WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS, SO READ AHEAD AT YOUR OWN CAUTION
Paranormal Activity 3 takes place several decades before the events of the first and 2nd films, occurring around 1988. The two sisters from the first two films, Katie and Kristi, are living a good life. Katie (Chloe Csengery) has just celebrated her most recent birthday, and her mom Julie (Lauren Bittner) has just gotten together with amateur videographer Dennis (who acts as a cool stepfather to the sisters, played by Christopher Nicholas Smith). All seems to be fine until young Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown)makes a new imaginary friend named Toby who is (OBVIOUSLY) not what he appears to be. As more and more strange events occur at their house, an intrigued Dennis sets up several cameras in an attempt to catch footage of whatever is going on.
Paranormal Activity 3 is the best film in the franchise thus far...but at the same time it is also the worst (It;s also the most clever and the most ambitious as well). In Paranormal Activity 3, the characters of Julie and Dennis are fully fleshed out and actually manage to come across as real human beings in this film. By the end of the film, I found that I had grown to care about them and their fate. It is believable that Dennis would grow excited over the events he is catching on film, and it is fun to watch his reactions change from excitement to horror and worry as the events he captures on film grow more and more violent until he is thrust into the middle of them, it being up to him to save his new family. Julie is also great as the non-believer (a great role switch, since in the Paranormal Activity films it is usually the male who is the nonbeliever, and the female who is trying to convince him of the truth. Here, it's the other way around) who does care about her family but doesn't have time for Dennis' silly antics. Both Smith and Bittner do a superb job of acting out their roles, bringing a believability to them. Both of the adults are pretty smart (especially Dennis, except for at the end where he has to act dumb for the sake of the plot and whatnot), which wasn't really seen in the previous two films.
Another great role is that of Randy (Dustin Ingram), Dennis' younger videographer helper. He's not in the film for long, but he does serve an important role in that he lends Dennis books on demonology, and is the first person to warn Dennis of the very real danger that Toby is. When inevitably Randy has his own first hand encounter with a pissed off Toby, he gets while the getting's good....a surprisingly wise idea.
PA 3, as I had said before, takes place in 1988, but it's not nostalgic in any way. This is the way throwbacks to the 80s should be handled. Character's clothing resembles the fashion in the 80's, decorations resembles that from that era, etc. By focusing on the story and throwing in small 80's references the film succeeded in making me feel like it was actually taking place in that era. I'd call that a success.
Another thing that was interesting about this film was that the trailers were FULL of scenes that were nowhere to be seen in the finished product. This set me up to expect the film to go one route when it actually did a 180 and went in the complete opposite direction. This was neat becuase I never really knew where we (the film and I) would end up, but at the same time it kind of felt like the trailers were lying to me.
Paranormal Activity 3 builds itself up to quite the climax. It takes longer than it did in the other films for shit to get real, but when it does...oh boy, hold onto your hats (one scene rivals the kitchen explosion in PA 2). I can't explain why, but for some reason Toby seems more angry than he does in the previous films, and his actions are much more violent this time around (not to mention he's also an asshole and a cockblock, you'll see what I mean). The film is never very scary, but it's filled with a thick tension that finally explodes during the last act.
The climax of Paranormal Activity 3 actually takes the road less traveled, and has humans be the main antagonists for most of this part. Somehow, this was scarier (I'm definitely more scared of cultists than Toby) and came across as a fresh, smart, fun choice for the film to make. I commend it for choosing to stand away from the previous films and become it's own. At the same time though, this hurts the film as well...in a big way (I have literally never seen a film crash so hard and so fast). The climax doesn't wrap up the way you think it would, and several huge events occur that neither sister even bring up in PA one or two (pretty sure they would have mentioned the death of their parents and going to live with their grandmother and other huge stuff I'm not at liberty to divulge here). I walked out of the theater furious with the way the last minutes play out, it was almost like a big FUCK YOU to fans of the franchise. I honestly feel that this film would have been better if it changed the character's names and chose NOT to affiliate itself with the Paranormal Activity name, I think I would have liked the ending more that way.
Paranormal Activity 3 is a competently made horror film that is filled with tension and some good jump scares (unlike the other films, it doesn't JUST rely on jump scares though, this time around there is some genuinely freaky stuff we see going on). Most of the characters are well written and believable ( the young sisters do an ok job, the best one being Jessica Tyler Brown as Kristi. Still, their not breakout performances by any means), it moves along at a good clip and takes it's time building itself up, if only the ending fit in with what the franchise had set up thus far. All in all, while most will walk in expecting answers, Paranormal Activity 3 only serves up even more mind-numbing questions (some of which don't even make sense or only make the franchise that much more needlessly confusing and complex). It is at the same time exactly what the franchise needed, and exactly what it didn't need. See this film at your own risk.
2.5/5
I was going to give this film 4 stars, but becuase of that ending I wound up giving it the current rating instead, think about that.
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