20131031: Horror Review--Paranormal Activity 3

Paranormal Activity 3

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, rated R, 83 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.8/10.0 from 55,999 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 5 million USD.  Gross box office, ~104 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 68% on the meter; 52% liked it from 72,098 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 930,967 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman.  Screenplay: Christopher Landon.
6. Starring: Lauren Bittner as Julie, Chris Smith as Dennis, Chloe Czengery as Katie, Jessica Brown as Kristi, Dustin Ingram as Randy Rose, Johanna Braddy as Lisa, Hallie Foote as Grandma Lois.


2. Setup and Plot
1. It's 1988 in California.  Dennis moves in with girlfriend Julie and her two daughters, Katie and Kristi.  When things go bump in the night, he installs cameras to record in various rooms in the house.


2. There are more bumps in the night.  The family gets used to processing the surveillance tapes.  Dennis investigates paranormal issues via the local library.  He talks to Kristi about the invisible friend Toby.


3. Dennis and Julie go out one evening, and leave Kristi and Katie with the babysitter, Lisa.  The girls ask for a ghost story.  All goes well; Lisa is a mature, confident sitter.  Dennis and Julie do not return until later than promised, 23:05 instead of 21:45.  Lisa gets a couple of bumps in the night.


4. Kristi gets sick with a high fever; Dennis and Julie take her to the hospital.  Randy comes to be with Katie, who insists on playing 'Bloody Mary.'  Randy is a bit reluctant, but Katie convinces him.  On the second, successful run, there are several bumps in the night (only it's daytime), Randy gets a foot long bloody laceration on his chest, and Katie gets quite scared.  When they attempt leaving the girls' bathroom, poltergeist activity occurs.  After Dennis and Julie return, and the daughters are OK, Randy lets loose on Dennis, then takes his camera equipment and goes.


5. After some more serious bump in the night (and day), Julie, Dennis, Katie, and Kristie go to Lois' (Julie's mother) house.  Dennis wakes up alone deep in the night.  Julie is not in bed; Katie and Kristie are not in their beds.  Looking further, he finds the triangle-circle symbol and inverted pentagram on the walls that were formerly covered by paintings.  He encounters a group meeting.


6. Will Dennis survive this one?  How about Julie, Katie, and Kristie?


3. Conclusions
1. About a 40% of the film consists of monochrome video of rooms with zero activity.
2. One line summary: Hot and cold running boredom; still, ten times better than PA4.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 Too much monochrome, too much camera shake.  Still, so much better than PA4.


2. Sound: 8/10 Not bad.


3. Acting: 6/10 The screenplay did not call for much acting.  Much of the film's running time was consumed by empty rooms.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Not much of a story, but reasonably done, once the decision was made to execute in 83 minutes instead of 15.