Predicted Rating: 4.5 Stars
Directed by: Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. Staring: Katie Featherston, Kathryn Newton and Brady Allen.
The fourth instalment of the Paranormal Activity franchise takes place six years after the events of the first two movies. The story follows jailbait Alex (Newton), who begins to notice strange happenings after the creepy kid across the street stays over after his mother is hospitalised. Alex, along with her boyfriend, decide to record all of the happenings using webcams strategically placed over the house. It is then revealed that the "mother" of the boy is Katie (Featherston) from the previous movies, then everything starts to hit the fan.
To let you all know, this review is going to be very one sided because I love all the Paranormal Activity movies! It has to be favourite movie series (sorry Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I would have said Star Wars if George Lucas wasn't a dick and didn't make Eps 1-3). The first one blew me away with not relying on gore and building tension throughout the 90 minutes followed by a big ending. It also holds many records for being one of the most profitable films ever, costing just $15000 but making close to $200 million. The next three instalments then built on this tension factor fantastically. I know that these movies are not for everyone because people often get bored but you really have to get engrossed in the film and you will be scared shitless. I will try and put my reviewers hat on to give it a fair rating but I am not promising anything because I love these movies so much!
Once again a Paranormal Activity movie was almost ruined by the atmosphere in the cinema. I should learn by now not to see these movies there. The first film's viewing contained a bunch of 12 year old girls sitting at the back of the cinema that had obviously never seen a horror film before. The second film I decided to wait till it came out on DVD and watched it alone at midnight. This was the weaker of the films so I didn't feel the full effect of the experience. The third film saw me return to the cinema and this was the best experience as the cinema was essentially empty. The viewing of the fourth was by far the worst. The cinema was packed with teenagers that were obviously inexperienced and uneducated in horror movies. They were clearly scared but their reflex reaction to being petrified is to let out a bit of a whimper then laugh to reassure themselves and try and make their friends think they weren't scared but are secretly thinking I should have worn brown pants. These films rely on having long pauses of the same shot to build tension followed by a quick flash that makes you jump, whether it be a decoy or something that is important to the storyline. On multiple occasions, someone would jump the gun. This would cause the cinema to burst out in laughter through the bit that is supposed to be scaring, totally ruining the atmosphere. The two girls sitting in front of me were the worst. About 20 mins in I heard one say "I'm out." I was excited thinking they were going to leave but they hung around. I even managed to scare one of them with a sneeze. It is my dream to watch the next Paranormal Activity at the Titan XC cinema by myself.
As this is a tried and tested formula, i.e. things that go bump in the night recorded on hand held camera, there needed to be something in here that differentiated it from the other PA's. In the second instalment it was having the entire family involved, the third was having the camera on a rotating pedestal fan (something I don't think the director fully utilised), and the fourth introduced a couple of cool concepts. The first was using a shameless plug for the XBox Kinect. If you turn off all the lights and use an infrared camera you can see all of the sensors. This was cool when you got to see Toby (watch PA3 to find out who he is) moving through the sensors. The second new cool concept was using what I assume to be skype. Using skype introduces the stranded bystander who can see the happenings through the camera but cannot help the person in distress. This makes it feel like you are in the film but you can do nothing to help, a very cool concept. I am looking forward what they can come up with for Paranormal Activity 5.
OMG the ending! I really want to tell someone about the ending but the entire experience will be ruined so I will provide an analogy. It is like taking a stroll through the park with your partner on a nice sunny spring day and then being hit in the face with a sledgehammer and your attacker urinating on you. The atmosphere in the cinema was very peculiar at the end. A massive collective scream was followed by a blank look on everyone's face thinking dafuq just happen? The shock ending was almost perfected with the other Paranormal Activities but I think 4 did it the best. The Devil Inside tried the shock ending earlier this year and failed miserably (by the way The Devil Inside is my clubhouse leader for the worst film of 2012). However, once again I was left with many questions about what is going on so there will most certainly be a number 5. At this pace there will need to be about 14 or 15 sequels to fully explain what is going on.
Overall, this is strictly one for the fans. I absolutely loved it but if you are not a fan of the others don't worry about watching it, nothing drastic has changed. But if you like any of the others, get down to the cinema now! I really want to see it again! I also want to make one of my own. Also, if you read my other reviews, I really enjoy subtle references to other movies and PA4 has plenty. They include The Shining, Poltergeist and the Exorcist, see if you can spot them. At the moment, the order I rate the PA's is 1, 3, 4 then 2.
Overall Rating: Putting my reviewer hat on I would give it only 2 stars but I love these movies too much so... 5 Stars!
Next Week: I am... the law! Dredd 3D
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