“This isn’t Casper!”
Swift Shot: I guarantee you at least three screams. Using that same, what I call, the “Where’s Waldo” effect, where you have to keep looking at seemingly mundane footage and trying to essentially figure out what, if anything, is off, missing, or wasn’t there before. This was the scariest, and probably most interesting, of the films to date. And, they left room for even more story-telling. Somehow this stuff never gets old, and the creators manage to deliver more surprises! Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Michael Landon’s kid, Christopher B. Landon wrote this thing – and that it was pretty terrifying!!
[Swift note, spoke to Aceman today and asked him if he had seen any of the films, “Yea, and at first I wasn’t impressed, nor scared, but then, much later, it was with me, and I couldn’t get it out of my head.” I told him, “Well, this one is scary AS you watch it AND it stays with you well after you see it.”]
PA3 – as the cool kids are calling it – is set primarily in 1988, in September, where we see old VHS tapes of young Katie having a birthday then things start to go all Paranormal Activity! Well, it isn’t quite that simple, things need time to develop. Katie and Kristi are just little munchkins, living with their mother Julie and her boyfriend, Dennis, a struggling wedding videographer.
Julie and Dennis are likable characters, in fact, they reminded me a lot of Micah and Katie from the first Paranormal Activity – their dialogue was genuine, funny and helped the audience connect with them on several levels. Plus, this was set in the 80’s, so if you are a fan of Family Guy, and few aren’t, you’ll love seeing some old “friends” and 80’s nostalgia nods on screen. Heck, I want to see the film again just to see how many old toys I recognize.
Kristi is the younger kid, so she is still more apt to have a wild imagination, and she claims to have a friend, Toby that only she can see and hear. It’s frustrating having this friend, because no one really believes he is real . . . or maybe no one wants to admit he is real. Dennis is intrigued, and much like Micah, can’t leave well enough alone. One night when he experiences an incredibly rude (you’ll see what I mean) earthquake, he notices something in reviewing the footage that he has to share with his co-worker and friend, Randy.
Even Randy thinks there is something to this that can’t be explained, and he encourages Dennis to try and record more strange phenomena. Dennis, like a dumb-ass, does. He manages to convince Julie to let him place some cameras around the house, and there we have the set-up we all expect with these films. Because this was a videographer using his own equipment, at home, I was more immersed than the stilted, security camera footage from the previous film. The second Paranormal Activity was good, but this was so much better!
Do you remember Gramma Lois? No? She is in this film, front and center, and while she liked Dennis, she reminds Julie that he has no real job or prospects and is just using her for her money. It is never made clear what Julie does for a living, if anything, but Gramma Lois supports her daughter’s decision to stay with Dennis.
Using classic horror film elements, like the teeny-bopper babysitter, Lisa, who looked like she was Debbie Gibson’s biggest fan, this film even managed to be clever without being cheesy. That’s hard to do. Her scenes contain at least one of your “guaranteed screams”. Then, Dennis’ friend Randy manages to pull out a classic Halloween game that you should really never toy around with. In fact, if there are any lessons from the Paranormal Activity films, probably the best lesson is “Don’t meddle with things you don’t understand, nor know how to vanquish!” Anyone who has ever had a paranormal encounter of their own probably already learned this lesson the hard way! Randy certainly did!
[I just heard a noise in my closet, and I am fairly certain it wasn’t Tom Cruise]
You’ll love this film like a roller-coaster, it will scare you, and at times you will laugh at yourself for being scared, but ultimately . . . scared is what you will be, particularly if you have a keen imagination.
Finally, when the credits roll, you’ll wonder just whom, or what, was watching this footage. If you paid attention, the answer is eerily obvious. If you are a fan of the other two films, you needn’t hear from me that you will like this one as well, it delivers to its fan base . . . and then some! In fact, some people that I knew didn’t care for the other two actually said this one was the best of the three. I only hope they have at least one, or two, more films to release. I will be there, assuming I heed the film’s warnings and steer clear of the “intriguing”. Where did I put that tripod?
