I’m a few days late, Halloween has already gone by but hopefully people have watched some of these films over the holiday. I think its a good time to go through one of the most successful horror franchises and see if they were able to keep the momentum going from the first hit film. Overall there are five films in the main franchise and one spin off (‘The Marked Ones’) The Paranormal Activity films are known for being low budget, high profit films, I will be starting with the worst and the finishing with the best, including a mini-review of each film and an explanation of why it is at that point in the list. I will also not be including the Japanese spin off.

This is just my opinion, feel free to argue it in the comments below.

#6 = Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

The Paranormal Activity films are known for their psychological moments where nothing happens but it’s feels like there is a presence which could do something in that moment, this provides the main tension for the film as you are always on edge waiting for this demon to do something. However, this film decides that it does not want to follow this formula which made the previous films so scary and instead show us what Toby looks like so we can have the film be in 3D. This just ruins the entire film, how can I be scared for the one of the character walking down the stairs, for example, if I can see that Toby is in the other room watching some little girl sleep. Along with this the film just produces carbon copies of the characters we have seen in the previous films, you have the mum who doesn’t believe anything, the dad who’s idea it is to film, a creepy kid, some kind of friend of the family and a family member like an Aunt or an Uncle. Do they not think that after five fucking films that we would not be able to notice these characters and subsequently not give a shit about them. It tries too hard to be like the other films yet it forgets what made them so good. You may be thinking that you could applause this film for trying something different by showing us Toby, but that’s just not true, unlike The Marked Ones in which it does something completely different this just follows the exact same structure as all the other films. Something spooky is caught on camera so they decide to creepily film their family members sleeping to try and catch this ghost, they catch some things and get all spooked out, they call in someone to try and stop it which does not work they run away, trip over and drop the camera and then everyone dies. It’s so predictable that by the end of this film it had given me a headache, i just wanted to turn it off and go to sleep.

#5 = Paranormal Activity 2

Paranormal Activity 2 is a prequel to the original film, it is set 60 days before the death of Micah, a character in the first film. It also goes past the events of Paranormal Activity nearer the end. The film follows Katie’s sister’s family as they move into their new house to accommodate for the baby which has just been born. The house is broken into yet nothing is stolen, this freaks them out so they install security cameras around the house. This provides the main recordings for what happens at night, during the day things are captured by a video camera they are using to record the first couple years of their sons life. (which gives Micah the idea to buy his camera which is seen in the first film) This film involves a baby and a dog this time adding an extra edge of suspense to the paranormal happenings. They eventually find out they are being haunted and the same concept of the first film starts again. For those looking for innovation in this film you will not find it, pretty much everything which you see in the last film happens again. For example a woman gets dragged by her foot, doors opening and things moving. I am not saying that this does not make it just a scary but there is nothing new. The dad in this film is the worst character, he makes up the shittest excuses for the strange things which are happening, the pool cleaner comes out of the pool by itself and he says something like ‘Oh it’s fine it just trying to clean the patio as well.’ Later on he starts to believe but it’s so sudden of a change, he does not slowly change his mind he just suddenly believes it. This is a recurring theme throughout the entire movie, people keep changing their mind on whether they believe it or not. For example the mother freaks out thinking that it is ghosts yet when her daughter tells her that she has had an encounter with one, she just does not seem to believe her. One of the best scenes in this entire film is the one in which all of the cabinets suddenly explode all at once. It’s so unexpected and incredibly well done, she sits down to read her newspaper, the camera stays still and there is no sound. This builds up the tension as you know with these types of films that when there is a long duration of silence that something is going to happen. Then all of sudden the cabinets fly open making the loudest sound. I have to say that I enjoyed it more when it was happening on the CCTV as you could clearly see what was happening compared to when the person holding the camera was filming as they would shake it so much that you could not focus on what was going on. This is at its worst near the end of film when the person holding it is fighting the demon, I had no idea what was happening in this part and it really took me out of the atmosphere of the film. This is also a very important scene in the film that causes a huge change in the plot so when this change came I had no idea what had happened to cause this. If there was one thing that I had a gripe about with this film, its the acting, its OK in some parts but most of the time it is awful. Especially in this one it sounds like they are making it up on the spot with the amount of times that they umm, ahh and mess up their words. Something that I really enjoyed in the first film which did not carry onto this film was how they made it seem like it was actually found footage. For example they did not include credits and the names of the characters matched up with the names of the actors playing them also they did not include credits at the end. In this one they got rid of all of that, the names didn’t match the actors which is not the worst thing in the world but it kind of ruined the mystique for me when I looked up the cast. Also there are credits at the end of the film, I don’t know if this is because of the new director or because the bigger budget payed for people who wanted to be credited in the film. Speaking of the budget this had £1 million to play with, I assume that a lot of this money went on the extra amount of actors and special effects however, I am glad that it was still able to keep its simple, home-made charm which gives the film a unique atmosphere. The reason I am putting Paranormal Activity 2 at Number 5 is because it tried to copy all of what happened in the first film without having the same effect as you could see all over the house. It did have the flashy special effects of #3 and it did not have the same atmosphere as #1

