Paranormal Activity 4

Rather like the Saw films, the Paranormal Activity series is the result of taking a very simple first film made on a low budget but with a compelling idea, and spinning it out into more and more films with a more and more convoluted premise. And like the Saw films, even though the sequels all totally lose the vision of that first grim story, some might actually be decent narratives in their own rights. But crucially, where I thought the first Saw was clever in its visceral, realistic and fundamentally quite feasible set-up, Paranormal Activity was a protracted set-up to a single jump, making it ultimately quite dull.

The second film I skipped, which meant I was a little ill-prepared for the backstory here featuring Hunter, though it seems a lot of blanks weren’t filled in anyway. The third was a flashback, and so absurd I found it primarily dull – bereft of atmosphere and good scares – and then at the end absolutely hilarious with its random old ladies in a shed.

This one was another sequel, and actually told a neat little scare story, a kind of modern Poltergeist with the usual gimmick of being recorded by the characters themselves still lingering on and letting the filmmakers save a fortune. Not a lot happens and if you hope the series’ mythology will be advanced, you’re going to be disappointed, but there are some good creepy moments and as ever, it all kicks off at the end, this time in a more effective way than its predecessor. It’s not a good film by any means, but its young leads are likeable, there are moments of good tension – especially with the knife, though I don’t think most of the audience even remembered it was there in the scene it fell – and the usual good cheap jump moments, some of which, like the one with the cat, made for some very funny surprised sounds from the audience.

Other than that, though, I have to say I found myself getting quite annoyed by a lot of people in the theatre. It’s my view that if you have to chatter, joke, shout and groan through the still moments of a horror film meant to build suspense, you’re a big wuss because those are all techniques to build up tension. And however else this film failed, it succeeded at those long, slow moments that get the audience on edge before a scare or a fake-out. But the theatre was full of wusses today, trying to show they weren’t scared in the one way that most clearly signals that they are – the release of their nervous tension by making a lot of comforting noise. The trouble is, the film would have been far, far more enjoyable had they let themselves get worked up and then let it out after the scares. I suppose that doesn’t give the veneer of indifference, which equates to bravery. But of course, it doesn’t. It actually very obviously equates to wanting to distance yourself from the fictional world because you’re finding it too difficult to engage with it. And that was what seemed like half the crowd. Ah well! Such is the experience of seeing a horror film. Most people are wussy!

A throwaway film, then, bringing nothing new to the fold, but doing most of what it did very well. And I loved the Kinect motion dots.