By Jason Simpson
The poster reads, “Paranormal Activity 3: Discover How the Activity Began.” This would be a very savvy tagline if viewers could actually discover anything other than how bad this third installation of the Paranormal Activity series really is.
Truth be told, the “activity” has been in decline since the first film. The first film made theater patrons jump in their seats. It wasn’t special effects driven either, it was good old-fashioned plot tension and suspense.
The series has been going sequentially backward in time and this third film showed the childhood of sisters Katie and Kristie — the stars of the first two films. The strangest part about this film is the fact that several intense scenes are airing on commercials right now but none of these scenes actually appear in the film. Those scenes definitely could help this film achieve a respectable level of horror.
There are definitely some scary moments and viewers will inevitably jump several times. If your goal is to get a certain young lady to jump into your arms to show how big and tough you can be, then this is your film. If you and your horror-phile pals go and check this out expecting answers, thrills and chills, you will be sorely disappointed.
It was nice to see the actresses from the first two Paranormal films making brief cameos at the beginning to “introduce” viewers to their past. In most fans’ minds, the past holds the key to questions left open by the first and second films. That may be what the film’s poster was aiming at. But that lock still isn’t cracked.
The second film touched on the idea that perhaps Katie and Kristi’s grandmother made a pact with a demon who demanded the soul of the first-born male son in the bloodline. Hence little Hunter Rey was in trouble in the second film. “Paranormal Activity 3” introduces the concept that perhaps the girls’ grandmother is a devil worshiper who commands this demon whose name we discover is Toby.
Toby is also coincidentally young Kristi’s imaginary friend. Throughout the first two films, both sisters claimed not to remember a thing from this part of their childhood. While children do naturally build barricades to childhood trauma, this is virtually impossible to imagine. It’s hard to believe that amidst having your house haunted as an adult you can’t seem to remember the same thing happening to you as a child.
For once and for all, it would be great for someone to figure out a clever way to get away from the handheld camera-induced motion sickness that seems to accompany this series. The second film seemed to find a way around this by installing wall-mounted security cameras, but “Paranormal 3” revisits the first person “Blair Witch” inspired jostling with gusto.
In the end, the large group of women dressed in black is never explained. The male lead’s impressive back-bending pose is the final scare. Then spooky grandma escorts the girls upstairs to an ending that is never explained. Films that enable viewers to form their own conclusions are particularly impressive but only when there is sufficient data to put the pieces together.
Without these details, and no real “activity” to speak of, there’s not much incentive to discover how the activity began. The poster lies. Your own ideas will be a lot better better than the flimsy answers offered in this disappointing sequel, and they don’t require a Dramamine.
