On Thursday me and my friends went to see the new Paranormal Activity film. Despite being a favourite film series of mine and the cinema being packed, I didn't have high hopes for it. I thought the first and second films were excellent - it was new and different and I absolutely loved the idea behind it. I really loved how simple and realistic the story line was to begin with - it was just a film about a simple haunting taking place in the house. Although I still felt the story line was strong, I felt that by the third film it wasn't so new and genuine - the scares weren't as jumpy as people knew what to expect. I really only went to see the fourth one to see how they would finish up the story line but was disappointed to learn that nothing much was cleared up, which means there will be another one.
Paranormal Activity 4 was good - it still had its scary parts and the story line was still strong and really reeled you in. I didn't think it was as scary as the others though and felt it was much less jumpy - I didn't really feel the directors manage to achieve the build up and the anticipation like it had been built up in the other films. Paranormal Activity 4 was directed by the same people who also directed Paranormal Activity 3 (but not the first two) which makes more sense!
However the film wasn't bad. I thought it was still scary and as always, the story line was really smart. There were a couple of parts that freaked me out and genuinely made me gasp out loud in shock, which in my eyes is a sure sign of a horror film doing it's job right. I just think that perhaps it would have been a bit better as a stand alone film as I didn't feel it did the rest of the series justice.
I thought that Kathryn Newton who played the main character of Alex was a really good actress, especially considering the fact that she was only 15! I thought she grasped the concept of being scared really well (who am I kidding, I don't know the first thing about acting but lets just say she was a good actress!) and Matt Shively who played Ben was really good too. I loved Ben's character, he was really sweet and funny!
I also kind of really liked the use of webcams and video phones in this film, I thought it was a new and interesting take on the film and thought it was a nice nod to modern technology. Being that this film was mainly based around a teenage girl experiencing all the weird going ons, it made it more believable. I thought this built up the fear a bit too because at times when she was sitting on webcam chatting to Ben at night, you were forever expecting something to appear or jump up behind her.
I would recommend this film if you are a fan of the others and you want to see how the story line develops - but if you're expecting for this film to round up the series and answer your questions then I'd give it a miss and look up the story line online. If you are a big fan of the other films you may end up disappointed by it but, as I said before, there are still some really smart and genuinely spooky/disturbing parts.
A few people I spoke to have said that they actually think that out of all four films, this was the scariest one in the series, so I guess it depends! I'd suggest seeing it nonetheless as there have definitely been worst films.
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