Scary-Normal Activity

I'm way late to the party with the latest in the low budget but high profit horror franchise, Paranormal Activity. I missed it in the theaters, which I am firmly convinced is the only way to view these movies.

I almost always go to the theater in the off hours, when there are fewer people in attendance. For me this is the perfect environment to watch a Paranormal Activity movie. There's something about being in an unfamiliar place, in the dark, watching them. There really could be someone hiding between the rows of seats in there.

I've been a fan, and sometimes apologist, for the series since the beginning. I like that the movies rely on tension and mounting dread, rather than buckets of gore and endless violence. I'm an old gorehound, sure, but I like quiet horror too. I thought that the first three PA movies were very well done and pretty effective to boot.

The entire series owes a big debt, of course, to The Blair Witch Project. Like that movie or hate it, there is no denying the influence it had. Too bad it didn't turn into a lucrative series. I think I'm one of the five people who actually likes Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, but I will readily agree that the whole thing is bugfuck crazy. Kind of a mess, but there are some great moments mixed in with the awkward moments. I think the filmmakers rushed it into production and distribution too quickly. I understand the need to strike while the iron is hot, but you have to make a good movie first and foremost. The series ended with a whimper with Blair Witch 2.

On the other hand, it has always seemed to be a successful formula to make the exact movie over and over again in a series. Well, maybe not exact, but close enough.

Though they went in different places with each sequel, the structure of the Paranormal Activity movies has been pretty similar. And the money has rolled in. PA 4 brought home over a hundred and forty million in worldwide revenue. Not exactly up there with Avengers or Twilight, but at a reputed five million dollar production budget, a nice, tidy profit.

I was prepared to like PA 4. After all, the last sequel was my favorite of the first three, so I had no reason to be pessimistic about number four.

PA 4 started out well enough. I liked the teen protagonists in it quite a bit. And there are a few creepy moments. But overall, I was uninvolved in the story, and I thought that the end was pretty laughable. Especially after the scary finale of part three. But then it looks as though the producers decided to pretend PA 3 never happened and picked up the story of the first sequel.

Would I have liked it more had I gotten my ticket torn and sat in a theater? Probably. Would I have still considered it the weakest entry of the series had I done so? That's hard to say. I liked Part 2, but I thought that the first and third were much stronger.

I didn't hate it though. I certainly do not regret the buck-fifty I spent at the Redbox to see it. But I am positive that I would have gotten a better bargain by seeing it on its theatrical run.

I don't care what kind of home entertainment system someone has. Nothing replaces the act of going out and seeing a picture at a cinema. A bad movie seems better there, and a good one is greatly enhanced by seeing it in a movie theater.

I don't know if the Paranormal Activity series will continue, but my bet is that it will. You can't deny the numbers the movies have brought to Paramount. Despite my lukewarm reaction to Paranormal Activity 4, I will see another sequel if it is made. And I will do so in a theater.