Paranormal Activity 3 Reviews

hmm this movie is to origanl like ive seen way to many things like it its kind of like not scary but more of retarded no one is afraid of ghost anymore

Being the third film in a series, it's good compared to some threequels in the past and it's a heck of a lot better than the second one.

Unlike the second movie this movie doesn't wait till the last twenty minutes to actually be scary. Right from the beginning about ten minutes in the scares start. Now, unlike the previous two films this movie relies on quick "BOO" type of scares whereas the other two films were more psychological. While there were tons of quick "BOO" scares this movie never felt suspenseful, I wasn't on the edge of my seat nor was I squeezing my jacket but the quick scares do work. After leaving the theater I wasn't shaking in fear like I was with the movie Insidious, which came out back in April. However when I went to bed I couldn't sleep. So in a way this movie was effective to me but the first one was better. The acting was good and the little girls were great, they didn't manage to annoy me like some child actors in horror movies do. The story was good but missing a few things. I also loved the camera they put on the fan so that it slowly shifts from left to right. I thought that was very creative and the perfect set up for some nice scares but they didn't take full advantage of it. Which was kind of sad because this had so much potential and they could have done so much.

The story as I said was good but it was missing a few things. I thought the house was suppose to burn down? They mention it in the first film and it was in the trailer. Speaking of the trailer almost 70% of the things in the trailer did not make the final cut which was disappointing. Another problem with this movie is that its formulaic. It's the same type of scenario from the first films even though I do give them props for trying to be creative with the cameras. Speaking of the cameras, gee I never knew that had HD Cameras in 1988? This kind of ruined the film a bit, maybe if they used actual cameras from 1988 I would have bought into this more. My final complaint is the ending. What the hell is with all this cult crap now in these found footage movies? Is this some kind of Fad? This reminded me of The Last Exorcism that came out last summer. It was the same scenario, it was creepy then the cult crap came in the end and ruined it. While the cult crap here in this movie did not completely kill it, it almost did.

Overall, it has some nice scares, good acting, I also forgot to mention that is was actually funny in some parts(it wasn't unintentionally funny, they purposely put in funny parts), and some nice camera work but the ending was disappointing, the cameras were HD cameras even though this is suppose to take place in 1988, they were missing some parts of the story, and this is the same exact thing as the first two films but in a different time period. The first one was still the best in my opinion and compared to Insidious it's not equally as scary, Insidious was definitely the best horror movie of the year or even in the last 5 years but nonetheless this was still good.

"I set up my cameras around the house. I can maybe capture something..."

With the Saw franchise having at long last ended in 2010, the Paranormal Activity series is now moving in to claim Saw's former Halloween release timeslot. But Saw and Paranormal Activity are different types of horror movies - while the Saw pictures relied on gratuitous violence and gore to generate thrills, the Paranormal Activity series is more reliant on psychological terror, nail-biting tension and proper suspense. Both franchises do share something in common, though: each instalment can be made on a tiny budget and is guaranteed to pull in enormous box office profits, meaning that artistic integrity is a lesser concern. While Paranormal Activity 2 was a worthwhile follow-up that satisfactorily expanded upon the franchise's mythology, 2011's Paranormal Activity 3 is a lazier effort from a script standpoint. Nevertheless, it's well made - the filmmakers did just enough to keep the formula from becoming stale thanks to the prequel angle and the adept efforts of directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.

Set in 1988, 8-year-old Katie (Csengery) and her 5-year-old sister Kristi (Brown) live with mother Julie (Bittner) and her wedding videographer boyfriend Dennis (Smith). Due to his passion for photography, Dennis begins documenting their daily lives with his camera equipment. However, he soon begins to capture mysterious supernatural occurrences on-camera. Intrigued, Dennis sets up a few cameras around the house to record nightly activity and potentially capture evidence of a paranormal intruder. Unexplainable occurrences continue to intensify as the days elapse, so Dennis decides to conduct research and bring in camera assistant Randy (Ingram) to help.

The problem with Paranormal Activity 3 is that it does too little to expand upon the mythology of the series. There are a few interesting developments, but the movie is more interested in scary payoffs. When Katie and Kristi discussed their childhood in prior movies, we heard that there was a major house fire and a dark figure that appeared at the foot of Katie's bed... But none of this is addressed in the film. What's more disheartening, though, is that the trailer suggests this material was filmed but cut out. In fact, more than half of the stuff from the trailer is nowhere to be seen in the finished movie! It insinuates that Paranormal Activity 3 was more substantive in an earlier edit before being cut down to its basic meat and potato elements, rendering the film interesting but a bit too disposable. It also suggests that the producers wanted to save more stuff for future instalments in order to keep milking the series. (After all, in the first film Katie said the hauntings began at age 8 and started again when she was 13. Did the filmmakers intentionally neglect to fill gaps to save material for a fourth film? This theory is solidified by the fact that among the VHS tapes at the beginning are tapes labelled '1993'; the year that Katie was 13.)

Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman made quite a splash last year with the documentary film Catfish. And because Catfish's authenticity is so hotly debated, the directors were an ideal choice for Paranormal Activity 3. To Joost and Schulman's credit, the film's sense of authenticity is tremendous, and nothing seems false or staged. And my word, the filmmakers did a terrific job of making this picture scary - the proverbial slow-burning set-pieces are unbearably intense. To put a unique twist on these scenes, one of the cameras is placed atop an oscillating fan stand, allowing it to alternate between the kitchen and living room areas. The directors used this technique to create many moments of effective terror. Also note-worthy is the riveting, bone-chilling tour de force of a climax. Furthermore, certain set-pieces are alleviated with a bit of sly humour here and there, which is a welcome touch.

Perhaps the biggest issue with Paranormal Activity 3 is that the photography is too crisp and sharp, as if the film was shot with contemporary high definition video cameras rather than the VHS-loaded consumer camcorders of the 1980s. We're supposed to be watching ancient (probably glitchy) VHS tapes, so the sharp photography is detrimental to the material's sense of legitimacy. Additionally, the demonic entity here is too vicious compared to its more placid behaviour in the first film, leading to more "in your face" scares than subtly terrifying moments. It still terrifies you, sure, but it feels a bit cheaper. Another glaring flaw is that screenwriter Christopher Landon (Disturbia) struggled to make it seem plausible for the characters to keep filming throughout certain events. It's a common fault of "found footage" movies, and this is no exception. (Why does Dennis film conversations with Julie? Why does Randy keep filming when he's attacked?) The climax gets a free pass in this case, though, because the camera's light becomes Dennis' only source of illumination.

On a more positive note, the performances are effective right down the line, generating a plausible realism and tremendously aiding the vérité aesthetic. Christopher Nicholas Smith (who actually looks a bit like Micah...) is especially good and believable in the role of Dennis, which is fortunate because he was tasked with delivering most of the requisite plot exposition. Child actresses Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown also excel as young Katie and Kristie - they both possess an adorable childlike innocence, and their dialogue delivery sounds completely natural. In some scenes, their cries of hysteria seem heart-breakingly real. In the role of Julie, Lauren Bittner is also impressive - and on top of being able to sell every emotion and line of dialogue, Bittner shares a striking resemblance to Katie Featherstone. Meanwhile, as Randy, Dustin Ingram is superb comic relief; he lightens things up when the film becomes particularly dark.

Ultimately, the intention of any horror movie is to scare audiences and generate an atmospheric, intense environment. Thanks to the able directorial efforts of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, this third Paranormal Activity manages to do exactly that. It delivers the franchise's staples in a very effective fashion, and the film is both enthralling and entertaining. If that's all you want, then that's precisely what you get. At the end of the day, though, the script is just too underdone. This series could have worked as just a rounded trilogy that examines the ghostly history of this family, but Paranormal Activity 3 truly feels like the producers are purposely excising details in order to milk the series for every film they can. It will indeed be interesting to see the footage which was cut out of the finished product... Perhaps it further illuminates on the franchise's mythology in a more substantive way.

