Rated
R (Language and Some Violence/Terror)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 28 Minutes
Cast-
Katie
Featherston-Katie
Kathryn
Newton-Alex
Matt
Shively-Ben
Alexondra
Lee-Holly
Stephen
Dunham-Doug
Aiden
Lovekamp-Wyatt
Brady
Allen-Robbie
Sprague
Grayden-Kristi
Brian
Boland-Daniel
Directed
by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
 |
| Even pretty girls aren't safe in "Paranormal Activity 4," easily the weakest entry in the series so far. |
Another
year, another "Paranormal Activity." Released back in 2009, the
original "Paranormal Activity" took critics and audiences by
surprise, racking up $193.3 million worldwide and receiving positive reviews
with a solid 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. Using unknown actors, director Oren Peli
shot the film over a one-week period on a measly production budget of $15,000,
making it the most profitable film
ever made based on return on investment (Paramount Pictures acquired the rights
for only $350,000). What made it such a success was its slow-burn atmosphere
that perfectly captured our primal fear of the unknown. This wasn't the first
found-footage film made but never has the approach been utilized in such an
innovative manner. A sequel was quickly announced but 2010's "Paranormal
Activity 2" received mixed reviews (59% on Rotten Tomatoes) yet remained a
box office success, replacing "Saw" as the new perennial horror
franchise of October. The series showed no signs of slowing down as 2011's
"Paranormal Activity 3" debuted with an impressive $52.6 million,
setting a new fall record. Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman return for
another round of supernatural shenanigans with "Paranormal Activity
4" but it's clear that the franchise is now running on fumes, suffering
from a creative malaise as this entry lacks the punch of its predecessors and
fails to advance the overall mythology in any meaningful way.
Opening with a
brief recap of the events in "Paranormal Activity 2," ("Paranormal
Activity 3" was a prequel) a demonically-possessed Katie (Katie
Featherston) murders her older sister Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and her husband
Daniel (Brian Boland). She then kidnaps their baby boy Hunter before
disappearing, her whereabouts unknown. Five years later in 2011, a family
living in the suburbs of Henderson, Nevada begins to experience a haunting of
their own when Katie moves into the house across the street with a six-year-old
boy named Robbie (Brady Allen) in tow. After Katie is suddenly taken to the
hospital due to a vague illness, family matriarch Holly (Alexondra Lee) agrees
to let Robbie stay with them for a few days until she recovers. Fifteen-year-old
daughter Alex (Kathryn Newton) asks her boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) to set up
all the laptops in the house to record everything when she views webcam footage
of Robbie coming into her room in the middle of the night and sleeping next to
her. His arrival coincides with a number of strange phenomena at the house,
which escalates in intensity as time goes on. Holly and her husband Doug
(Stephen Dunham, who sadly passed away last month) remain unconvinced that the
occurrences are related to Robbie. Meanwhile, Robbie befriends Alex's little
brother Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp), whose fate is somehow tied to Katie and the
demonic entity now residing within her.
After doing the runaround with two prequels, "Paranormal Activity
4" finally advances the story but fails to shed any new light on the
mythology. While it touches upon some of the plot points introduced at the end
of the previous entry, the script from Zack Estrin and Christopher B. Landon is
frustratingly vague and creates even more plot holes and questions in the
franchise's already-convoluted narrative. What was originally about a normal,
everyday suburban couple confronting a supernatural entity has now become a
mess. Estrin and Landon even resort to ripping off of other horror flicks, with
the most egregious example coming from Wyatt riding around in a Big Wheel like
Danny from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining." Returning directors Joost
and Schulman play it safe by sticking close to the formula of the previous
entries but the two have bungled the pacing and the suspense. We're treated to
scenes where literally nothing
happens, with too many fake jump scares of the cat scampering across the camera.
Such instances inspired guffaws from the audience, not dread. The obligatory
moving doors and loud bangs are all there but their impact has been severely
diminished since we already expect them. The only novelty comes from using the
Xbox 360 Kinect's tracking dots (which are illuminated by night vision) to give
the house's living room an eerie, otherworldly glow but it also points to the
sequel's lack of any new ideas as it repeatedly falls back on this sole
gimmick. This also points to a larger problem as there some serious lapses in
logic that frequently break the illusion. Some of it is inherent to the
found-footage subgenre but at no point does Alex use the hundreds of hours of recorded footage in an intelligent
manner. She can't even remember her damn password for Pete's sake! Even more
puzzling is how the hard drives of the family's various MacBooks (the product
placement is really annoying) can even hold
all that footage or why no one seems to turn off their electronic devices when
they go to sleep. The final minutes of "Paranormal Activity 4" recall
the intensity of the original but we're greeted to another non-ending that will
leave audiences wondering what the heck just happened.
One of the strengths of
the series has always been its naturalism and Kathryn Newton gives a convincing
performance as teenager Alex. She may be poorly written but you sympathize with
her character even as her mental state deteriorates due to being caught in a
bad situation with no one to turn to. Matt Shively is actually a delight as
Alex's boyfriend Ben and provides some much-needed levity with his funny wisecracks.
Brady Allen is suitably creepy as Robbie yet his inclusion in the story just
raises more questions about who he really is. Katie Featherston also pops up but
she's little more than a supporting character. Despite being a real-life
couple, the interactions between Alexondra Lee and Stephen Dunham never feel
entirely organic.
"Paranormal Activity 4" was released on October 19,
2012 and has received largely negative reviews with 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics concluded that it 'wrings a few more screams out of the franchise's
surprisingly durable premise [but] provides fans of the series with dismayingly
diminishing returns.' You know there's a serious problem when the audience's
reaction is laughter, which is what happened during an advance screening this
past Thursday. Of course, there's no question that it'll be a box office
success since the production budgets are so low. The film has already collected
$15 million and while its opening weekend gross will trail the record-setting
$52.6 million debut of its predecessor, it'll be enough to convince Paramount
to go ahead with another sequel.
"Paranormal Activity 4" is not a total disaster but it's a severely
underwhelming installment that lazily rests on the laurels of what came before,
stringing its fans along while laughing all the way to the bank.
Note: There is a post-credits scene that teases the upcoming spin-off, to be directed by Christopher Landon and made for a Latino audience.
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