Movie Review: Paranormal Activity 4

Synopsis: It has been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter, and a suburban family witness strange events in their neighborhood when a woman and a mysterious child move in.

I'm a fan of this franchise and it's become an October tradition to get out to the theater and see these, but this is the first time it was a bit of a letdown. This is my least favorite of the 4 films so far.

There's a few things I did like better though. One is that the mood is a bit lighter and even playful at times. There are actually a few laughs here even, something that's missing in the others. I think it's necessary to have a few lighter moments to ease tension. I also quite like the teen couple and their chemistry together. They weren't annoying, which is shocking when talking about teens, and the young teen girl (Kathryn Newton) is a doll. I also enjoyed a bit they do with infra-red tracking dots on a Kinect that is pretty cool. Also a lot of the story is told via webcam chats, and it just felt sort of real. Plus when they're directly in front of the webcam, you can't see behind them... and this plays into it a couple of times.

But, overall it's just a bit too slow and boring for my tastes. There really aren't many scares at all here. There's not a whole lot of violence either, and it comes in short bursts. Of the 90 minutes, it's like watching about 70 minutes of video surveillance footage and web chats. Yes, really exciting. Sure the other films are a bit like this also, but there's a decent scare and some tension at least more often.

And it seems like with all the telling footage they record that somebody would look at it. Some of the things they capture on film way before the big finale are irrefutable evidence of something wild going on, but they never bother to check it. They were recording it for this very reason even. There's a wild scene in the garage that is recorded, and would send anybody to an exorcist or have them call the cops or something at least, but it's just sort of passed over after it happens.

Overall I didn't actually hate it, but it's my least favorite of the 4, a bit boring and just not that good, despite the pluses I mentioned above.

5/10

Paranormal Activity review
Paranormal Activity 2 review
Paranormal Activity 3 review