Looking back on the series as a whole (I mean this is the fifth movie we're entering Nightmare on Elm Street Territory here) I can't say that any individual movie in the Paranormal Activity series is objectively good. In fact 3 is the only one I ever really liked as a standalone piece because of the way they used the setting (The 1970's) to change up the way their limited information and technology had them perceive the hauntings. That said as a unified story I'm somewhat charmed by what it all brings to the table; though the back story is only revealed in bits in each movie up until now here's what we know :
A cult of witches working in collusion with an entity, or several entities marks women to be possessed or controlled or some nonsense by demons or something or some .... Yeah I guess I can't really explain it. It's complicated watch the movies yo! Let's move on to the newest one , Paranormal Activity the Marked Ones! Set sometime after the other four movies Marked Ones focuses on young Hispanic teens living in Oxnard, CA the summer after they graduate high school. After getting some apparently hard to hold cameras they decide to spy on the strange women living below them and see some strange activity. Possibly paranormal. After a few more mysterious happenings she is found murdered and our main characters go routing around in her apartment, a few jump scares later it appears or main character Jesse is being followed around and protected by some unseen force. He can't get hurt, he floats mid air when he falls ect. ect.
I suppose If I had to give this movie credit it doesn't put a jump scare in every other scene, there's a few early one and some more at the end but the main stretch of the movie has the tone of films like Chronicle as Jesse rolls around da hood trying to figure out whats happening to him as his cool new abilities start manifesting as a darkness inside him. To give a list of simple pluses the cast is really great, the two main lead guys have really good chemistry doing a better job of making you care about them as things start to go sour, the shaky cam b*llsh*t has been worse and isn't used to nauseating effects, they have a cute new version of the Ouija board gag that's kinda fun while it lasts, and it has an actually shocking and climactic ending. Thus far this is probably the best movie in the series and the one that explains the most about what's really going on. Being a January release they obviously don't expect this to make much money which kinda disappoints me, it's certainly not the worst found footage I've ever seen. it's also not the worst horror movie either.
That said the Marked Ones falls into a category of movies I like to call "Adorable 6's" Where it doesn't do anything to really rise above a 6 out of 10, but is still enjoyable to watch. I mean I did see this in a theater full of enthusiastic urban youth and it's hard not to have a fun time at the movies when people around you are reacting and making noise but I found myself scoffing at a lot of the cheaper looking camera tricks, some of the dumber side stuff, and the weak jump scares which in my opinion are a necessary evil of the horror genre, but still very ,much an evil. The biggest point against this movie is the name , Paranormal Activity; it's become kind of a scourge of a series that a lot of people wretch at despite there only being one abominable entry in it (The second one), and while I do find the back story to be interesting I find myself watching these movie get churned out and just thinking "They'll end any day now, and maybe we'll finally get to figure out what the f*ck is going on."
Still I wouldn't feel honest if I didn't recommend this movie. Granted this month will have a lot of 2013's biggest hits of December finally opening wide so everyone can go see them (Movies like Her) so you're more than justified in going to see one of those instead, but speaking exclusively from the January line up you have terrible Hercules movie, a terrible looking paranormal activity rip off, some bad comedies, some trashy animated pieces, that one cheap looking Tom Clancy movie that got rushed out because of his death and That Awkward Moment... which actually looks pretty awesome! But that's not until the 31st. So for the time being Paranormal Activity the Marked Ones is a "go-and-see-cuase-it's-fun" in my book.
A cult of witches working in collusion with an entity, or several entities marks women to be possessed or controlled or some nonsense by demons or something or some .... Yeah I guess I can't really explain it. It's complicated watch the movies yo! Let's move on to the newest one , Paranormal Activity the Marked Ones! Set sometime after the other four movies Marked Ones focuses on young Hispanic teens living in Oxnard, CA the summer after they graduate high school. After getting some apparently hard to hold cameras they decide to spy on the strange women living below them and see some strange activity. Possibly paranormal. After a few more mysterious happenings she is found murdered and our main characters go routing around in her apartment, a few jump scares later it appears or main character Jesse is being followed around and protected by some unseen force. He can't get hurt, he floats mid air when he falls ect. ect.
I suppose If I had to give this movie credit it doesn't put a jump scare in every other scene, there's a few early one and some more at the end but the main stretch of the movie has the tone of films like Chronicle as Jesse rolls around da hood trying to figure out whats happening to him as his cool new abilities start manifesting as a darkness inside him. To give a list of simple pluses the cast is really great, the two main lead guys have really good chemistry doing a better job of making you care about them as things start to go sour, the shaky cam b*llsh*t has been worse and isn't used to nauseating effects, they have a cute new version of the Ouija board gag that's kinda fun while it lasts, and it has an actually shocking and climactic ending. Thus far this is probably the best movie in the series and the one that explains the most about what's really going on. Being a January release they obviously don't expect this to make much money which kinda disappoints me, it's certainly not the worst found footage I've ever seen. it's also not the worst horror movie either.
That said the Marked Ones falls into a category of movies I like to call "Adorable 6's" Where it doesn't do anything to really rise above a 6 out of 10, but is still enjoyable to watch. I mean I did see this in a theater full of enthusiastic urban youth and it's hard not to have a fun time at the movies when people around you are reacting and making noise but I found myself scoffing at a lot of the cheaper looking camera tricks, some of the dumber side stuff, and the weak jump scares which in my opinion are a necessary evil of the horror genre, but still very ,much an evil. The biggest point against this movie is the name , Paranormal Activity; it's become kind of a scourge of a series that a lot of people wretch at despite there only being one abominable entry in it (The second one), and while I do find the back story to be interesting I find myself watching these movie get churned out and just thinking "They'll end any day now, and maybe we'll finally get to figure out what the f*ck is going on."
Still I wouldn't feel honest if I didn't recommend this movie. Granted this month will have a lot of 2013's biggest hits of December finally opening wide so everyone can go see them (Movies like Her) so you're more than justified in going to see one of those instead, but speaking exclusively from the January line up you have terrible Hercules movie, a terrible looking paranormal activity rip off, some bad comedies, some trashy animated pieces, that one cheap looking Tom Clancy movie that got rushed out because of his death and That Awkward Moment... which actually looks pretty awesome! But that's not until the 31st. So for the time being Paranormal Activity the Marked Ones is a "go-and-see-cuase-it's-fun" in my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment