ann hale looks at third installment of the reality horror film series …
I have just returned home from a special advanced screening of Paranormal Activity 3, thanks to a little local horror group I have joined here in town. The previews for the film made it look like it wasn’t going to be very scary, so I had absolutely no problem accepting free passes to see it. I probably would have just waited to rent the film like I did with Paranormal Activity 2, which actually did not disappoint me at all.
Now, Paranormal Activity 3 is to Paranormal Activity 2 what Hannibal Rising is to Red Dragon, a prequel of a prequel. I am sure we can all say with certainty that Red Dragon was far superior to Hannibal Rising but, I cannot tell you if Paranormal Activity 2 was better than Paranormal Activity 3 in this series.
To recap the series for you (CONTAINS SPOILERS), Paranormal Activity was about Katie (Katie Featherstone) and her boyfriend Micah (that’s Mee-kah) who have been experiencing strange disturbances around their house. Micah (Micah Sloat) goes out, buys a video camera and then proceeds to videotape absolutely everything while being an obnoxious ass. We learn that Katie has been terrorized by this demon since childhood and that it’s haunting her, not the house. The scares are few but significant. In the end, Micah manages to piss the demon, (and the audience) off enough for it to possess Katie and off him.
In Paranormal Activity 2, we follow Katie’s sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and her family. After a “break-in” at their house, Kristi’s husband Daniel (Brian Boland) installs security cameras. Soon he starts seeing strange things happening on film. This time, there are more scares with more suspense. Katie and Micah are still alive and normal, which gives it away that it’s a prequel. Their story starts to merge with the time period that Katie and Micah’s story happens and eventually, Daniel is killed by possessed Katie.
Paranormal Activity 3 starts with Daniel recording the baby’s bedroom being painted. When the video runs out, we learn it has been taping over a home video made by Katie and Kristi’s mother’s boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith), back in 1988. It started out being a video of Katie’s birthday party, but once again, strange things start happening as Kristi develops an “imaginary” friend named Toby. Dennis just happens to videotape weddings for a living and has cameras lying around to set up. The scares start out pretty stupid. They are mostly people popping out on purpose or bursting through doors.
However, don’t leave the theater!
As the film progresses, it gets pretty damn scary. The first and second films do a good job of showing you nothing. Yeah, you get a few footprints, some loud sounds and someone getting dragged but, in this one, you actually see something, more than once. The scares are more frequent, more elaborate and more suspenseful.
Having said that, the ending is a bit of a letdown and they don’t exactly stick to the story that Katie gave us in the first film. I will admit that I jumped quite a bit and I was pretty nervous for a good three quarters of the film. However, as I previously mentioned, the ending was a disappointment because we find out why all of this has been happening and the reason is beyond lame. I’m talking finding-out-The-Blair-Witch-Project-was-all-a-scam kind of lame.
With that being said, if you look past the ending, the movie was pretty good.
So, is it worth seeing? If you want to be scared, yes. If you care about the story, no.
