Paranormal Activity Series

Paranormal Activity 1, 2 and 3

I really enjoy a good spooky supernatural thriller. Not so much slasher flicks. You know, the way I look at it is, if I wanted to see a slasher flick I would just watch the news. So when a good movie comes along that looks like it will scare the hell out of someone and it involves the supernatural, sign me up. So many of these movies are disappointing, if it doesn’t make your heart rate go up a little, make you suck in your breath or want to watch through your fingers then it’s a waste of money. That’s what I like about the Paranormal franchise. They scare you without buckets of blood spraying all over the screen. Most people who want to see these films probably already have, so I’m not going to worry too much about spoilers.

Paranormal Activity (the original) – This movie was really good. You were relaxed, watching a movie and thinking when was something going to happen? This movie isn’t scary, you might even say it’s boring. And then, the ominous hum starts, and all of a sudden, BAM! The next thought (and I’ll paraphrase here for our more sensitive readers) is holy guacamole, did that just happen? The happenings build into a crescendo, each one seeming to escalate for the big finale. Let me say this though, that dumbass Micah got what he deserved. That may seem harsh, but what kind of idiot watches a video of a Ouija board moving by itself when no one is home and then bursting into flames with the only being said is “cool”? I would be running out of the house like my hair was on fire, there would be nothing left of me except a vapor trail. When I was a safe distance away, I would call my girlfriend and say dang girl, you better call an exorcist, because you’re haunted. I guess the movie would have been too short that way. Good special effects and fun to watch.

Paranormal Activity 2 – How could they make a sequel? Everyone is dead or possessed from the first movie. Oh, it’s a prequel. I went into this movie, thinking it was going to suck. I know, your question is then why would I pay money to go see it. As I pointed out in my profile, I even like movies that suck. Okay, back to the movie. Wow! This one was even better than the original. Same ominous hum right before something was going to happen, so the audience knew when to start tensing up. This is an ingenious way of increasing the “jump factor” when something happens on screen. At least this go-round, the characters seem to be freaked out by the things happening around the house. Even if they are too stupid get out when the things that go bump in the night start bumping the crap out of everything. When the feces hits the rotary oscillator, the man of the house doesn’t say “cool”, he says s#*t, let’s make a plan to get rid of this thing. It appears to have worked but then the prequel portion of this movie ends and the sequel takes over for the last couple of minutes. I was really impressed with the writers on this film. The way they tied the previous movie into the “prequel”, I always look for things that don’t match up and I don’t think there were any inconsistencies between the two movies. Of the two movies, I actually liked the second one better. The special effects were better and I even felt the story line was better.

Paranormal Activity 3 – Okay the prequel thing might be getting out of hand. This time they are going back to when the sisters were little girls. I didn’t really care for this movie. The special effects were first rate as you would expect from this franchise. Even though, the writers are having to get more creative with the “happenings” (because, let’s face it, there’s only so many ways you can imaginatively have things move by themselves. The story raised more questions than it answered. At least for me. One thing though, for those parents that have little kids with imaginary friends, if you haven’t seen this movie…don’t. It might just scare the bejeezus out of you. This movie was supposed to explain why they were being haunted and for awhile it looked like it was going to. Then the ending took a huge twist which served to leave it open for a sequel instead of answering questions. Now would that be a prequel-sequel or a sequel-prequel? To me the ending was a cop-out. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait for Halloween, which rumor has it, the 4^th installment will be released.