PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (2011)

Studio:       Paramount Pictures
Director:    Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Writer:       Christopher Landon
Producer:  Jason Blum, Oren Peli, Steven Schneider
Stars:     Lauren Bittner, Chris Smith, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Brown, Katie Featherston

Review Score:

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Summary:

Recovered videotapes from 1988 document the original evil that haunted Katie Featherston and Kristi Rey as children.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Carlsbad, CA: March 2005 – Daniel Rey records his pregnant wife Kristi as they prepare the nursery for their unborn son Hunter. Kristi’s sister Katie Featherston drops off boxes of old home movies on VHS videocassettes for storage in the Rey’s basement.

Carlsbad, CA: August 2006 – The tapes are stolen during an apparent break-in at the Rey home.

Santa Rosa, CA: September 3rd, 1988 – Videographer Dennis records the birthday party of his girlfriend Julie’s oldest daughter Katie. Footage from that week introduces Katie’s grandmother Lois and Dennis’ assistant Randy Rosen. Katie’s little sister Kristi is also shown to have an imaginary friend named Tobi.

An earthquake occurs when Dennis starts filming a sex tape with Julie. Dennis reviews the footage afterwards and sees a shadowy figure in a corner of the bedroom. Coupled with strange noises heard regularly throughout the home, the event inspires Dennis to set up several cameras in the house.

Night #1: September 10th, 1988 – Kristi gets out of bed and talks to an invisible presence. She later tells Dennis that she was speaking to Toby. Kristi describes Tobi as an old tall man who has told her that it would be bad to tell anyone his secrets.

Night #5: September 14th, 1988 – A light is turned on and off and footsteps are heard in the hallway outside the master bedroom. Dennis and Julie investigate, but the girls are still sleeping inside a tent in the backyard.

Lois talks to her daughter about Dennis. She also implies that she wants Julie to have more children.

Night #7: September 16th, 1988 – Dennis follows strange noises and finds a swinging light in the living room before window blinds in the kitchen close suddenly on their own.

Dennis and Randy use an oscillating fan to build a camera that can pan automatically between the living room and the kitchen.

Night #8: September 17th, 1988 – Kristi appears to play with Tobi while the others sleep.

Randy and Dennis research demonology. Katie and Kristi play “Bloody Mary.” When they leave the bathroom, the camera records a door in the mirror that opens slightly and then slams shut.

Night #10: September 19th, 1988 – The swaying light in the living room explodes.

Dennis hears more about Tobi while having a tea party with Kristi. Katie becomes mysteriously locked in the cubbyhole in the girls’ bedroom. A bed sheet shaped like a ghost collapses empty to the floor behind babysitter Lisa in the kitchen.

Night #12: September 21st, 1988 – Kristi plays a game with Tobi that leads her into precarious situations.

Dennis and Randy review the tape of the babysitter’s strange experiences.

Night #13: September 22nd, 1988 – Kristi enters a trance and stands for hours in the master bedroom doorway.

Randy babysits Katie while Dennis and Julie take Kristi to the hospital for a fever. Randy ends up with a claw mark on his chest after he and Katie play “Bloody Mary.” They are both frightened when something rattles the bathroom door. Furniture tumbles around the bedroom. Randy leaves immediately when Dennis returns.

Dennis shows Julie a photograph he found of a coven wearing the same symbol that Kristi drew with crayon in her bedroom. As Dennis explains the coven’s practices to Julie, an invisible presence pulls up Katie by her ponytail while she is alone.

Night #14: September 23rd, 1988 – Various items move on their own throughout the girls’ room. Katie is pulled into the cubbyhole and trapped there until Kristi agrees to do something for Tobi.

Kristi tells her mother that they need to go to grandma’s house, but Julie refuses. Julie is drawn from the kitchen by a knock at the front door. When she returns to the kitchen, she finds that everything has levitated to the ceiling before it all crashes to the floor.

Moorpark, CA: September 1988 – Dennis, Julie, and the girls go to stay at Lois’ house. Julie is upset to discover Kristi preparing for a mock wedding with Tobi.

Dennis and Julie are woken by the sound of cars outside. Julie leaves the bedroom and does not return. Dennis looks for her and discovers that all of the women are missing. Demonic symbols are seen on the dining room walls where paintings were previously. Dennis stumbles into a gathering of Lois’ coven. Back in the house, Julie’s body is thrown at him after having been suspended in midair. Dennis tries leaving with Kristi, but he is knocked to the floor by Katie after she becomes possessed. Lois enters and watches as Dennis’ body is bent backwards by an unseen force. Grandma Lois then takes the girls upstairs to “get ready” as Kristi calls for Tobi to join them.

