Paranormal Activity 3

My criticisms of the Paranormal Activity series seem more closely tied together than any series I've previously reviewed. The fundamental problem from the first film, “who the hell chooses this format in the real world?” remains valid. However, I feel that Paranormal Activity 3 has the opposite problem from the second installment. While 2 made no sense from an in-Universe perspective, this film can pass the in-Universe test, while making no sense from a meta perspective.

This movie is a prequel, showing us footage from Katie and Kristi's (Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown) childhood, taken by their stepfather, Dennis (Chris Smith). I can understand how footage from decades ago might have taken longer for the documentarians to uncover, explaining why this is presented to us as a separate work (hell, with the cult at work I imagine his exploits getting the film could be a film in and of itself, since they're implied to have stolen these tapes in a brief scene of the future at the beginning). In-Universe this is the result of a continuing investigation.

However, for the audience in the real world, I'm not sure what this movie is supposed to bring to the table. We see that Katie and Kristi were haunted as children, which we were told in the previous films. The big reveal is that their Grandmother (Hallie Lois) made a deal with a demon...which is also exactly what the last film presented us with. In-universe this makes sense. The characters were speculating when we were first told this, and if I was watching a documentary on a real haunting I would want more proof than some girl Googling it on the Internet. This film gives us that visual confirmation that she was correct.

However we, the audience, have a much lower burden of proof. We have no reason to assume a fictional character was wrong, and would typically assume that the filmmaker would not present us with incorrect information unless it was to later be corrected. So, if we're going to have a prequel, I expect to find out that there were major details we were not privy to. Instead, we get a recounting of what we already know, given to us very slowly. Katie and Kristi live with their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner), and the aforementioned stepfather. The parents are interrupted from making a sex-tap by an Earthquake, and reviewing the footage Dennis finds that the dust in the room is acting unusually, and decides to begin filming everything in the house.

I will give the movie props for at least acknowledging how expensive that many VHS tapes would have been in 1988. Grandma Lois complains about it to Julie about Dennis using her money to buy them. Obviously she has ulterior motives, but her attempts to get rid of Dennis by painting him as irresponsible don't come across as unreasonable.

On the other hand, Dennis is easily the most likable person in this series to date. For the most part, he doesn't do a single thing that he doesn't think will help his family (and never curses anyone, either). While he tries to humor Kristi as she talks to her “imaginary friend Toby,” Dennis shows increasing concern as the paranormal occurrences begin to mount. Kristi seem legitimately afraid of being in “trouble” with Toby, a symbol Dennis is able to tie to demonology appears in the girls' closet, and a babysitter (Johanna Braddy) quits in fear.

Dennis does share some similarities to Micah, and at times seem excited by the haunting. However, he never provokes the demon, or treats his stepdaughters as anything short of his top priority. When Toby is walking through his kitchen in a sheet, he's thrilled. When his friend Randy (Dustin Ingram) encounters a much less friendly Toby, scratching and throwing furniture, Dennis becomes Cassandra, trying to convince Julie that the girls aren't safe.

If this film does add something on the technical front, it's the use of a moving camera Dennis hooks up downstairs. It has the advantage of giving us a larger space to cover whenever we see its perspective, while also cutting away from the action and then returning to it again and again. During these scenes it's much harder to predict where the scare will come from, or even if it will be onscreen.

The ending of the movie is probably the only other clever thing in it. As it turns out, all the mysterious happenings actually served a function, unlike the previous films where Toby just messed around until he decided to possess someone. Toby wanted to drive them out of their house, so they would go to live with Grandma Lois. Once there, we get a series of scares, that ends with Toby killing both Julie and Dennis, leaving Lois free to raise the girls as she wants. Granted they would have gone to her if Toby killed the parents at home anyway, but it's something to add to the mythos.

...oh, and Kristi married Toby as a child. Not sure how the curse is any worse because it involved a marriage ceremony. I seriously doubt Toby consummated it, but maybe I'm just naïve. I'm actually somewhat curious if the marriage was transferred to Katie with the curse. And does this mean the second film was really about domestic abuse?

The movie would actually be far more entertaining if you haven't seen the first two films. For the most part it's competent, and the scares don't come quite as slowly as the previous installments. It's something of a transition point between the boring subtlety of the first film, and the sensationalism that Ghost Dimension will eventually become.