Paranormal Activity 3
Directed by: Ariel Shulman and Henry Joost
Starring: Christopher Nicolas Smith, Lauren Bittner
Rated: R for some violence, language, brief sexuality and drug use
Horror films are the scariest when the medium works in building the anticipation and dread of the story. Filmmakers Ariel Shulman and Henry Joost (from the brilliant documentary Catfish) understand how to use their medium to build that suspense near perfectly in their new movie Paranormal Activity 3, despite having to adopt the plot points and style of the series. Although this was my first in the Paranormal series, it evidently is the prequel for the first two films, telling about how the main characters of the previous two films were first introduced to their “imaginary friend.” It also succeeds in being a legitimately scary movie, though it does include a ridiculous amount of jump scenes. It doesn’t rely on any gore (though it does have some violent images), too much sexual content (in comparison to other horror films) or even grotesque and disturbing imagery. (The docu-style does lead the characters to use some harsh language, though.) Despite having a mediocre story, there are brilliant and horrifying moments in the film, especially thanks to a camera rig that the main character uses, placing his home video camera on an oscillating fan. We become accustom to the pace of the ever panning camera, and it becomes torturous; we feel safer when we know where the ghost is at all times, but the ever slow and rhythmic pan toward or away from the ghost is just too much for us to handle. We know it or something will be waiting at the end of each pan, but the 5 seconds it takes to get back to it is just terrifying. Add that to the hand-held climatic ending that is pretty horrific, and you have one spooky film for the Halloween season.
Rated: R for some violence, language, brief sexuality and drug use
Horror films are the scariest when the medium works in building the anticipation and dread of the story. Filmmakers Ariel Shulman and Henry Joost (from the brilliant documentary Catfish) understand how to use their medium to build that suspense near perfectly in their new movie Paranormal Activity 3, despite having to adopt the plot points and style of the series. Although this was my first in the Paranormal series, it evidently is the prequel for the first two films, telling about how the main characters of the previous two films were first introduced to their “imaginary friend.” It also succeeds in being a legitimately scary movie, though it does include a ridiculous amount of jump scenes. It doesn’t rely on any gore (though it does have some violent images), too much sexual content (in comparison to other horror films) or even grotesque and disturbing imagery. (The docu-style does lead the characters to use some harsh language, though.) Despite having a mediocre story, there are brilliant and horrifying moments in the film, especially thanks to a camera rig that the main character uses, placing his home video camera on an oscillating fan. We become accustom to the pace of the ever panning camera, and it becomes torturous; we feel safer when we know where the ghost is at all times, but the ever slow and rhythmic pan toward or away from the ghost is just too much for us to handle. We know it or something will be waiting at the end of each pan, but the 5 seconds it takes to get back to it is just terrifying. Add that to the hand-held climatic ending that is pretty horrific, and you have one spooky film for the Halloween season.
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