Top Five Friday: Paranormal Activities

Do you remember back before handheld horror films were the norm?  Back in the days when you heard from your friend about some little independent film from America called The Blair Witch Project.  And then you found a copy of VHS (or DVD if you're a little older) and you were scared shitless by this incredibly realistic, low budget film that came out of nowhere?  Somewhere in the back of your mind, you wondered if those people could still be in those woods and if the Blair Witch was even real... oh my God, she's behind me right now isn't she?!?

Anyway, skip forward 15 years and here we have the latest instalment in the Paranormal Activity cash-cow, The Marked Ones.  Now, I hold the Paranormal Activity franchise quite highly in the diluted stagnant waters of the 'found-footage' horror film, among those such as [REC] and The Bay, and I thought I'd analyse the five films to see if there is any life in this ghost story saga after all.

He always took Connect The Dots to the extreme...

5) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4

Now, to start, Paranormal Activity 4 is a fine example of how this series can be handled poorly, and how the found-footage genre is sometimes filled with pointless nonsense.  The film is slower than the rest and filled with hardly any tension or frights.

The only saving grace is the interesting use of night vision and Kinect.  During the film, the young girl utilises the handheld camera's night vision mode whilst playing on the Xbox Kinect.  This allows her to see the tiny dots the Kinect uses to detect motion, and the dots pick up something invisible that should not be there...

This playful use of modern technology is fun for a while, but the film falls prey to the standard pantomime conventions of "It's behind you!" whilst our heroine is Skype-ing away.  By far, the worst one of the series.

4) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2

The original Paranormal Activity gained so much interest and surprise when it was released, that the sequel released the year after was bound to disappoint.  After initial screenings, people seemed annoyed that they weren't as shocked or terrified as much as they had been the previous year, but I found it as terrifying as the first.  A certain scene with opening cupboard doors frightened pretty much everyone in the auditorium when I saw it, especially one low-voiced man who bellowed in pure agonising terror, causing a lot of amusement for everyone else...

Terrorising ghost or barking Alsatian...
I don't know which is scarier...

The only disappointment I had was in the continuity of the film, as it was technically a prequel, and yet aspects of the storyline didn't match up, such as why does the demon bother going through 20-odd nights of teasing 'experiments' in Katie and Micah's house?  Why doesn't it start by terrorising Katie in the daytime like in Kristi's home?

These sequel/prequel confusion plot-holes and a lack of originality in the jump-scares mean it's only #4 on my Top Five Friday.

 

3) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES

Not the Deathly Hallows?
Well, JK Rowling gonna sue somebody...

Now we come to the current release, The Marked Ones.  Released as a spin-off to the main storyline and dubbed a 'side-quel' by some critics, the story surrounds two young Latinas, Jesse and Hector, who are targeted and 'marked' by a witch who lives in their apartment block.  As strange things begin to happen, Jesse and Hector must figure out what is happening to their lives, before it is too late...

Whilst the original storyline was a nice change of pace, rather than focus on the Katie/Micah original storyline, the narrative takes on a investigative edge, having the characters speak mainly in exposition throughout the film, meeting random characters, explaining the plot and then moving on.  The best sections are before Jesse and Hector realise anything is wrong and act like regular people.  They manage to actually make you care for these characters by making them relatable, before dragging them through a world of hurt.

Like always, the film-makers use interesting and clever techniques to show the other-worldly presence at work.  This time a Simon Says electronic game working as a Ouija board provides most of the dread, as a demonic force answer green for yes, and red for no.

A worthwhile effort, but not justifying another instalment in the series.

2) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3

I really thought this was going to be a disappointing and cheesy prequel where the screenwriters were going to focus on 'creepy little girls' and nursery rhymes to freak me out.  However, they avoided cliches by introducing The Midwives and the storyline of how this 'Toby' demon has been around since the sisters had been young girls.

ARGH!  Good.  God.
Look at that pink top.

Set in the 1980s, this prequel to Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 still managed to deliver the typical Activity tropes, such as video cameras monitoring the house, even in a technologically inferior time.  Katie and Kristi's mother dates a wedding video-maker who owns his own video camera!  Perfect!  Of course she does!  Then he adapts a rotating fan to scan and videotape the entire kitchen!  Genius!  Explains the situation brilliantly!

Little ideas like this really made me warm to the film, as it seemed every part was thought through thoroughly.  Sections featuring the playful side of the ghost, like shown in the picture above, filled me and the entire audience with slow, creeping dread.  And THAT is the sign of a good horror movie, and not "cattle-prod cinema".

1) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

"You really expect me to sleep on this side?"

The film that started it all.

A fantastic marketing strategy of showing test audience reactions as trailers and a campaign of 'DEMAND THIS FILM' made this little unknown horror almost a status symbol if your town or city's cinema managed to get the film shown.

When it was released, the wave of positive (and similarly negative) word-of-mouth made it a number one at the UK box office for weeks and rightfully so.  The film blew me away; as an amateur film-maker as well as an amateur film critic; the concept was so simple and the budget so minuscule, I was impressed as much as I was frightened.

The scares are slow at first, but that is the beauty of it.  The dread and unsettled atmosphere creep in, rather than are thrown at you.  You get to know the main couple, Katie and Micah, and wildly theorise why this malevolent spirit is targeting them.  In a way, I think you can watch this film without the knowledge of what follows it and feel unburdened.  You just spend 90 minutes watching two people get terrorised and you just sit there thinking "Thank the Lord that's not me!"

The effects are subtle yet terrifying, the acting is realistic and believable, and the effect is incredibly memorable.

Until next time folks, thanks for reading!

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