Paranormal Activity 3 Review

--Robert Acosta

Every year there is one horror franchise, or more, that takes over Halloween. In the 80s we had Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St and the Halloween series. The 90s were ruled by the Scream trilogy turning everything on its head. The 2000s saw the birth of Saw and more relevent, Paranormal Activity. With PA now becoming a trilogy, we can maybe talk about it a little more seriously, though I always have anyway. Shit really got serious in this one.

If you've seen the first two films, then you know the formula. The background story of a family being tormented by spiritual beings, the slow build up of scares along the way all leading up to the big climatic ending. PA3 follows that same pattern, just not to the tee and certainly a lot better than the first two films. With PA3 you get a much more rounded film with more effective scares and characters that you may enjoy and even care about.

If you've seen the first two films, you know this film is a prequel to everything seen in part 1 and 2. Little girls Katie (from part 1) and Kristi (from part 2) are living in California when it seems like all this paranormal activity began. Of course, along the way, you get bits and pieces of the story to put together with the other films, but they also open up a whole bunch of new questions and some major plot holes. For instance, how in the hell do these girls when they grow up NOT remember anything that happened when they were kids. I mean, the amount of things that were memorable in this film and they don't bring up much of anything in the other two films about the events in PA3.

Another "shady" thing was I noticed almost nothing shown in the trailers were in the movie. Now, I understand that for marketing sake, you gotta amp things up a bit but damn, I was kind of looking forward to seeing those scenes in the actual film. Maybe, the DVD will be packed with these missing scenes, I hope.

Back to the positive. I've never felt more anxious watching a movie than I did watching PA3. I'm normally really bad with these kind of films but this time around, it was almost unbearable. Some in particular scares got dragged out and while I was bracing myself the whole time, the scare wouldn't come right away. They effectively added a couple of things and of course kept the scary things from the other parts. The loud bangs, doors closing, things breaking on their own are all present. But there is much more to it this time. The step father of the two main girls sets up cameras all over the house, including setting up a camera on a swiveling fan, and that camera angle really adds a whole new set of options for scares. Great idea all around on that one.

With the horror came a little more comedy this time around. There were small bits of it in the other parts, but this one had a number of parts that are going to get a laugh out of you. Maybe out of being nervous, but whatever the case, it's a nice added element. Side characters like a baby sitter or a friend of the step father really got to show their stuff.

They say the last 15 minutes of the movie will ruin your life. I say...maybe. They certainly are the most memorable 15 minutes of the entire series and it is the creepiest part of the series. What they managed to do with that ending was great and something that will be hard to get out of my mind for a while.

Nonetheless, Paranormal Activity 3 is the best movie of the series. It won't get rated like that, but you need not worry with the rating and just read the review. PA3 puts a whole new spin on the series but it also leaves too much open, too many holes in the story. Will there be more? Only the box office knows, but I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of Paranormal Activity.

Rating: 4 out of 5