It's finally happened people, the moment we all knew would eventually come: the Paranormal Activity franchise has finally run out of steam.
In Paranormal Activity 4 we follow a new family consisting of daughter Alex (Kathryn Newton), mother Holly (Alexondra Lee), father Doug (Stephen Dunham), and adopted son Wyatt (Aidan Lovekamp). When new neighbor next door Katie (Katie Featherstone) is whisked away to a hospital, the family takes in her mysterious child Robby (Brady Allen, who we are led to believe is Hunter). Naturally, strange goings-ons start to occur and a scared Akex brings in her boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) to help.
In this film, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman return again to direct the fourth outing. They brought some frash air into the series' third installment, so it's natural to hope that they could do the same for the fourth outing....no such luck unfortunately. It seems even these two creative and talented filmmakers had run out of ideas for the franchise as they are reduced to cat scares, bouncing basketballs down steps, and even jump cut scares. They do almost hit upon a great idea when they bring in the story element of Alex and Ben working together as an investigative duo, unfortunately that doesn't play all that large of a role in the film. In a greater film, that element could have been used to turn the duo into an almost mini-ghost hunters crew, and the film could have focused on their efforts to uncover what was really going on... that doesn't happen here though. Also the way they bring in the multiple cameras in the house doesn't feel natural, and all the jumps to different cameras feels unorganic to the film. The film does bring in XBOX Kinect and it almost has an idea about what to do with it's nightvision tracking dots....but this is barely used. It's clear that Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost have grown tired of the franchise as their efforts here are downright lazy and uninspired, let's hope that the franchise brings in some new directors for the inevitable fifth installment.
The acting in the film is also pretty bad. The mother is a complete airhead, the father is an ignorant business type that doesn't appear to have time for his family, and while Kathryn Newton as Alex is mighty cute, she is kind of just there (in her defense though, the film gives her absolute zip to do). The film is lacking in good character development, the only memorable character in this film is Matt Shively as the awesome boyfriend Ben. He is the only one that appears to be having fun with his role. He also is the first to suggest that Alex get out of the house since the activity seems to be somewhat focused on her. He is the most fun character in the film, and the only one I was ever fully invested in. Aiden Lovekamp as Wyatt is pretty great, as we learn more about his character the more I started to actually fear fo this kids life. He is dangerously close to having a great evil thrust upon him. Brady Allen is ok as weird kid Robby. He does the whole creepy thing pretty well. Once again, this film lacks any real characters and that is one of it's biggest detractant points (not that the other films had any great characters either, but at least those were creepy and scary).
Probably the worst thing about Paranormal Activity 4 is that it just isn't scary...or even creepy. While I do have some qualms about the first three films, at least they were legitmately scary. Paranormal Activity 4 is a film that expects us to be scared of a basketball bouncing down some steps, it's a film that resorts to the lowest form of scares. Like every other Paranormal Activity film, it relies heavily on jump scares, but most of the jumps in this one are false ones. The film also fails to create a tense or creepy atmosphere, at no point was I on the edge of my seat or tensing my self. While the film does try (and fail) to build up to a climax, there is absolutely no payoff in the end. This Paranormal Activity film has got the worst, lamest climax I have seen in one of these films thus far.
Paranormal Activity is a downright lazy, half-assed, and uninspired attempt. It's clear that the directors and writers had run the well of ideas and inspiration dry, and this is what we got. If you are walking in expecting a good story, good characters, a tense atmosphere, and some good scares then expect to be disappointed. Paranormal Activity 4 fails to advance the franchise, instead spinning it's wheels in the mud, managing to actually take the franchise as a whole several steps back (it even attempts to rip off the Shining). The story is uninspired and bland, the characters and scares are nonexistant. While there are a few glimmers of promise in this otherwise bland, blase film they are never taken full advantage of. It's clear that the writers and directors had no passion for this film and just didn't care about ehat they were making. Paranormal Activity 4 isn;t just the worst film in the franchise thus far, it's also the worst found footage film I've seen thus far (even the direct to dvd Grave Encounters was better than this shit). If you do decide to fork over the dough to see this waste of celluloid, get ready for one boring experience....don;t say I didn't warn you.
1 STAR
I think it's time that Paranormal Activity ditch the found footage genre (it's clear they have done all they can with this style. Time to admit defeat guys) and move on to regular cinematic style. If they were to continue with the found footage genre, the best place they could take the franchise is if they decided to follow a Ghost Hunter's type show as they get caught in Katie's wrath.
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