2 stars (out of four)
Paranormal Activity 3
is a clumsy movie, an ungainly series of more or less detached scenes dutifully
strung together into a something that only roughly resembles a narrative. The
premise, warmed over from the last two installments, will be familiar to anyone
who has seen one or both of those films: a spectral presence visits
upper-middle-class suburbia and its phantom interactions with creaky doors and
kitchenware are recorded with admirable thoroughness by a man with a camera
fetish.
The footage of these paranormal shenanigans has been found
and conveniently edited for us into a manageable 80-odd minutes though who
found and edited the material is a mystery the film is not interested in
solving. The opening scene reveals that the videotapes we are watching were
stolen from the family in Paranormal Activity 2’s house so perhaps the phantom itself has gone through the trouble of
editing the film! Or perhaps I’m asking too many questions.
The year is 1988 and the house haunted is that of Katie (Chloe
Csengery) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown), younger versions of the hapless
heroines from Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, respectively. You will recall that the events of
those films were not Katie and Kristi’s first interactions with the ghostly
creature. The demon had previously plagued their childhood and the details of
that initial encounter are the focus of this film.
The man with the camera this time is Dennis (Christopher
Nicholas Smith), the boyfriend of the girls’ mother (Sprague Grayden). When
young Kristi’s nighttime chats with an imaginary friend named Toby coincide
with some unusual occurrences in the house, Dennis decides to set up a few
tripods and use his totally neat VHS camcorder to get to the bottom of things.
What follows is a standard collection of “Boo!” moments, two
of which are fake-outs so uninspired they actually consist of characters
jumping in front of the camera and shouting “Boo!” These moments are effective,
I suppose, but offer little that can’t be replicated by a visit to a haunted
house. Clearly the filmmakers want to develop the mythology of the series (thus
the prequel for this outing) but if this is the case there needs to be more
intrigue and less cheap scares.
I don’t mean to say that an elaborate plot is necessary
or even wanted for this sort of film. There is nothing inherently wrong with
spooking audiences just for the fun of it. But there is a fine line between
tension and tedium and too often PA3
confuses the two. For lengthy stretches of the film, nothing happens. Yes, this
means you may be caught off guard when a scare comes but the effect is a little
like lulling someone to sleep only to shake them violently when their eyelids
shut. There is no craft or skill involved.
I will say that the last fifteen minutes are not awful.
There is a decently choreographed and minimally annoying use of first-person
shaky-cam (carefully edited to look like one long take) but the sequence stands
alone. It is one scene of momentarily effective filmmaking, solid technique
stranded without a narrative.
If you enjoyed the second film there is no overwhelming
reason to skip this one. In a number of subtle ways, PA3 is more inventive than its predecessor but it is
also less satisfying. The film is a mostly joyless execution of sudden
movements and loud bangs, and ends abruptly without really going anywhere.
There is one other part of the film I want to mention,
something that has become an odd trend in all the Paranormal Activity movies. There are scenes in this film when we watch
Dennis watching the footage from the previous night. For what purpose would he
film himself at such a moment? When would he ever need to go back and watch this?
It doesn’t make much sense in the context of the film and isn’t any fun to
watch. Part of me is tempted to interpret these scenes as some sort of odd,
misplaced postmodern comment on a culture of pervasive recording and watching.
Mostly though, I suspect it is simply misguided filmmaking.
- Steve Avigliano, 10/29/11
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