Paranormal Activity 3

I wasn't going to see Paranormal Activity 3. I am, at best, a lukewarm fan of the franchise. And I thought the gimmick was already old by the first sequel. And I hate prequels. And I just wasn't in the mood to see a movie. And if I were going to see a movie last weekend, it probably would have been that Justin Timberlake movie where no one gets old and Olivia Wilde plays his mom, and wouldn't that be all kinds of weird, being in your 20s and having Olivia Wilde as your mom? At that point, isn't incest--or at least the thought of incest--a little understandable? I hope they address this situation in the movie.

But I digress. I wasn't going to see the movie, but then my electricity went out on Sunday morning, and by the time the early football games started, it didn't show any signs of coming back on. I didn't feel like going to the bar to watch the Redskins game, so I figured, what the hell, and went to the movie theater without even bothering to check the listings. When I got there, the next showing of In Time was in an hour. The next showing of Paranormal Activity 3 was in five minutes. So.

Spoilers follow...

I can't think of a film franchise that I care less about the mythology behind it than Paranormal Activity. I'm fine with the information that was provided/hinted at in the first two films as to why these two sisters seem to have such bad luck with houses and video cameras. But evidently, this is a story that needed to be told.

I love movies about haunted houses, because they're the only horror films that manage to unnerve me somewhat. I know I don't have to worry about vampires, zombies, hillbilly cannibals, or whatever. But ghosts? Who knows? Seems plausible. So to the extent I enjoy the Paranormal Activity films, it's because they're really good at producing spine-tingling moments like strange noises coming from seemingly empty rooms, or quick glimpses of shadowy figures, or little kids conversing with something we can't see.

The problem is, that's really all the Paranormal Activity films have going for them. Plotwise, there's very little that's interesting. And the logic of the entire franchise is dependent on the idea that someone's first impulse upon hearing a bloodcurdling scream or a loud crash, is to grab a video camera and start filming. I'm not going to defend Blair Witch 2 as a good movie, but at least the filmmakers were smart enough to abandon the first person POV rather than shoehorn it into a plot. I think I would have enjoyed Paranormal Activity 2 and 3 considerably more if they'd been built around the story of the first one, as opposed to its gimmick.

As for the big revelation at the end that the grandmother was part of a coven of witches who wanted to impregnate them or marry them to Toby the ghost or something...I guess it's creepy and all, but A) It was telegraphed horribly, from the moment the plot element was introduced in that book that conveniently turned up, B) Katie and Kristi seem a bit young for childbearing, so I'm not sure why the witches even wanted them, and C) It felt a bit like a ripoff of the ending of The Last Exorcism.

I have no doubt that this time next year, Paranormal Activity 4 will be in theaters. The second film ended with a cliffhanger, so hopefully they'll get around to resolving that instead of filling in plot holes no one cared about in the first place.

Script: C
Acting: B-
Gore: D-
Overall: C