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Review:

The majority of “Star Trek” fans agree that “Wrath of Khan” is the best of the original feature films.  Few “Friday the 13th” diehards (read: zero) would put “A New Beginning” or “Jason X” near the top of any best-to-worst list.  And what self-respecting “Back to the Future” fan would claim the original to be his/her least favorite of the trilogy?

Now try finding a similar consensus on the “Paranormal Activity” movies.  The PA series is well known in horror circles for having a vast chasm between supporters on the Pro side and naysayers on the Cons.  But “Paranormal Activity” does more than divide horror movie aficionados with like it or lump it attitudes.  It also splinters its own fanbase.  For every fan who loved the first and hated the second, there is someone who hated the first and loved the second.

It’s ironic that opinions about each installment’s entertainment merits are so inconsistent.  Because the one thing universally true about every “Paranormal Activity” film to date is how consistent the formula always is.  Three movies into the series and “Paranormal Activity” knows how to cruise with the top down, navigating every turn with speed and with confidence.  How can it not when it has made this same trip twice before?

Not-yet-but-soon-to-be-cursed sisters Katie and Kristi live with their mother Julie and her boyfriend Dennis.  Dennis is a trade up from both Micah and Daniel.  For starters, he is not the resident skeptic.  In fact, he is the first person to wonder aloud if unexplainable thuds and fleeting shadows might have a supernatural origin.  Secondly, he is extremely personable.  Katie and Kristi would go on to attract jerky beaus who belittle batty ideas with a snarky harrumph equivalent to a “shut up.”  Their mother Julie had better taste in men with kind hearts and playful demeanors.

Plus, it is an easy matter to be on the side of a man who is this good with someone else’s children.  Although that unmarried detail adds some weirdness when he asks his girlfriend, “mind if I set up a few cameras around the house?”  You know, like in your daughters’ bedroom while they sleep?

Since it has a flashback prequel setting, PA3 employs the first of several logic leaps by making Dennis a wedding videographer with enough videocassettes to rival the free time he has to review them all.  1988 is two decades early for society’s “record whatever whenever” mentality, so this explanation is as close to believable as possible for why three bulky VHS camcorders run day and night.

More factually bothersome is the way PA3’s story is sandwiched into the already established arc.  As Kristi and Katie’s first experience with a demon they did not know much about in their individual movies, the events here have to fit in a way that having never been referenced before makes sense.  PA3’s answer?  Amnesia.

Once again, the audience has to be willing to let the movie get away with some of these conceits for it to have any chance of working.  At the same time, the “Paranormal Activity” franchise can only ask viewers to look the other way so many times before the formula goes stale for everyone, not just the jaded folks who have already tuned out.

“Paranormal Activity 3” cheats every so often in other areas, too.  Dialogue includes pop culture references like “bow chicka wow wow” and seeing the Virgin Mary in toast.  1988 might be too soon for such mentions to have made it into a regularly used vernacular, but maybe it is close enough to not care.

Cheats that others may find less forgivable are the jump scares.  Although they may be indefensible as cheap gags, arguing them as ineffective would be a bigger waste of breath.  PA1’s first scream was over a spider.  PA2’s had to do with an unflushed toilet.  PA3 goes for less of a fake out and more of a real jolt, even though its opening kickoff is also a touchback.  Indeed, virtually every scare in PA3 comes from a sudden “boo!” or a slow creep culminating with a bang.  It is low hanging fruit for a horror film, but it does put a spring in the seat.

What “Paranormal Activity 3” really turns into its toy is its knowledge of audience expectations for how these movies play out.  PA3 does not flip that script, but it punctuates predictable beats with louder fireworks to keep unsettling tension high.

PA1 used a stationary camera with only one doorway to keep an eye on.  PA2 added more angles while cluttering up each shot with doors, windows, cupboards, and other entry/exit points where anything could happen.  Darting eyes around darkened frames looking for the next fright became a game.  PA3 puts one of its cameras (brilliantly) on an oscillating fan panning between the kitchen and the living room.  It deliberately makes that game harder to play.  PA3 devilishly says that what you really want to be looking at is now off frame, but just wait until we pan back…

“Paranormal Activity 3” has several such tricks up its sleeve, yet they are still tricks.  That is what makes its temporary satisfaction feel so ultimately unfulfilling.  Calling it déjà vu all over again would be an understatement.  Knowing that PA3 had the benefit of an established template to follow makes it more of a mediocre experience than if it were not the third tour through well-trod footsteps.

It’s like going through a favorite haunted house attraction at Halloween.  The first trip is so enjoyable that going again is a must.  By the third time, the effort and enthusiasm can still be appreciated, but knowing where all the scares are takes away from authentic thrills.  Eventually, the thought dawns that if there is any hope of recapturing that first time rush, the creators either need to try something different, or the audience needs to move on to another attraction.

Review Score:  65

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