The Third Time is the Charm in Paranormal Activity 3: A Movie Review

*spoiler alert.

Directors: Henry Joost, and Ariel Schulman.

Writers: Christopher B. Landon, Oren Peli (characters).

Cast: Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown and Christopher Nicholas Smith.

The movie Paranormal Activity 3 finally gets a chance to explain itself and provide for some interesting moments. After the events from the first two movies, there are a lot of questions asked which gets revealed with this new one.

The film begins with an adult Katie (Katie Featherston) going to see Kristi (Sprague Grayden). She is there to see how the happy couple is doing, and to drop off a box of old VHS tapes. She says that they are from Grandma Lois, presumably now deceased, and she has not had the time to look at them. Neither of them remembers those times, and instead of sitting down to watch them, they are being tossed into storage. However, one day later, Kristi's home gets broken into and the only thing that is missing is that box of tapes.

Whomever has stolen the tapes starts the movie off by viewing the footage of the girls’ childhood. The way this film offers up the what-ifs are good for those who love this series. Had the adult girls viewed the tapes, maybe the events from the previous films, Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, will not have happened. By itself, this product potentially sets the stage for a new set of films. As for how long this franchise will last will depend on how often the audiences want this product.

There is one detail that has to be noted: if the importance of having a male son is a hint of things to come, hopefully this series will finally get the new blood it deserves. Witches exist in the world of Paranormal Activity, and in the 1930's, they make pacts with the devil involving male-borns. This added narrative helps make this third film stand out.

Also, a few other specifics are fleshed out, like Katie and Kristi's strange affiliation to have boyfriends who are video camera-obsessed entrepreneurs. Their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner), divorced some time ago, and is living with a new boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith). This pairing keeps to the tradition of the previous films of a happy couple being haunted.

All the action is being saved for the locked off cameras to capture. Interestingly, because of how the sets are lit, the shadows created give some fantastic looking illusions that play with the viewer’s imagination. With the living room camera, there are faces in the tapestry when there are none. In the bedroom, the camera is posed to make the footboards of the young girls' beds look like monks posed to watch over them. But these imaginary individuals will do nothing for what will ensue.

The young girls’ game of Bloody Mary elicits a few amusing chills, and these young actresses (Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown) certainly do a good job. They come through as a believable pair of sisters. And the victimization of children is far scarier than giving life to the demon that will later own them.

However, to get to these scary moments is a slow process. There are a few innovative paranormal investigation techniques that can easily be ripped off for actual use when groups cannot afford a security setup like in what’s used here. The camera sweeping back and forth is a nice touch, but a question needs to be asked. Why is Dennis, a supposedly professional videographer, using a 6-hour format to record with? That usually results in banding and faster degradation of the recorded image over time.

But by the time the film hits its chilling climax, the only thing smoking is a differently styled ending. There is an evil at work and the best scare is in leaving the what-ifs in the film for the audience to figure out. This movie would be more chilling if it included one particular bit of lyric going on, "O'er the Hills and through the woods ....”

Overall: 7 out of 10.

The film's homepage:

Paranormal Activity 3's Official Website


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