Paranormal Activity 3 Review
Paranormal Activity The story begins in 2005 with some new footage of Katie (the woman from PA1) delivering a box old home movies to her pregnant sister, Kristi, and Kristi's husband, Daniel (the couple from PA2). It then jumps to 2006 and reshows the scene from the start of PA2 in which the couple’s house is apparently ‘burgled’. The tapes are missing.
We are then shown the content of the tapes which were filmed in 1988. At this point Katie and Kristi live with their mother, Julie, and her boyfriend, Dennis. We are shown hints of Kristi interacting with an invisible friend named ‘Toby’.
Our first taste of any activity of the paranormal kind comes during Dennis and Julie’s awkward attempt at making a sex tape. The couple are interrupted by an earthquake. While they look for the girls, the camera shows dust fall from the ceiling and land onto an invisible figure in the room. The figure then moves and the dust falls to the floor.
Upon reviewing the footage, and showing it to his friend Randy, Dennis is intrigued enough to set up a few cameras in the house to catch more footage of any paranormal activity that may occur…
Verdict
In some ways PA3 is a hard film to review, the biggest problem being what criteria to apply to it when judging it? Should it be judged purely on its merits as a horror film? Should it be judged as a stand alone film, or should the other two movies be taken into account?
If I was to rate this strictly in terms of how good a horror flick this movie is I would be awarding PA3 at least 4 stars, maybe even 5. I watched large parts of the movie from behind my hands, and was tense and uncomfortable throughout. There were some genuinely spooky and disturbing moments, which continued to play on my mind days after I saw the film. Especially when I would wake alone at night for my midnight snack!
However overall, as a complete movie, I think PA3 is simply too unoriginal to receive much in the way of praise. It sticks to a formula, and it executes it brilliantly, but one cant help but wonder if the formula has run its course now. However having said that I think this film superior to PA2 and a better constructed more polished film than PA1 (though of course PA1 will always have the advantage of being more ‘fresh’ and original.
Arguably this film didn’t ‘need’ to be made. It never really answers the questions you want it to but that is fine because it adds to the mystique and mystery of the story, however having said that it becomes hard to see why they thought a prequel necessary (I’m sure the mountain of money this film as earned was a factor in their considerations).
Overall I would say that if you enjoyed the first two and want to see a scary film for Halloween then look no further than PA3. If however you weren’t a fan of the previous films and/or are looking for something a bit different, original or unique for this Halloween maybe you would be better served looking elsewhere for you thrills.
Read the full Paranormal Activity 3 Review over on Movierooms.net
3/5
