This film is generally seen as the
point at which the franchise hit rock bottom. I actually disagree
with this assessment. In fact, I consider these two final films to
be a major uptick in enjoyability. Ironically, the salvation of this
film was the embracing of old-school horror cliches. The cast is now
made up of a group of teenagers who are doomed not because of a
curse, but because they are idiots. This gives the film a sense of
direction and energy that's lacking in the other Paranormal
Activities, where you just wait for Toby to finish the
protagonists off.
This is one of those movies that has a
real sense of multiple scripts being melded together. However,
unlike most such cases, I'm unsure which was the “original” idea.
On the one hand, there seems to be an implication that the
protagonists were targeted by demons because they investigated the
activities of the Cult. However, later in the film we're given some
information that suggests one of the main characters was always a
target of the Cult. My best guess for a reconciliation is that he'd
fallen off their radar, and had the bad luck of putting himself back
on it.
That's not a huge weakness, though.
There's enough stupid teenaged antics in this film to keep me
moderately amused for the run time, so I can put up with a bit of
plot incoherence. Furthermore, I don't think the acting is
especially bad.
I'd say the opportunity to mostly
cast-off the other films for this entry was a huge benefit. For
anyone unaware, The Ghost Dimension is considered the official
fifth entry, with Marked Ones
regarded as a spin-off. The entire reason this movie exists,
unofficially, is demographics. The numbers said the franchise was
popular among Hispanics, so a film with a mostly Hispanic cast was
commissioned.
The movie starts with two recent High
School graduates named Jesse and Hector (Andrew Jacobs and Jorge
Diaz), who begin filming everything in their lives out of apparent
boredom. When a neighbor (Gloria Sandoval) starts making strange
noises, they attempt to peer through her vents, and see her and an
attractive younger woman, taking part in a nude occult ritual. When
the neighbor is murdered, the two friends investigate her apartment,
because why not. They find an altar, VHS tapes, and a book of
spells. Also, a boy named Oscar (Carlos Pratts) runs out of the
apartment, apparently returning to the scene of a murder we later
find out he committed.
So, the two would-be investigators
perform an occult ritual with their friend Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh).
What this has to do with finding the murderer I have no idea.
Afterward, Jesse begins to develop psychic powers, and this is where
the movie really starts to pick up. We pretty much know that Jesse
is possessed, and that things will eventually go downhill, but for a
while our protagonists have their fun. In fact, some scenes actually
seem like the kind of thing you'd expect would-be magicians posing as
psychics to post on YouTube (a point acknowledged when they read
their comments). They get a game of Simon
to answer Yes or No questions, and Jesse can momentarily levitate.
However, as is
usually the case with supernatural powers in horror movies, Jesse
begins to grow more violent and cruel with his powers. At first he
just uses them to fight off a pair of muggers. By the end, he's
torturing a dog with levitation just because he can.
We
eventually find out that Oscar was possessed like Jesse, and was
living under the apartment complex, where there's another altar
covered in pictures of various people. We see Jesse's mother in a
picture with a much younger version of their murdered neighbor,
indicating that she was a member of the Cult. Also, Ali (Molly
Ephraim) from the second film reappears, to explain to Hector and
Marisol that the Cult marks unborn children for later possession.
She tells them that if the Cult can perform a final ritual, Jesse's
original personality will be completely erased. That officially
makes this film the only case in the history of this franchise where
the protagonists actually knew what the villains were up to before
the final moments. In fact, this movie probably gives us more
knowledge of the Cult than any of the “Official” five.
As is
to be expected, Jesse's Catholic mother (Renee
Victor) attempts to exorcize her son. The wise, devout Hispanic
woman was a cliché already done in the second film, but here it
bothers me a bit less because the entire cast is Hispanic, so there
are less unfortunate implications. Of course the ritual fails, Jesse
blows up the living room and then attempts to kill his mother the
next day, before fleeing to join the cult.
The
ending is unquestionably stupid, but amusingly so to me. The site of
the ritual turns out to be Lois' house from the previous films. Not
only is Jesse permanently possessed, but he chases Hector through a
time portal to 2006, where he encounters Katie and Micah (Katie
Featherston and Micah Sloat) on the night of her possession. As it
turns out, the noises in the kitchen at the end of the original film
were Hector! That certainly needed an explanation!
Yes,
the movie is dumb. However, I still find myself recommending it.
There was no need for the final link to the first film, especially
when Ali was already there to provide continuity, and the time travel
angle is the final deathblow to subtlety in this series. Of course,
it will continue into the next movie. However, it's fun, and the
actors sell the material in a cheesy way. Plus, the connections are
tenuous enough to make the movie stand on it's own. Honestly, I'd
like to see some more spin-off films in this style.
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