Paranormal activity 3

Plot: In 2005, Katie delivers a box of old videotapes to her pregnant sister, Kristi, and Kristi's husband, Daniel. A year later, Kristi and Daniel's house is apparently burglarized and the tapes go missing. This is the accounts of those lost tapes. These lost tapes show the accounts of the year 1988. What did these girls experience that was so horrifying that they needed to be stolen?

Review: As I have stated in previous reviews, I have enjoyed the Paranormal Activity series thus far. The first two films managed to be scary without an over-reliance on jump scares. Very few jump scares made the fear feel genuine. Anyone familiar with the P.A. timeline knows P.A.2 is a prequel. Pretty common knowledge, but as it turns out P.A.3 also is a prequel. During the course of the film we are brought into the past of Katie and Kristi and what happened during the summer of 1988.

Let's start with the good aspects of the film. Just like the first two in the series, P.A. 3 works very well when the scares come from the atmosphere, giving the film a evenly paced build-up. During the times where the scares slow down we are given some minor character development. This is a welcome change from most typical horror films. While the plot doesn't go too far from your typical haunting film, it does open up during the final act. The final act is the best segment using some really great camera angles to produce true build up and suspense. If the entire film had been like it, this would have been the best in the series. While some parts of the film fail to succeed in producing scares outside of jolts, there are a handful of scary moments. Great moments include Bloody Mary, falling tables, and ghostly sheets. To say more would truly rob these moments.

A final positive that I feel should get some mention is the director uses some great shots that come off as terrifying. They use the layout of the house to their advantage. You end up watching every mirror, hallway, and door throughout the film.


On the negative side, there were some pretty obvious plot issues, beginning with the premise. The footage is “captured” by the boyfriend of the girls’ mother’s boyfriend of a few months. He’s allowed to set up cameras in her daughters’ room. She never questions this, or views the tapes, which brings us to issue number two. After all the footage Dennis catches Julie never watches the tapes. These might seem like minor complaints but when you think about it, those unravel the film. As plot goes, the final issues stems mor off the genre than the film itself. Like many found footage films there is the underlying question of how are we viewing these tapes. It’s overall a minor issue, but clearly there.

As I explained in my previous reviews of the P.A. series, I loved the fact they stayed away from cliché jump scares. Guess what this one does? Yes, it throws dozens upon dozens of jump scares at you. They grow stale and predictable long before the final scare. As I have experienced with films like this, a constant amount of jump scares serves more to anger the audience then to frighten them. One strong suit of the first two films was the pacing. They purposefully keep things low-key to achieve a build up unlike most in modern cinema. The truly frightening moments don't really start until forty five minutes into the film, allowing for a sense of calm to take over you. It made the scares much more effective. P.A. 3 starts with them before the fifteen minute mark, where you already see the outline of ghost. I feel it took away from atmosphere and build-up. When scares come that soon you start bracing yourself for them during each quite moment.

The pacing and constant jump scares are missteps for such a promising series.

Overall: 6.5 out of 10
There are some standout moments in this film and a great final act, but P.A.3 sacrificed atmosphere for cheap scares, causing it to lose the magic of the first 2 films. It's not a bad film, just a bad P.A. film. Hopefully, this will be the last in a series that suffered a steep decline.