The title of the movie really says it all: There’s paranormal activity taking place and it’s on the big screen for the fourth time. If you plan on being on the edge of your seat for the entire movie or experiencing mostly cheap scares, that’s what you will find. Have a fun time, embrace the Halloween season and go see the movie with some friends. If you want to go see a good horror movie that leaves you guessing, chances are you will not find anything special or groundbreaking here.
The latest “Paranormal Activity” film opens by informing the audience that the series’ main villain, Katie, has gone missing again. Viewers are then introduced to a seemingly normal family. There’s Alex, a 15-year-old girl; her parents, who are on the verge of divorce; her younger brother Wyatt; and Alex’s mostly idiotic boyfriend, Ben. Alex and Ben notice that there is a strange neighborhood boy about the same age as Wyatt wandering the streets and community. Under mysterious circumstances, the strange little boy, Robbie, ends up staying at Alex’s house for a few days. From there, crazy paranormal activity ensues.
Like the other films in the series, the protagonists think the footage they catch on camera – or webcam in this entry – is interesting. The female lead feels uneasy about the footage, the male lead takes it to be “awesome.” Not only is the majority of the plot incredibly predictable, but the scares are repetitive and cheap. This movie relies on loud unexpected noises, the opening of unknown doors to see what’s behind them, and long camera shots of dark areas. Yes, these are effective scares for most viewers, but to repeat these cheap horror gimmicks over and over again ultimately shows a lack of creativity. Viewers are given the impression that whenever directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are unsure of where to go next in a scene, they insert a random loud noise.
Many lines uttered by the characters will leave you rolling your eyes. For example, after Alex avoids a fatal encounter, her mother comes on the scene, assesses the situation and says, “I would have been freaking scared.” There are many other examples that will leave you asking yourself if your ears were recently cleaned. One encounter between Alex’s mom and dad in the last third of the movie is meant to be serious and emotional, but ends up laughable. Even worse, it is never fully explained and does not fit in with the rest of the plot.
But the last five minutes of the movie display excellent found-footage horror techniques. These final scenes throw very spooky and effective scares at you one after the other until you are left with the horrifying last shot. While the method of leaving the best for last is understandable, the movie could be exponentially more terrifying if the elements of its final five minutes were present throughout the entire film.
“Paranormal Activity 4” is by no means a good movie and is laughable in its middle stages. But it reaches its intended goal by delivering cheap scares that will instinctively make anyone jump. You will certainly find nothing innovative in this movie, so don’t try to look. The bottom line is that there are other found-footage horror films that are exponentially better than this one.
The Pendulum’s rating: Two stars out of five