. Enjoy!
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