(WARNING SPOILERS BELOW)
With popcorn in my hands and recommendations to not see the movie in my head, I stepped into the theater and picked the perfect seat directly in the middle.
I should forewarn any readers that my taste in movies is not that of a normal movie-goer. I enjoy a good rom-com as much as the next guy but nothing gets me more excited than seeing a hair-raising, bone-chilling, nerve-racking horror film. I also loved Inside Out, but that’s a whole other story.
As the theater dimmed after the previews were done and left me forgetting what I actually came to see, I got comfortable and braced myself to hear my friends’ screams in my ear and have my arm go numb for the next hour and 28 minutes.
If you’ve watched the paranormal series before, you know that each movie connects and relates back to the first film, featuring a family with two daughters, Katie and Kristi. They experience strange ghost hauntings, which lead to discovering a demon has possessed one of the daughters.
With this being the last chapter for the Paranormal franchise, all the unanswered questions were supposed to be solved; which is somewhat true.
To those unfamiliar to the over arching plot, in each movie it suggests a demon, Toby, is haunting one specific family. It starts with Katie, Kristi, and their family and moves to haunt different families that are somehow connected to the first family, like living on the same block or having a mutual cousin.
In this movie, it features a new family, who is not related to the original family at all, finding old tapes of the sisters and includes a video camera that can see into the “ghost dimension.”
In the end, we find out what Toby actually looks like — no different from any other scary movie demon. It was supposed to be the big reveal of the movie but his appearance was predictable. The only thing that would’ve shocked me is if Toby was a dancing bear or something.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie. Now. Before anyone shows me the ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, let me explain why I enjoyed it.
From the first time I saw Paranormal Activity, I was along for the ride. What made the original so good was the low budget production quality. They were able to add a realistic level of fear by having the actors film themselves with a camcorder and improvising almost the entire movie.
As the movies went on, they became less low budget and used more CGI, which left most fans, including myself, disappointed. This probably why not a lot of people liked this last movie. The producers didn’t use the same style that everyone liked. They tried to branch off (which is commendable), but it wasn’t desired. With that being said, I went into the theater not expecting anything more than a couple jump scares, which is why I left pleasantly surprised.
Although they failed to answer why there’s suddenly time travel and a new dimension, we learned that the main sisters are truly connected to all the other hauntings, which left most fans content, but not me.
Ultimately, I recommend this movie to those that have seen all the other movies, if not for the scares then just to finish the storyline once and for all and have those questions answered. I would still suggest it to those who haven’t seen the other movies. So, if you didn’t get your fix of terror from this past halloween and you think you’re tough enough to see the demon at last, go to a movie theater near you and check out Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.