6.1/10

The experience of watching the Paranormal Activity films one after the other is like watching a story's layers gradually being peeled away, as more and more elements of the narrative are slowly revealed to the fervent fans who have been following this franchise from its beginning. I completely disagree with people who think that this franchise is an exercise in "rinse, repeat." That would be the case if, like so many other horror franchises, the Paranormal Activity films each consisted of entirely different sets of characters, all of whom went through the same motions of having their houses haunted. But this particular franchise offers the story of a family with a particularly eerie history of being stalked by an ultra-persistent demon. The fact that all of these films have focused on gradually expanding the story of these two sisters makes it much easier for one to get engrossed in it and to be curious as to what will ultimately happen to them. In fact, the only strong objection I have towards Paranormal Activity 3 is that, while it does an effective job in the first five minutes at tying what happened in the first two films to what's going to happen in this one, the same can't be said for the last five minutes. The ending of Paranormal Activity 2 was brilliant because it picked up the first film's storyline right where it had left off, showed us what happened next, and THEN established yet another hook for us to look forward to. But sadly, as I'll discuss a little more later, Paranormal Activity 3 simply ends, without tying its conclusion to the events of its two predecessors, and without continuing where they had left off. As unsatisfying as that ending may be, though, there's no denying the fact that the 80 or so minutes that precede it are bone-chilling as hell. It has been a long time since I've wanted to cover my eyes during a horror film NOT from being disgusted by the blood and guts spewing all over the place, but rather, from being morbidly afraid that something will suddenly show up on the screen and scare me to death. Not unlike the two films that came before it, Paranormal Activity 3 is a terrifying motion picture and an expertly crafted exercise in subtle build-up of tension.

Kristi (Sprague Grayden) is in her late twenties and she recently became pregnant. It's 2005, and she's moving into a house with her husband, and her sister Katie (Katie Featherston) is helping them move in. When they start unloading some of the boxes, Kristi and Katie find some home videos of when they were little. They had no idea that these videos had been conserved. Some time later, Kristi's house gets mysteriously ransacked, with no valuables stolen, EXCEPT for those home videos. As we learned through the events of the first two films, a demon starts haunting the house soon after the ransack takes place. Reference is made to the fact that there's the possibility that the demon is interested in taking "the first-born male" of this family, which would be the case with Kristi's baby boy. Eventually, Kristi gets possessed by the demon. In a desperate state, Kristi's husband seeks help as to how he can get rid of the demon, and unfortunately, he discovers that the only way to do it is by transferring the demon over to a blood relative of Kristi's. Since he wants to save his wife, he goes through with it, and soon after, Kristi is perfectly fine, but the same can't be said of her sister Katie, who has now been taken by the demon. In her state of possession, Katie goes to Kristi's house, kills both Kristi and her husband, and steals Kristi's baby. Paranormal Activity 3 focuses largely on showing us what was in those tapes that mysteriously disappeared from Kristi's house. The tapes date back to 1988, when Kristi and Katie were little girls (now played by Jessica Tyler Brown and Chloe Csengery, respectively). The two girls live in a house with their mom, Julie (Lauren Bittner) and her boyfriend Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith). During the first two films, we always heard bits and pieces about how Kristi and Katie remember having been haunted by something when they were kids, and there was also mention of the fact that their house burnt down at one point. But the impression one got during the first two films was that these two women either didn't remember those events very well, or that they simply didn't want to talk about them. At one point during the second film, the two of them were alone in a room, and Kristi tried to start engaging Katie about the subject, but Katie responded "I don't wanna talk about it" and that was that. Paranormal Activity 3 is the opportunity for us to find out about these horrific, ostensibly forgotten events.

If you've seen either of the first two films (or both), you already know whether or not you have the patience for this. The scares in Paranormal Activity 3 emerge slowly, but surely. Yes, it's the same formula of having cameras set up around the house, but this particular movie adds a few nifty touches, not least of which is the utterly brilliant idea of having one of the cameras attached to a fan, which means that the camera will gradually move from one side to another. This is milked to perfection in several scenes in which you'll literally be on the edge of your seat wondering what you'll see the next time that the camera moves towards a particular side of the house. The room in which the two girls sleep has one of those miniature doors that leads to one of those cavernous little rooms in which toys are generally stored, but, as you'll imagine, in this movie, that small, dark room proves to be a lot less inviting. As I had said in my reviews of the first two films, the horror you experienced from the first movie came from the gradual development of tension, whereas the second one banked more on jump scares. I dare say that this third movie does a nice job at coalescing the two. It makes terrific use of situations in which one person is walking through hallways or walking down stairs with the constant threat of something terrible emerging at any moment. Scary as hell.

