Now first things first GO SEE THIS FUCKING MOVIE!!!!!
Right now STOP reading, go to your nearest theater and check it out. I’m sure face book won’t take this recommendation /review down by time you get back. … I hope.
Now with that being said here are my thoughts on the series in the shortest amount of words I could muster.
Paranormal activity 1 -(4 outta 5)
If you haven’t seen it you should check it out, not scary but interesting.
Paranormal activity 2 – (3 outta 5)
Not very good, but its addition to the mythology of the series puts it right above bad.
I’d recommend just reading its film synopsis instead of being bored for 80 minutes
Paranormal activity 3- (4 outtta 5)
Excellent film, plenty of boo scares to go around, plenty of good things to say about it. Please go see this in theaters, it may lose some of its BOO on DVD.
Here are my thoughts in the long winded way I love.
The original paranormal activity was a great movie that gave us interesting characters that we could connect with to a point. They were a couple slowly discovering that they were being haunted by a demon. It had many good ideas that its sequels reused, and improved.
The Ideas:
Firstly every movie has the demon that can only fully embody our world once it has created enough fear. Each film shows the demon doing relatively pointless tasks at the beginning to install the notion that it exists then, slowly over time as its power grows it becomes more malicious until it creates enough fear to embody a host.
Secondly each film has the victims of the haunting recording themselves in an attempt to figure out the mystery behind their haunting, and only figuring out exactly what is happening at a point too late to do anything about it.
Finally the last idea that the first film created and every sequel uses is the BOO scare. Now even though all three films handle the first and second very well, the boo scares seem to only truly be effective in the new film.
Boo scares within the films:
While the first film had plenty of boo scares, none of them were particularly scary because they all had the same setup. Late at night somewhere between 1 and 6 everything in the film would mute, and something loud, sudden, and creepy would happen. Problem is after the second scare my body was prepared, they went to sleep I would go 3… 2… BOOO. The film was a good movie, but essentially failed to be scary because of its predictability.
The second film also suffered similarly. Now while the second films boo scares were a lot harder to predict, the location of the camera’s prevented you from being able to be truly surprised by what you were seeing. Many times in the movie there were just too many things available for me to look at, and I would only see something move, or slam in passing as my eyes went to investigate a sound on the screen. Leaving me booless for an entire film.
Paranormal activity 3 however HAS NO SUCH PROBLEM. This film had me jumping left, and right. It’s mainly because the demon no longer follows any set pattern or rules. In this film he isn’t scared of sunlight and it just as likely to do something in the day time as he is while everyone is sleeping. With this added bonus of unpredictability scares come more frequently and are more effective than the previous films.
The Good and Bad:
Essentially The first movie excelled at making an interesting atmosphere, story, protagonists, and antagonist. It made you excited to see what the demon would do next, and if you were anything like me, got you to like the protagonists enough to hope that they would survive.
The first film failed at being scary. Even though it had all of the right elements to create a scary situation, sounds, silence, darkness, and the knowledge that something evil wants something from you, it failed to put these elements together well simply because of its own predictable nature.
The second film failed in very similar ways but without the same quality of characters. It also failed because at this point we already knew how the demon worked, and watching a new group of people figure it out was not interesting, especially if you already watched the first film.
The only praise I can give paranormal activity 2 is that it expanded on the mythology of the series telling us who summoned the demon and what exactly it wants. It’s a film that isn’t very good on its own but rewards the viewer with a better understanding going into the third film.
So paranormal activity 3 it excels were its predecessors fell short. It gives us interesting characters, a good story, and unpredictable BOOs. It essentially gave us everything that you could ask this series for. The only complaint I have is with Boo scares. They really work, but I’m not sure if their good enough for repeat viewings honestly my only complaint.
