Review by Nikki McIver
Stars Katie Featherston, Sprague Grayden, Lauren Bitter, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Dustin Ingram, Maria Olsen, Brian Boland, Molly Ephraim
Written by Christopher B Landon & Oren Peli
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 84 minutes
Directed by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Following the tradition established by the first two movies, Paranormal Activity 3 begins rather slowly. We see episodes of the chilling footage from the childhood of sisters Katie (Featherston/Brown) and Chrissie (Grayden/Csengery).
Chrissie, the youngest sister, befriends an invisible entity who she names Toby. Her stepfather Dennis (Smith) becomes suspicious after hearing noises around the house, most often than not, coming from the girls' bedroom. Setting up cameras around the house, it soon transpires that they are not alone when footage shows Chrissie waking up and talking to someone or something in the middle of the night. Discovering a symbol drawn on the inside of a cupboard, Dennis decides to research deeper into its meaning and questions Chrissie. A steady progression of events means that not all, but most is revealed.
This third – and,supposedly, final – film is the series unfortunately falls under the label "predictable". Although at points it is undeniably jumpy, PA3 has definitely lost the enigmatic edge of its predecessors. Added humour acts as a safe zone in the film, but it breaks up the tension and makes the parts that should have been horrifying almost hilarious. The dishonest marketing of the film has left many furious and feeling deceived after hardly any of the scenes in the trailer were included in the finished film. Watching the trailer agan, you can almost piece together entire missing parts of the film that would, without a doubt, have made it a much more terrifying experience.
But it would be unfair to write off PA3 entirely. The tension was built up well throughout and concluded with an impressive climax which, although falling short of its potential, was at least original. There are sensational performances from the cast – particularly the young Brown and Csengery, who both give a realistic representation of terror. The characters lead the audience into such a belief up until the climax that even the predictability of what’s coming next doesn’t deter from their bloodcurdling performance.
It goes without saying that the conclusion of the trilogy was bound to leave the audience peering through the gaps of their shielded eyes, and it does. However, the fact that Joost and Schulman decided to remove whole chapters of the story, snippets of which were shown in the trailer, just doesn’t add up. Still, the most horrifying part of the whole film experience was that it was just short of 85 minutes, and I for one felt cheated by the £7 price of my cinema ticket.
The film is a reconstruction of amateur footage that, when being watched, seems exactly that – an amateur film, with all of the defects that come with that. It’s worth seeing purely for the cast performances and a must-see for all fans of the firs two films, even if only to see how the series ends. The stories from all three films are tied together well, though as a film in general, it is somewhat disappointing.