Paranormal Activity 4

"OH MY GOD!"

"I DONT LIKE THIS! I DONT LIKE THIS!"

"AHHHH!"

Very rapidly: "WHAT THE F**K! WHAT THE F**K! WHAT THE F************K!"

Also very rapidly, similar to my 19-month old niece: "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO"

"DEAR SWEET BABY JESUS!" 

And my personal favorite: *CRIES LIKE A LITTLE GIRL*

These are all phrases that I exclaimed on more than one occasion during my screening of Paranormal Activity 4, the next entry in the consistently terrifying and ridiculous-money-making series. Ok, I'll admit I didn't cry, but I definitely had a long night of sleep...damn demons.  

Basically all I will tell you about Paranormal Activity 4 is that it continues the story from the second movie, picking up 5 years after Katie and Hunter disappeared. Unfortunately, I didn't find that this entry moved the story or mythology forward all that much, especially when compared to last year's installment. PA4 has a few nods here and there, but other than that it is largely void of much plot. In particular, the early reasoning for using a camera every waking moment of the day. In the other movies, there was a believable excuse to have the camera, but in PA4 I suppose we are supposed to assume for the early scenes that all teenagers carry turned-on cameras with them at all times because why? We are part of the YouTube generation? Yeah not buying it so much...

Im always impressed by the actors (specifically children) that 
the Paranormal Activity series finds. They make everything
very believable. Kudos to them!

Children are straight up creepy.
Thank god I dont work PASSCamp anymore...

By now, I have classified the three types of Paranormal Activity reactions/viewers. 1) The people who are so deathly afraid of them that they cannot see them (I am almost in this camp, but not quite). 2) The people who are deathly afraid of them, but go to see them anyway because it's fun to get scared. I am a part of this group. Personally, horror movies are not for me. I generally think that most of them are just plain weird and/or disgusting. But I make a special exception each year for Paranormal Activity because they are just so much damn fun. 3) The people who go to the theater and laugh to try and act tough. YO, BROS! You aren't fooling anyone. Everyone knows that you are the group that dashes from room to room in your dark house later that night because you are so scared...I mean...er...yeah okay...I totally do that too. The point is that by now, you should know which camp you lie in and Paranormal Activity 4 is going to do nothing to change that. As for me? I'll be back next year for sure. 

*And I must go off on a short tangent here, so my apologies. In my theater there were children behind me. 8-10 years old max and constantly talking and dickin around. PARENTS...STOP BEING IDIOTS. While these movies aren't very gory, they are terrifying. I know at that age, had I seen one of these movies, I would have never been the same kid...it is just too much. So seriously, let's take some responsibility for our children and hire a freakin babysitter. Blows my mind...And secondly, if you are in the group of "tough guys" that likes to laugh and joke around the entire movie? Just don't go. It's a much more intense and fun experience when dipshits such as yourselves aren't trying to act macho to impress the underage girls behind you. We all know you're scared, so just sit down, shut up, and scream like the rest of us./end rant*

This would be one of those scenes where the phrase:
"What the f**k!" was used repeatedly...

So the real question is, how does PA4 compare to the other entries? To be honest...not very well. This one is actually the funniest, with the boyfriend of the girl making some hilarious jokes and one-liners. But as far as build-up scares, I think this one is the weakest of the bunch. Either that, or I'm starting to be able to predict Paranormal Activity movies pretty well. For me personally, last year's Paranormal Activity 3 was by far the scariest (it earned a Rath's Review Score of 9.5/10) and it was easily the most terrifying movie I have ever seen. I don't remember 100%, but I might have actually cried in that one. Haha, just kidding...but seriously...s**t got out of hand. As for Paranormal Activity 4, it only has a few scenes/tricks that match up with the series' highlight. First and foremost, the Xbox Kinect scenes are genius. Sheer brilliance. Apparently, the Kinect emits hundreds of tracking dots at all times, which it uses to track your body in the videogames. They are invisible until you turn off all the lights and get a camera with nightvision. All I'll say is that there are a few times when there are dots moving with nothing there...absolutely terrifying. Secondly, the last 5 minutes features some of the scariest moments across the entire series and honestly probably earned it an entire extra point from me. There is a particular scene (and dont worry I wont spoil it) that features the single scariest image I have probably seen in almost any movie. It is that scene that is the reason I slept like crap last night, 100%.

A Kinect scene: notice anything that shouldn't be there?

For me personally, there are no experiences at the movies quite like the Paranormal Activity films. They take everything that I was scared of as a kid (an empty and dark house) and make it seem all too real. I absolutely love them just because they are so effective. Unfortunately, the 4th iteration seems to be one of the weakest, and possibly an indicator that the series is getting stale. But regardless, it still packs in the scares more so than many other movies in this genre. 

Just remember to pack an extra pair of underwear. 

Pros:

• The acting is believable. I always am amazed that they aren't cheesy, but congrats to Paranormal Activity to finding a great set of, particularly children, actors again
• Despite the lack of scares when compared to the last two, this one is probably the funniest. I appreciated it as it helped to calm my nerves and loosen my grip on the armrests
• The Xbox Kinect scenes are genius. No other way to put it. And they way that they take advantage of it is perfect
• The final 5 minutes are on the same level as PA3 in terms of sheer terror. Also, that one scene is still haunting me

Cons:

• Lacks the amount of build-up scares that the last couple movies perfected so well
• There is a sense that the series is ever so slightly beginning to age. Next year needs to introduce some large degree of originality...GoPro cameras anybody?
• This one doesn't move the mythology forward hardly at all which basically means the plot synopsis comes down to: scare the audience
• The reasoning for a camera in the first 20-30 minutes is never presented. Apparently these kids just like recording everything. So lesson learned, if you record everything on tape, a demon will come an haunt your house

Rath's Review Score: 7.5/10

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