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Paranormal Activity Retrospectiv3

Paranormal Activity quickly overtook the likes of Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield to be the best known, and most popular, "found footage" film, and has spawned two sequels, which have managed to expand the original story. Our very own Wayfarer takes a hard look at the franchise...

With social networks continually being embedded into marketing campaigns, the opportunity for horror fans to bitch about new studio movies is easier than ever. Let’s face it, horror fans don’t tend to like new ideas. So when the first Paranormal Activity came along, the flood gates opened and a polarised view was given by horror fans and non-horror fans alike.

It has to be said that I do like the “found footage” genre when produced properly. My favourite movies of this type are REC, REC2, and more recently, Trollhunter. What I didn’t expect was a new franchise to be created of anemic occult horrors that rely mainly on simple jump scares. Fans of the PA films will defend them by saying that there is a build-up of creeping dread. I can understand the defence but feel that they’re movies for people who aren’t a fan of horror movies. However, I’ve reappraised them after enjoying the third installment’s mythology. I think that there’s mileage in these as long as the filmmakers care about progressing the series and not just producing cheap, now formulaic cookie cutter spooky movies. I want them to take risks with the franchise.

When PA2 was announced I wasn’t surprised but assumed that they’d go with an entirely different group of people. This wasn’t the case, the movie was a prequel/sequel involving Katie’s step-sister Kristi and her family, and how they were involved. Whereas PA1 was more an independent production and featured unknown actors, PA2 starred Sprague Hayden, whose acting credits included the TV shows Jericho and 24. For me, this gave the second a bit more credibility. For this film, the idea was that the Rey family had CCTV cameras dotted around their house because of a suspected break-in (the paranormal activity of the title) that had seriously upset the young parents. The array of cameras provides the audience’s window into what is haunting the Rey family.

Once again, the cameras tend to focus on the mundane and uninteresting, but there is more of story unfolding in this movie. If you remember the viral emails that asked you to watch a piece of innocuous footage (say, a person windsurfing) and then have a ghostly face pop up with a loud scream issuing through your PC speakers then you know what to expect. One such scene has Kristi alone in her kitchen as all the kitchen cupboard doors burst open. I defy anyone not to jump at this crafted scare. It achieves what it sets out to do. It’s like a fairground ride as opposed to a horror movie though.

What worked for me in PA2 was the link between films. The story goes back to before the events in PA1, so we see Katie visit her sister, with Micah (not nearly as irritating as when events focused on them in the first). We find out as the film progresses that the demonic activity has been pushed on to Katie by her step-sister Kristi! At one point, Katie is visiting Kristi during the events of the first film. This twist makes the series a little more interesting but it’s still restricted by the fact it is found footage rather than the standard cinematic convention of storytelling. It may be the case that viewers find the movies scarier because they buy into the faux-reality of it. Had they been straight forward movies employing standard story telling, would they be as scary? I like to think that if a movie is well done, it should be.

PA2 ended with a an impressive further twist as we pick events up after the original movie and Katie (demonically possessed) visits to carry out her revenge for being fobbed off by the Reys. This would appear to close the book on the series. Maybe, had the sequel made nothing at the box office it would have ceased the potential franchise but it cost an estimated $3,0000 and made around $177, 000. It was a no-brainer, another had to be made.

So, PA3 was announced, much to my disinterest. I couldn’t see how much more they could get out of this. This time, the story was to be a further prequel, this time focusing on the sisters Kristi and Katie as young girls. The year was to be 1988, so how would cameras form a part of the storytelling. It transpires that Julie, the sister’s mother, lives with Dennis who films weddings and similar celebrations. They move into a new house, only to find a few odd things happening. Dennis gets interested enough to set up a couple of cameras to document the happenings. The movie starts at the beginning of the second movie when the couple discover that their home has been ransacked with only one piece of jewellery missing. It now transpires that a box of VHS tapes also went missing.