#4 = Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

The fifth entry into the Paranormal Activity films is a spin-off which does not focus on anybody with a relation to Katie and her family. Instead it focus on a Latino family who witness something weird going on in the flat below them, Jesse gets bitten and starts to be followed by something which he first assumes to be a guardian angel. However, when communicating with it through the Simon game he comes to find out that it is not his guardian angel and that it is infact a demon which possess him. There are some cool scenes in the beginning of this film when the demon stops him from falling over so he just levitates in the air and when it allows him to skate down a rail without falling over. This is the last we really see of these powers though which I found a bit disappointing as that part of the film was what I enjoyed the most. I applaud this film for taking the paranormal activity world and trying something different with it, yes it is still found footage but we don’t have the camera set up in the corner of the room seeing what is happening around the characters whilst they are escape gimmick. This time we follow the characters as they are holding the camera, which does bring up the question of whether they would really be still filming if this was actually happening to them. The ending of this film really let it down for me, I thought it was going quite well until there was an unneeded connection to the first film which ruined what made the first film so good. When Katie goes running down the stairs, you don’t see what makes her start screaming for Micah so loudly, but now we do know and it’s not as scary as I imagined it to be.

#3 = Paranormal Activity 4:

Paranormal Activity 4 takes place 5 years after the second film, Katie has taken Hunter and now they have moved in across the street. Katie has to go to the hospital so the family across the street agree to take Hunter in for a few days. This is when strange things start to happen. The daughter, Alex, and her love interest Ben start filming random things around the house for literally no particular reason when they capture some spooky things going on around they decide to literally spy on their family by recording all of the webcams, they check what they have recorded maybe once or twice in the entire movie, apart from that the footage goes unchecked which makes you wonder why they even bothered recording it in the first place. Again we have the people who don’t seem to believe what is going on, once again being the parents. What is it with parents in this series not believing what the children say is going on, they have the evidence on the computer but Alex decides to not show this to her parents and then get mad when they don’t believe her. The problem I have with these film is that it tries to hard to be flashy with their special effects like Paranormal Activity 3, one scene in particular that tries to do this which does not makes sense is when she is lifted up from her bed after taking her sleeping pills. The next morning she is back on her bed, she doesn’t realize that this has happened by checking the tapes and it is never brought up again. It also tries to be really psychological like Paranormal Activity, however that does not work as there are cameras showing the downstairs so it leaves nothing to a mystery. Again at the end of this film they find something out about what is going on and then they get killed, it is getting quite annoying at this point. Either tell us what is going on or stop hinting at it. The twist in this film does not really work, why did they only start haunting at that point, why not before this. How would he be able to be put up for adoption, I don’t remember her taking his birth certificate before hand. Also if he is OK why on earth did she put him up for adoption in the first place. I put this at #3 because I enjoyed it way more than the films that came before this in the list, however I thought that it tried to much to be like the #3 and #1 without having the same effect.

