Horror Movie Review: Paranormal Activity 4

I'm sooo glad it's October. Scary stuff coming out in the theaters and now that we have American Horror Story, we can look forward to a horror show as well.

Paranormal Activity 4 opened yesterday. I would've been there on opening night, but I had class. And I had to be up at 6am this morning and just couldn't swing it. Instead, I settled for going earlier this afternoon. It was lovely to have the entire theater to myself at 2pm. I gasped and jumped to my little heart's desire.



So. Ahem. Guys. This movie.

I was very excited about it. I'd normally assume a number 4 of any movie is going to suck. But, last year I went and saw Paranormal Activity 3 (on opening night, of course) and was pleasantly surprised (number 3's tend to suck as well). That movie scared me. The whole rotating camera thing, awesome. I was afraid to get in my car, afraid to get out of the car, afraid to walk into the house, afraid to stay outside...that's what I want from a horror movie. Complete and utter terror.

Unfortunately, number 4 did not deliver. This is the first of the series that isn't focused on the original family. They do make a few appearances, but they're not the main characters. The amazing thing about the first 3 movies is that they take what happened in the previous movie(s) and raise the fear factor. I like that they rely on what I enjoyed so much about the previous film, while throwing in some unexpected, new things. This one doesn't do anything new and instead of doing something original, they completely rely on swinging chandeliers and loud bumps in the night. Oh yeah, and they threw in a couple of creepy kids.

They do use computer cameras most of the time instead of actual handhelds, which made the concept of constantly filming each other more plausible. And the little girl is so cute and very pretty. She did a great job playing confused, terrified and innocent.

My suggestion is to take your $12 and buy yourself a ticket to another movie.