Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Popcorn Worthy? - Paranormal Activity 3


READER BEWARE: Opinions Are Expressed Below

The third installment in the Paranormal Activity series delightfully proves that this series has some serious legs. Whoa! That's a pretty bold statement about a movie that is like watching home movies from hell. Sounds boring, but that's the beauty of it.

Following along the same close lines as its predecessors, PA3 goes back in the past to explain why Katie from the first PA slowly went evil. So, what does that mean? That means we're still voyeurs on a demonic Where's Waldo hunt while watching a typical family descend first into curiosity, denial, and then terror. You'd figure that it would get old by now, but it doesn't.

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (the mad-men behind a possibly-true movie called Catfish) have injected their own brand of mayhem into the mix. The scares are much longer, more frequent, and bigger than any other PA movie. There is no single segment dedicated to just a door moving anymore. The directors know we've already seen that and crave something more. That's what they give us... more substantial visual scares. For example, a camera isn't positioned in a fixed position anymore. As it pans across the living room and into the kitchen, you know that something is going on just out of sight. The demon also gets a visual overhaul. He gets a name (Toby), the demon gets a bed sheet, the demon gets a dark shadow, and the demon gets dirty.

Now on to the issues:

>Yes, it's true that 75 percent of the footage shown in the official trailer is not featured in the movie. It's called the "editing process." It's not false advertising. It's just something that happens. I'm sure it will all show up on the DVD as an extended cut.

>Yes, this movie takes place in 1988, but is shot in HD. We already know it's not real, so why is that important? Do you really want to watch a movie in a crappy format? You'd complain about that!

>Yes, the last 15 minutes of PA3 is a complete game changer. It gives the viewer some answers, and it provides even more questions. It gives the answers the viewer wants or the answers that the viewer doesn't want. I personally liked it, but there are some who are ripping it to shreds. Oh well... it's just a movie.

3.5 Popcorn Kernels out of 5 (same as the first two, more visual scares, some answers provided, and a tense ending)



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