Something that surprised me a lot about Paranormal Activity 3 is how good a job it does at actually inserting humor into the proceedings, without letting any of it become ridiculous. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to be found here, either during or after the scares. There's a scene in which, much to the chagrin of the two characters involved, a nice round of foreplay gets interrupted. There's a hilarious moment in which, after a fake-out scare, a character laughs at himself for having gotten scared so easily, sits on the toilet, and another character makes a remark about the appropriateness of the spot he chose to sit on. After playing a game of "Bloody Mary," one character's attempt to "keep his cool" in front of a kid (so as to not look weak) is worthy of a heap of laughs. Oh, and then there's the line "She got blown in the face" (lol), which you'll definitely understand better once you hear it in the context of the scene. One scene that seemed to combine scares and laughter perfectly (at least for the audience with whom I saw the film) is one in which a character's hair suddenly gets pulled upwards; the moment may initially cause you to jump because of how unexpected it is, but it'll be hard not to laugh at the ridiculousness of it once it's over. These are all good things - one needs relief after being so deeply stung by a moment of horror.

One objection I'd had towards the first two films (particularly the first one) was that it felt a little unrealistic that these people didn't just get up and leave and head over to a hotel or a relative's house. The films made it clear that the demon would continue to hunt these people no matter WHERE they went, but it seemed like it was important to actually show that. The makers of Paranormal Activity 3 took note of that issue, and came up with a terrific way of resolving it. During the final act, the family heads over to a different house, but... well, let's just say the level of creepiness and tension just becomes even worse. The final few minutes, in which a character is walking through the labyrinthine house, slowly discovering things that nobody would ever want to discover, are horrifying, and reactions along the lines of "Please make it stop already" aren't unwarranted.

As I said, unfortunately, as scary as the last act is, the way it ultimately ends won't necessarily prove satisfying to those who have been following the franchise from the beginning and are interested in knowing the fate of the characters who were still alive in 2006, at the end of the second film. This won't prove to be a problem for people who haven't seen the other movies (or for people who've simply gone to see all of them, and just want the scares, without really caring about the chronology of these people's story), but it doesn't satisfy the rest of us. When Paranormal Activity 2 ended, I wanted to start clapping immediately at how brilliantly these filmmakers had tied the first two films and how amazingly well they had set things up for the next film. It's too bad we can't say the same here. To make matters a little more disappointing, despite the fact that the first two films made plenty of references to "the fire" that had taken place when Katie and Kristi were little girls, we don't see that plot line come into play here. Of course, this all leads one to assume that perhaps a fourth film is being planned, but even if that's the case, that doesn't stop me from feeling quasi dissatisfied with how this particular entry concluded. Oh, and we've also lost the captions that usually appear at the beginning and at the end (the captions at the beginning always had Paramount Pictures "thanking" the families of the deceased, whereas the final captions always established the hook for the next film - but it doesn't happen here).

All in all, though, the conclusion to be drawn is that the first two films were companion pieces that complemented one another, whereas Paranormal Activity 3 is a prologue that, unfortunately, doesn't end up being more than that. The great news is, though, that, prior to making that disappointing decision, it's a decisively terrifying prologue. I don't see a lot of horror movies nowadays... it's not because I don't like the genre. I love it. It's because I prefer being scared rather than being grossed out, and unfortunately, most of the recent output has provided the exact opposite of what I'm looking for. My appreciation for the Paranormal Activity films doesn't have so much to do with how "realistic" or "unrealistic" they may be. Anyone who's not an idiot knows that, as much as they're being dressed up as "found footage" films, these things aren't real. But that doesn't stop the approach from having a profoundly frightening effect on me. The effectiveness of the horror genre shouldn't depend on how easily someone can be shocked by cheap images, but rather, it should hinge entirely on how well the film can penetrate the mind of the audience member and awaken his/her fears. The Paranormal Activity franchise may not be perfect, but I'm not ashamed to tell you that, for three years in a row, no other cinematic effort has come even close to making me lose any sleep at night.