I loved Paranormal Activity 1. It was made on the cheap for 15, 000$ with the actors being cast on Craigslist and still managed to be hip and frightening. It was successful enough to make it off the indie circuit, into select theatres, and eventually into almost all major theatres. In the end it made over 194 million dollars world-wide and dethroned Saw as the “go to” horror movie of the year, and since then we have gotten a new Paranormal Activity every October. Paranormal Activity 2 saw a much larger budget, but it still managed to keep a sense of the originals values, although depending on who you ask some people weren’t as thrilled with it. Paranormal Activity 3 succeeds and fails at carrying the torch forward, but eventually all horror movie sequels start to run out of steam. The question is “Does Paranormal Activity 3 have enough steam to keep the franchise fresh?”. Hit the jump below to find out.
Paranormal Activity 3 starts off confusing. Even having seen the previous films I was a bit confused as to where in the Paranormal Activity timeline the intro was taking place. I think it starts off in the middle of the second movie… And the second movie was before the first movie… until the end…. because then it’s after the first movie…. Sooooooooo yea, Paranormal Activity 3 starts off in the middle of the second movie where they find some old VHS tapes and then the rest of the movie takes place in 1988.
Pretty much it is the story of the women, Katie and Kristi, from Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 when they are little girls. So it also happens to be the story of their parents as well, with the step-father, Dennis, being an all around nice guy who films weddings and their mother, Julie, being a generally nice person too. Stuff gets a little strange from the get go with Katie having an imaginary friend. Never trust little children or imaginary friends in horror movies, especially when they are in league with one another. Pretty soon after the “imaginary” friend Toby is introduced, Dennis and Julie decide to make a sex tape. Alright, now this movie is getting somewhere.
The sex tape is then interrupted by an earthquake, and the next day when Dennis is checking the footage he notices that some falling dust seems to fall onto the shoulders of… something. What could this invisible something be? Welllll, you never really get told much actually. Just know that invisible dude Toby is kinda a dick. Dennis then sets up a bunch of cameras to investigate and yadda yadda yadda, same thing as the other two lol.
That’s your basic plot for this one. There’s a ghost. He is invisible. He is a jerk. And there are witches. Oh wait? Witches? That’s new for the Paranormal Activity series. Yep. Witches. They also aren’t explained very much.
So my biggest compliment and complaint for Paranormal Activity 3 is that a bunch of things jump out at you and go BOO! It’s filled with cheap scare tactics, but they happen to be very good cheap scare tactics. You can see them coming from a mile away and the movie even tries to let you know when something is gonna pop out…. and it still scares you. Gone are the slow creeping scares from Paranormal Activity 1 and the frantic break neck scares from Paranormal Activity 2. Paranormal Activity 3 is like a haunted house, because when you are in it, you know things are going to pop out at you and they still manage to scare you, but once you leave you turn to your friends and go “Okay, that was cool I guess. You guys want to go do something else now?”.
The scares really are functional though. In a packed theatre, almost every scare resulted in fifteen or twenty girls shrieking at maximum capacity, followed by everyone laughing at how fun it is to hear other people freak the fuck out. Sometimes the movie even knows it is just being cheap with the scares, and it feels as if some of the characters are winking at you. It was fun though, but definitely missing a bit of dark charm from before.
For me though, the movie really shined when it entered new territory and brought in the concept of witches. Also halfway through the movie the setting rapidly changes and throws you into a whole new house. A much creepier house. The grandmothers house…. and who doesn’t have a grandmother with a creepy house. I know I did *shivers*.
It will feel as if you are really there during this segment. Suddenly you will be unsure of what is going on or what will be around the next corner! The build up gets tremendous! And then, Oh my god, is she….. nooo wayyyyy. So they are going to explain how this ties into the first movie right? Right? …. Right? … No? What the hell!
Seriously, the finale builds to such a crescendo and then fails to deliver proper answers to the plot. It was maddening to be honest.
