Movie Review: Paranormal Activity 3

Synopsis: In 1988, younger sister Katie befriends an invisible entity who resides in her room she shares with sister Kristi as a skeptical Mom and her boyfriend, who happens to be a videographer, try to figure out what's going on.

I guess the first question is if you've seen the first 2 movies of this franchise, why do you need to see the 3rd? Well, it's a prequel and delves into the past of the girls and tells a bit of the why things happen to Katie and also how it all began. Plus, if you liked being on the edge of your seat and then jumping out of it in the first 2, this one ups the ante a bit in my opinion.

From the very first moments there's just a heavy sense of dread. There's no soundtrack so when they show a scene of the kids in their room sleeping the middle of the night, it's just effectively creepy waiting on something to happen. My stomach was literally tight at the end of the film as I was driving home from tensing up. I'm serious.

And there are some great scares here. Spooky stuff at the beginning builds and builds until finally all hell breaks loose. It's just so damn tense that I was actually scared of a Teddy Ruxpin at one point. And maybe the biggest shock of the movie was totally un-supernatural but merely a prank. And I almost peed my pants. There's a camera panning a room this time, and every time it went from one side to the other I expected something to be in the frame when it returned. I'm scanning the entire screen the whole time waiting to freak.

Something else I liked in this one was that it had a little humor here and there. I also think it helps that the main characters in this one are all very likable. The family in the home and 2 "baby sitters" are all very cool and I feared for them as well as rooted for them.

I like these films and think they're a whole lot of good creepy fun. If you didn't like the first 2, save your money. If you did like the first 2, rush out and see this. I honestly think it's the best of the franchise.

8/10