PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4

Paranormal Activity 4 

Director: Henry Joost and Ariel SchulmanWritten by: Christopher LandonStarring: Katie Featherston, Kathryn Newton, Matt ShivelyAll the activity has led to this

After a promising start to their careers with the intriguing docu-film Catfish, up and coming directorial duo Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost confirmed that they had real potential behind the camera with Paranormal Activity 3. They also had a knack for scaring audiences. Which makes the disappointment that is PA4 doubly frustrating.



The film is the first real sequel to the original film (the second running in parallel and the third being a prequel) and is set in 2011, five years after the events of Paranormal Activity. The whereabouts of Katie and her nephew Hunter are still not known. So the focus shifts to a new family.



Alex lives in the suburbs with her parents and younger brother Wyatt. She spends most of her time on Skype with her boyfriend Ben. That is until the creepy kid from across the street comes to stay at her house after his mum is taken to hospital. Alex soon becomes wary of their new guest and sets up all the computers/laptops/games consoles in the house to record his strange behaviour. Obviously, you know what kind of thing comes next. 



The problem is that what comes next is not particularly scary. Which is kind of a big deal as the appeal of these movies is purely that. People do not expect to see complex storylines, great acting or scintillating dialogue (not that they get any of these either) but they expect a certain level of tension. And they hope for a few genuine scares too.

Yet Paranormal Activity 4 offers very little. Sure, Christopher Landon tries to freshen things up by switching from camcorders to laptops and i-phones and Kinect. But what we see/hear through these new devices is not terribly frightening or new – my advice, don’t buy a big dangly chandelier.



One of PA4’s biggest failures is its approach to its antagonist(s). Generally speaking, the scariest place exists inside the audiences head. What they cannot see is usually more frightening than anything any writer or director can come up with. Oren Peli utilised this to great effect in the original. Yet Landon and co. appear to have forgotten this golden rule for we see the bad guys’ way too much in this movie.



Also, we know that characters do stupid things in horror movies and that at times this is necessary but there are moments in this film where it gets a little bit too much. It’s a shame because both Kathryn Newton and Matt Shively are charming and very watchable as the pair of teenagers trying to deal with this suburban nightmare.



The film picks up a little in the third act but it’s too little and too late and any potential recovery is dashed by an ending so baffling it endangers the entire franchise. Whoever thought it was a good idea needs to be culled from any participation in future PA films - and there will be additions because the films are so damn profitable. Four films, an outlay of under $10m and a gross of over $600m, you do the maths!

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It’s not an awful film by any stretch of the imagination but it is the weakest in the series so far. There are too many questions left unanswered and the ominous feel to the first three movies (especially 1 and 3) is barely existent here. The best we can hope for is that this is a glitch in the franchise. Although the ending threatens to take the story into new territory which is too big in scale and fantastic, Even for a series as out there as Paranormal Activity.

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RB