The most frightening things are those which are unexplainable.
For centuries, humans have been taken over by fear when approached by something completely against their beliefs: from witches being the cause of mass outbreaks of disease to strange cloud formations being the work of intergalactic invaders. Filmmakers have drawn on these fears of presences lurking in the darkness and breathed life into our phobias. The introduction of new nightmares to screens gives audiences more a thrill than a fright – the adrenaline rush of the unknown drawing people in.
But, when the nightmare goes for too long, the thing that goes bump in the night can be exposed as just a tree branch rocking in the wind, trying to give itself some form of excitement. Horror franchises often do this; forgoing the thing that initially made it exciting – like why these teenagers are being picked off – to focusing on how to keep it relevant (e.g. remember when they put Jason Vorhees in space?).
The ‘Paranormal Activity’ franchise has unbelievably stretched its simple and brilliant initial premise of bringing the haunted house film to the age of mobile phone footage by creating a whole mythology around it. Realising the premise has gone as far as it can go, ‘Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension’ has been promised as the final installment in the franchise and answering many questions, but it doesn’t feel as conclusive as it aims to be.
So far in the ‘Paranormal Activity’ series, we’ve: been introduced to Katie, a woman who has been haunted by a demonic spirit for all of her life which eventually possesses her; Katie’s sister Kristie, whose son Hunter is kidnapped by the now possessed Katie; see the beginning of Katie and Kristie’s first connection with the demon haunting them in their childhood, the not-quite-demonically-named Toby; learned what happened to Katie and Hunter after their disappearance and what the purpose of the demon, the mildly-named Toby; and gotten a Mexican/ time-travel spin off.
For the final installment, we are introduced to the Fleege family, who have just moved into a new home and are joined by Uncle Mike for the Christmas holidays (Note: I chuckled to myself about a movie being set during Christmas time and released in October. The shops start selling Christmas decorations earlier with each passing year). They discover a box containing a number of tapes and a very odd video camera. As they experiment with the camera, the family discovers that it allows them to see some strange activity occurring in their new home. While this is happening, youngest daughter Leila (Ivy George) has begun acting odd and speaking to what’s initially assumed is an imaginary friend, Toby. As the family makes their way through the tapes and learns more about Katie, Kristie and Toby, a number of frightening events occur and leads to the family banding together to stop Toby.
The most noticeable thing about the film is it looks like it was given a bigger budget than the previous entries in the series. The camera is clearer and steadier than other found-footage films, making it more pleasant for those prone to nausea. The discovered video camera allows for more CGI to be incorporated and shows what Toby actually looks like, but it reveals too much and makes the suddenness significantly less scary. In the original film, there were sudden disturbances with no idea of the cause, giving minor events like chairs stacked on a table an air of dread. Revealing the orchestrator takes away the magic and changes the demon into an annoying prankster who slams doors and tip toes away. Making the CGI effects 3D felt pointless as it added very little to the film, coming off as gimmicky.
The scares the filmmakers go for are preceded by a long silence while a character observes some strange going-on then suddenly something jumps out. The repetition of this formula grew wearying as the film continued, with the only variation being an increase in the size of the scare more than the previous scare. In the first film it worked well as it was unexpected, but this time the characters seem to be actively searching for something to happen so the audience doesn’t get bored, with each scare acting more like a wake-up call. Not something you want from a film that takes maybe too many cues from such classic horror films as: ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘Poltergeist’.
Credit should be given to Ivy George and Dan Gill, who play Leila and Mike respectively. Leila gives a great performance as a not-quite-right child dabbling in witchcraft that is quite disturbing. And Mike is a fresh character as the sceptic, which may be an unintentional commentary reflecting the negative criticisms of the other installments in the series. With the film’s dialogue being improvised, Gill showcases his way with a line quite well.
While the film does answer the questions it said it would – what does Toby look like and what’s the backstory of the family? – it doesn’t end very conclusively, feeling more like how plots are wrapped up in the final episode of a cancelled television series. The ending is a bit too open for a film that says is the final one in the series, so don’t be too surprised if another sequel appears. Even those devoted to the series may not feel satisfied with the ending, but it does provide the cheap thrill that the series has been reliable for, even if those thrills don’t get the blood pumping like they used to.
★★
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