The Paranormal Activity movies have been a rollercoaster ride for me – a very up and down experience with the first film as the high point, the second film the low point, and the third somewhere in between. So I approached the fourth film in the franchise with no delusions and with what I thought were a realistic set of expectations. There was sure to be a flimsy excuse for a house full of cameras, mediocre acting, and people being dragged violently by an invisible assailant. And sure enough, all three were in the picture, but what was oddly missing from the fourth installment was any real sense of tension and the bombastic ending we’ve come to expect from these movies.
When last we ventured into this world, we were given a view into the backstory surrounding Katie (Katie Featherston) and how she had come to be haunted by this mysterious demon. This film picks up a few years after the second installment and introduces us to a new family in Arizona who - after their new neighbor becomes sick - take in her little boy for a week. This kicks off a series of unexplainable events that culminates in shadowy figures flashing across screen and bodies being thrown about like rag dolls.
The formula is pretty simple so the question remains, how did directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman get things wrong? For starters I think they got a bit caught up in connecting the backstory of Paranormal Activity 3 to the plot of 4. The allusions to the cult really bogged down the story and moved the film away from the nuts and bolts of what makes these kinds of movies work – namely terror grounded in loose reality. And in that same vein, the directors skimped out on the cheap thrills that horror films need to keep viewers alert and attentive.
But where the film really goes awry is with the child actors. This is ironic, because I think it is safe to say that no one who has appeared in a Paranormal Activity film will ever be significant enough to even be nominated for a Razzie. Anyone can tell you that a bad performance from a child actor can completely destroy a film (i.e. Jake Lloyd in Episode I), and in this movie we are treated to that times two. Brady Allen and Aiden Lovekamp’s respective characters are responsible for too much of the tension in the plot and unfortunately the directors weren’t up to the task of piecing together the requisite performances.
Everyone else in the cast is just competent enough. Kathryn Newton as Alex is fairly convincing as the de facto lead and Matt Shively somewhat funny as her bumbling sidekick. Alexondra Lee and Stephen Dunham are fairly vanilla and thus do not bungle the proceedings while Katie Featherston is her typical rigid and monotone self. Unfortunately, no one is skilled enough or up to the task of elevating this movie into the category of mediocrity.
The final verdict then has to be a no, even for the most ardent fans of horror. The genre is so saturated with run-of-the-mill movies that will do a better job of keeping you at the edge of your seat, that there is absolutely no reason to waste ninety minutes of your life on a horror movie that isn't scary. Take a pass on this one and hope that the next one (scheduled for release on Oct. 25) gets back to that winning formula.
Standout Performance: No one.
its scary. scary bad.
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