Ok, so I’m still not overly impressed by this series of films but there were some aspects of PA3 that I liked and this led me to watch PA2 again. Like PA2, the characters are far more interesting than Katie and Micah, in PA1. Julie and Dennis come across as a likeable couple. I could have done without the direct rip-off of Poltergeist though, as Julie tokes on a joint on camera but otherwise I can’t complain too much. Both Chloe Cesengery and Jessica Tyler Brown do a good job of playing the younger incarnations of the sisters. I particularly liked the character of Randy, played by Dustin Ingram. Randy is Dennis’ slacker assistant who takes an interest in his employer’s sudden obsession with filming his family 24-7. He is a well rounded character and provides both comic relief and some of the horror. The scene where he is trapped with Kristi in the closet is genuinely chilling.

The restrictions of the filming are handled well. For the most part, PA3 is filmed by Dennis as he wanders around with the camera. The static camerawork is carried out by three cameras; one in the sister’s bedroom, one in the couple’s bedroom and another (jury-rigged onto the remains of an oscillating fan) in the kitchen, that also captures part of a living room. There is far less coverage than the CCTV set-up in PA2. The general PA format, of showing footage from the recordings bores me a little as there isn’t anything very scary to see for some time, but if you do buy into the idea that for around 70 minutes the movie builds up to the last 10-15, your patience might pay off. This is what frustrates me about the franchise the most; it could be made to be exceptionally scary. It’s not like the film was a PG-13, it got an R for language. (Randy’s outburst at seeing the spooky goings on is genuinely funny). PA3 shows promise early on when Dennis captures what looks like a ghostly figure in the main bedroom doorway. This apparition doesn’t reappear, suggesting that it was just a trick of the light.

Another effective moment is during the babysitters stay. As PA3 hasn’t been released on home entertainment yet, I won’t spoil it. What it does do is reference my irritation as it is scenes like this, in isolation, that could be capitalised on. We get scenes where nothing is signposted, so the filmmakers could put any number of almost subliminal ghostly effects in a shot to add to the atmosphere and unnerve the audience. What is consistent through the series is the rumbling sound when a demonic intervention is about to occur. By this third one, I guess the audience recognises it as a signpost but I think the noise is effective. Remember The Evil Dead when it was first released? Some of you will. The power of the scene where Cheryl is possessed and begins to attack her friends was made all the more creepy for the rumbling sound effect in the background instead of score. White noise can be scarier than any combination of violins.

I found whilst re-watching PA2, this time on blu-ray, that the movie was more effective whilst watching on my own at night with only one light on in the living room. Whilst the cat was more scared by it (he didn’t like Hunter crying and the Alsatian barking didn’t help) I found a new appreciation as to why viewers genuinely creep out while watching it. I jumped at both the first massive thump sound and the sudden opening of cupboards in the kitchen. I also got a few goose bumps during the attack on Kristi and her rampage in the cellar towards the end. If I had been with company I doubt I’d have been able to immerse myself into it as fully. One thing it shared with the REC movies is that lack of obvious cue when a sudden shock is coming.

The plot of PA3 understandably surrounds the two sisters, but quite why the evil attacks and how it is unleashed, appears unknown. There is a red herring (in my view) with the Bloody Mary chant because the entity known as “Toby” has already manifested itself. There’s a blink and you’ll miss it scene with Dennis showing Julie a book about local occult worship that links into the ending and hints in PA2 help to flesh out the family secret.

Whilst the first 75 minutes are filled with the usual guff, the last 15 minutes are quite creepy and edge of the seat, as we come closer to discovering what all this has been about and who’s actually behind it all; something only hinted at by what appeared to be throwaway lines from Katie in PA2 when she relates her fragmented childhood memories. With a PA4 on the horizon, I wonder where they’ll take the story next and how they can keep using found footage as method of articulating a story. The end of PA3 isn’t a game changer but it expands the mythology of the series somewhat.

I have an idea on how PA4 could continue the story but it’s probably too dark for the series. By the close of PA3 we still didn’t know where Katie and Hunter had gone. Also, Ali Rey survived the second film. In a twist, PA4 could comprise of footage taken by the implied Witch’s coven, intermingled with footage from cameras owned by the next victims of the cult. Whatever the premise, I now believe it’ll be worth watching.

Wayfarer 2012

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