#2 = Paranormal Activity 3:

I went into this film not expecting much as I was told that the films get worse as they go along, however I found this one to much more enjoyable. For the most part it relied on jump-scares to scare the audience, however I was OK with this as it still had the psychological tension which I enjoyed in the first film. The little children were creepier than the dog and baby before, I feel like this is because they can actually speak and have a basic knowledge for how to act normally so seeing them doing something like speak to the air or sneak around is way more creepy then if a dog or baby would do it. A dog speaking would probably me creepier but you know what I mean. If I was to recommend how you should approach this film after watching the first two it’s don’t expect the same atmosphere as you did in the first and don’t expect the same-old things that you see in the second one. This film is much more creative in how it uses the demon and what it can do. An example that stands out to me is the Bloody Mary scene, in which one the children and their babysitter go into a room and chant Bloody Mary three times into the mirror, this causes the ghost to get angry and start destroying their room, this combined with Emily screaming so loud provides so much tension for the scene. Another scene which I thought was really creative was when the camera pans away, then pans back and everything is missing. It stays still for a couple of seconds and then it all comes crashing down. There has always go to be someone who disagrees making up bullshit reasons why this could not possibly be a Demon when all logic points to that, this is a pivotal scene as it convinces the mother of what happens and causes them to leave and go to the grandmas house where things get even worse. I didn’t particularly like the ending as it is really confusing, like why are all the old people doing in the garage? Where was the grandma in the first two films? These questions are / are not answered in the fourth film and the grandma does / does not reappear leaving us to wonder why she was included in this film at all. This goes at number two as I enjoyed it way more than all the other films but the ending kind of ruined it, however not as much as the shaking camera scene did in #2. However the number one spot has to go to:

#1 = Paranormal Activity:

You can’t beat the original, everything is new and you do not know what you are getting yourself into. This includes the first time you see things falling over, moving and most importantly someone getting dragged by their leg. This does not have the added creepy extras of children or dogs however what is does have is a simplicity which can not be matched by the sequels. There is only one camera in this film meaning there are basically no jump scares, it’s all psychological you never know what it has happening, especially when Katie runs down the stairs and you can’t see anything. If Micah had run down the stairs shaking the camera like in Paranormal Activity 2 where you can’t see anything it would have ruined the atmosphere of the moment. The film follows a couple as they move into their new house, they become increasingly disturbed by a supernatural presence, so Micah decides to get a camera and start filming to try and capture these events. The entire movie is seem through Micah’s camera, we only see the things that the characters see. That is until the night when they set it up so they can see if anything happens during the night. The male character suffers from a major problem which is seen many horror movies, he’s dumb. Why would you anger the demon that lives in your house, he does not listen to the exorcist that visits them who tells him not do anything to piss him off, he also buys a Ouija board when his wife specifically says not to, then she still lets him film. He is really confident and he makes it much worse for her, in doing this the demon comes after both of them instead of just her. The way the camera is set up creates so much tension as you can see out the door all around the hallway and someway down the stairs. For the first few nights nothing that bad happens but as the film continues on stranger and stranger things keep on happening. The thing that made me truly appreciate this film is how you never actually see anything gory or spooky, all you see is the effect that this demon has on them, for example the door moving or the covers of the bed being pushed aside. This creates so much tension for the long lingering shots of them sleeping as you know something is coming but you don’t know when. Another thing I loved about this film is how they made you believe that it is real, I was watching this with my sister and her boyfriend and he believed that it was real for the most part. One way they do this is by not having any credits, thus showing that no one worked on the film, it was all found footage. If they had put the directors name on it we would have known it was fake and it would not have the given off the same feeling of dread at the end when you know she’s still out there.

Personally I feel like this series could have ended with three films, it would have been a Halloween tradition to watch all three. You have the great one, the not so good and then the flashy, good final film. Instead we got 3 more films that were not necessary which get worse and more boring as it goes along.

That’s my list, do you agree or is there something you would change? Comment below. Like this post if you enjoyed it and subscribe to my blog for more posts like this.

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