Paranormal Activity 3

Starring: Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Dustin Ingram, Brian Boland, Sprague Grayden, Katie Featherston
Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In 1988, two young sisters are plagued by an invisible force.

Review:

Tim: After the expected drop in quality from the first film to the second film, I expected a similar drop here. That's exactly what we get. This franchise is pushing it a bit. While this movie is still fine and does have a few good moments, overall, the movie feels far too much like a rehash of the previous films.

The first film was excellent because it was unique and different. The first sequel upped the ante by having cameras throughout the house. This film goes back in time, to the late 1980s. This is an interesting twist, because we get to see how this whole story began. This film is mostly a prequel. I'm not opposed to the idea, except that technology wasn't as strong back. The movie does a good job trying to make this realistic (the fan contraption was pretty clever), but the whole thing feels a bit forced and ridiculous. You're telling me that all these explosive, shocking VHS tapes just sat somewhere, unwatched? It just felt a bit much.

The story itself is fine, because it's basically the same thing rehashed all over again. The story is familiar at this point- everything starts out slow and normal, before it slowly becomes creepier and creepier before resulting in a shocking, frantic conclusion. The movie doesn't change this formula up at all. While that might be comforting in its familiarity, it just feels like the film played it far too safe.

This back-in-time thing is interesting, but I'm not sure where this leaves the franchise. Is the fourth film (of course there will be more) just a series of old photographs from the 1880s showing the real start of this menace? Maybe it should go Jason X and shoot forward hundreds of years. I just think this franchise had a fantastic idea, but at this point, it's running out of steam.

The actors were fine, but no one gives a really strong performance. The first film had a good portrayal by Katie Featherston, and Sprague Grayden did okay work in the second film. It felt like no one in the cast really did anything special at all here.

Paranormal Activity 3 isn't a bad movie, but it felt like it was too forced and silly. I suppose it's not a wholly unnecessary sequel, because we did get to the root of the entity (I think). I would be happy with ending this franchise as a trilogy and simply stopping while it's ahead. I suppose it's possible that the fourth film will reverse the trend and breathe new life into the franchise, but based on horror movie history, I'm not holding my breath for that.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Activity 2, The Blair Witch Project, Poltergeist, The Exorcist