Go in to Paranormal Activity 3 knowing what you are going to see. Lower your expectations and enjoy this as a fun October romp for this Halloween, but don’t expect the same story quality as the first two. There are some great (cheap) scares and some cool effects, but in the end it is more light-hearted than the first two and suffers for it.
I give Paranormal Activity 3 a 7 out of 10. In this case, a 7 for me was a fun movie that was a good way to kill an hour and a half, but ya know, don’t expect The Shining and it isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
My guess, is that Grandma Lois brainwashed them into thinking there was a fire and that their mom died in that fire. Throughout the second movie, Julie is mentioned a few times and is believed to have died in “the fire” however, in the third, oh hold on…
SPOILER ALERT
In the third, she clearly dies at the hands of Toby. With Lois being a part of the brainwashing coven, she did her job and brainwashed Kristi and Katie. Yes there are some continuity errors presented throughout the trilogy, and to be honest, I only realized all this after thinking about it. Normally, movies should present what happens without requiring much thought. I kinda had to assume most of this, and I’ve been wrong before. But again, it’s just a guess. I liked the movie though. I think this one had a bit more story than the second and the witching concept CERTAINLY made it much darker. Quite honestly, much darker than the idea of a ouija board. All the satanic symbols hiding behind those paintings sent shivers everywhere. There was more going on in the second, but not much that contributed to the speculation of the origins of Toby. I’d really like to see what he actually looks like. There’s evidence that its got a humanoid figure, but also those leaning more towards an animal-like embodiment. But yeah. My two cents.
There are quite a few theories on this one. They chose to ask a lot of new questions instead of answering the loose ends from the first two, possibly because they might be milking this franchise for a few more years.
I’ve also heard the theory that there are two ghosts (or demons, whatev), since Toby was described as tall and the spirit behind the babysitter is very short.
Also in the second one the girls talked about their mom going crazy and there really isn’t any sign of that in this one. They also talk about waking up in the middle night and seeing a black figure at the foot of their bed, which there was none of.
In the first movie Micah tells his girlfriend that her mom can’t come over anymore also. But according to PA3 her mom would have already been dead, so who knows what the writers were thinking.
I heard there were 4 different scripts being used to film this one and they ended up not using footage from the other 3, which would explain why none of the scenes from the trailer in the movie.
Good scares in this one, but frankly the vagueness of the plot was frustrating.
Whilst i enjoyed your interview, i think the point WAS to raise more questions. why answer the old ones and cause a flourishing franchise to smolder into nonexistence??? i loooooved that the witches were introduced since it was alluded to in the first couple. idk about you but if ladies are makin’ deals with demons, they’re not your average jill, know what i’m saying??
i want part four.
i also want these movies on dvd so i can see alllll the left out footage/deleted scenes.
All good points, just a difference in opinion. I hate watching the movie industry beat these horror movies until there is nothing good left in them. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Final Destination, Saw… And now Paranormal Activity is heading down that road, although this one was still a decent movie.
There’s a rumor that an entire deleted movie might be DVD bonus material. On the downside, some people have been crying “false advertising” since all the preview trailers weren’t in the movie.
i can definitely see why they’d bitch about false advertising. a loooot of the scenes were downright chilling! after a second viewing i’m still quite pleased with the overall product. those little girls certainly made me believe they were terrifying.
What has me baffled was the fact that I could swear in the second movie that they decided that it was a family curse from someone a LONG time ago making a deal with this particular demon and it cursed the female members of their family line. So why all of a sudden is the grandma the one doing all of this? I thought it was quite a few generations back for money or something of the sort, they said.
I had that feeling too. The writers for Paranormal Activity 3 played a bit too fast and loose with the story canon for me.
i just wanna know who toby is and oh yeah dennis is super hot xoxox
SPOILER ALERT
He is super hot if you like your men to have their spines snapped in two
snapped back aside, he was cute