Day 25. Supernatural horror movies have always been the ones that affect me the most. Late at night when I’m still awake I, probably like a lot of others, have heard random noises. The “Paranormal Activity” series takes advantage of the fear of that which goes bump in the night.

Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, directors of the wild documentary “Catfish” take on “Paranormal Activity 3”. The film stars Lauren Bittner as ‘Julie’, Kristi and Katie’s mother. Christopher Nicholas Smith (who looks like a younger ‘Bababooey’, or Gary Dell’Abate the producer on the “Howard Stern” show) plays ‘Dennis’, Julie’s husband. Chloe Csengery, and Jessica Tyler Brown play the younger ‘Katie’, and ‘Kristi’. Dustin Ingram also stars as ‘Randy’, ‘Dennis’ employee.

Starting a little bit before the events of “Paranormal Activity 2” Katie, portrayed by Katie Featherston, brings her sister Kristi and her husband Daniel a box of old VHS tapes of their childhood she had found. Cut to unseen footage of the break in of Daniel and Kristi’s home from the beginning of the second movie and the box of tapes being missing. These scenes were a great throwback to the first two films. They brought back familiar characters and at the same time set up the context for the rest of the film and the lost footage. We are then shown footage of Katie’s birthday party in September of 1988. There are various shots of partygoers and we see a young Kristi talking to an imaginary person. When questioned Kristi reveals she is speaking with someone named Toby, but can’t repeat what he says or she won’t be safe. Her mother Julie blows it off, of course, thinking she’s just being a child. A few scenes later, Dennis who is a wedding videographer, hence all of the cameras and equipment, films Julie in their bedroom. She smokes a joint and he convinces her to get intimate on camera.
Aside from the homemade porn aspect. “Paranormal Activity 3” at times, gave me the feeling that “Poltergeist” had been an influence on the filmmakers. Which isn’t a bad thing because it’s one of the all time great ghost/supernatural occurrence films.

An earthquake prevents the couple from going all the way and the camera records something odd. Curious as to what is happening, Dennis sets up cameras around the house to record the eerie phenomenon. Switching things up the filmmakers decided to place a camera on an oscillating fan. The results are great with the tension rising as the camera moves back and forth. Right when you see something spooky the camera moves away. This is definitely apparent in the scenes with the babysitter. As the playbacks of the videos reveal more strange and scary things happening, Dennis decides to do some research and reads a book on the occult. He finds a symbol in a book similar to the one he had seen drawn in a certain small area, a place I would hate to be trapped, in Kristi and Katie’s room. Randy, Dennis’ friend and sole employee is let in on what is going on. There are a few terrifying scenes involving his character that I don’t want to give away. Things go from bad to worse and Toby, the invisible force, terrorizes the helpless family.

I definitely recommend “Paranormal Activity 3. It’s a must that you watch parts one and two beforehand. Part 3 follows the familiar format that the prior movies established. While the first introduced us to the demon’s power, the second answers overall lore questions. “Paranormal Activity 3” answers specific questions about the girl’s families involvement, while raising a few more. Doing good at the box office I could see a sequel is probably on the horizon for next October, but I honestly think this could be a satisfying ending to the series. Why not go out on top? Regardless of what anybody else has to say, the ending sequence was frightening to me. Not bloody or gory, this movie relies on a couple of really well placed jump scares, a slow creepy atmosphere, and some passionate filmmakers and actors who pull this off very well. I saw this in the theater and think to get the full experience you should do the same. Just a heads up, not all of the footage in the trailer is in the movie, but I personally didn’t mind that.

 

October: 31 days X 31 horror movie reviews- "Paranormal Activity 3", 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating