Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Starring: Andrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz, Catherine Toribio, Katie Featherston
Directed by: Christopher Landon
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriler
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A teenager (Andrew Jacobs) investigates his neighbor's apartment after an untimely death and discovers something sinister.

Review:

Tim: The Paranormal Activity franchise has followed the typical horror movie sequel path, either decreasing in quality or remaining level. There hasn't been much of a return-to-form. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is an interesting film, because it really acts as a spin-off. It continues the story in a different direction, but is still part of the overall story. While there's some very interesting aspects of this movie, it doesn't reverse the trend. This is probably the least effective movie in the franchise.

I enjoyed the effort of this film to diversify the franchise. I don't care enough to do the research, but it sure feels like 95% of the cast members in this franchise are Caucasian. The focus on Hispanic characters here gave the movie a different flavor and helped it stand out from the other films. That was a great decision and one of the best aspects of the film.

The problem is that this just isn't a very good movie. You have a relatively inexperienced director, an average script, and the difficult assignment of making this a different movie, but still adhering to the larger story of the franchise. It was a great thought, a decent effort, but the movie just doesn't work. Part of the problem is that the film is too inconsistent. There are some truly scary moments. I actually loved the use of the 80s game Simon as a means of communicating with the supernatural entity. It felt like an authentic, interesting update to the old Ouija board scene. That might have been my favorite part of the film- such a cool scene. There's a few genuinely scary moments sprinkled throughout the film, but these are few and far between. Too many other moments are just buildups to nothing or average moments. The movie is far too uneven.

Outside of Katie, this franchise has done a very poor job of creating memorable characters. This movie is plagued by the same issue- there is nothing particularly interesting or memorable about any characters on screen. Not enough time is spent on character development (hard to do with the found-footage style, maybe), so we don't really identify with the characters. This is a common complaint in horror movies, but a big reason why this one didn't work. The found footage format also has some real limitations, and there were a few scenes where it really pushed the limits of incredulity. It's humorous (in a bad way) that someone would be involved in these incredibly stressful, horrific moments, and managing to not only hold onto the camera, but point it at the very thing they fear. It just makes no sense at all.

I really enjoyed the first film in this franchise, but it's become increasingly tired. I am sure we will continue to get Paranormal Activity movies for quite a while, but I don't have much faith left in this franchise. I'm hoping that sooner (rather than later), this franchise runs out of steam and disappears like Saw did.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Paranormal Activity, Paranormal Activity 2, Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4