Paranormal Activity: Next Of Kin (2021)

A film that I first saw months ago, and then had to rewatch before finalising my thoughts in review form, Paranormal Activity: Next Of Kin is a standalone instalment in the very popular horror movie series. That is both a plus and minus for it.

Emily Bader stars as Margot, a young woman who heads off to meet a previously-unknown relative, Samuel (Jay Ayres-Brown), and find some answers to questions she has about the mother who abandoned her as a child. She is also going to make a documentary about her journey, of course, which is the framing device for the “found footage” style. Samuel stays with the rest of his family in a small community that doesn’t usually spend much time with “outsiders”. Things start to get weird and creepy.

Despite me growing tired of this series some time ago, I am still compelled to watch every Paranormal Activity movie, because there’s usually at least one great moment, an enjoyably inventive scare, that stands out. This film does have that, but it saves it for the final 5-10 minutes, and suffers from showing another character who yet again somehow prioritises keeping hold of a camera that is recording everything around them while they should be focused on getting themselves somewhere more sane and safe.

Writer Christopher Landon and director William Eubank are both talented film-makers (Landon having also done some great work as a director over the past decade, including a previous instalment in this series), and they know how to deliver was viewers expect from this kind of thing. Sadly, they feel far too restrained by those expectations, struggling to develop characters well and build the scares on the way to the bonkers finale.

Bader makes a decent enough lead, and Ayres-Brown is able to play his character with a mix of amusing awkwardness and potential menace. There’s not really anyone onscreen doing bad work, although few make as good an impression as Dan Lippert, playing the soundman hired for the documentary project. Roland Buck III almost didn’t need to be involved though, feeling as if he is just there most of the time to act as the cameraman and comment on the development of the slim plot.

If you enjoy this series of films then you will find something to enjoy here, but there is something a bit disappointing about watching events unfold while realising that it remains distant from every other instalment. As much as I disliked the convoluted plotting of many other PA films, it was admittedly part of the fun to watch the dots being connected in different ways. But I didn’t fully realise that until watching this.

5/10

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Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

Part of the popular horror franchise, but also one that COULD be watched by those who have yet to see the other instalments, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones deserves bonus points for actually delivering more than just one or two jump scares punctuating scenes of interminable boredom. There's a lot to be said for subtlety and understatement in the horror genre, but there's also a feeling that sometimes the Paranormal Activity series is slightly taking the piss.

Andrew Jacobs is Jesse, a young man who has recently graduated high school. He then decides to move forward in life by investigating the apartment of the neighbour who used to live below him. She was murdered, and her apartment is full of videotapes, weird markings, and stuff that looks like it could be used in spellcasting. Jesse then decides to try out a spell, joined by his friends, Hector (Jorge Diaz) and Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh). It turns out that attempting to cast spells that deal with temporal doorways and evil isn't the best thing to do. Jesse begins to change. It seems like fun at first, but soon starts to become worrying, and potentially dangerous.

Written and directed by Christopher Landon, with a number of elements that eventually tie into the concept created and developed by Oren Peli (of course), this is an enjoyable sequel that gets to have its cake and eat it. It's not strictly confined by the story developed in the other Paranormal Activity movies, it's not having to follow the template that requires most of the activity to be frustratingly inactive, and it allows viewers to spend time with some entirely new characters, who are all much better company than any of the previous potential victims.

Jacobs is good in the lead role, easy to like and tag along with even while he's being pretty foolish. Diaz and Walsh both prove to be equally capable supporting players, and Renee Victor, Noemi Gonzalez and David Saucedo do well in smaller roles.

The special effects are, for the most part, pretty well done. They're all the more impressive because they're actually used to create quite a few entertaining moments onscreen. Yes, the previous movies have used CGI, and they've had some decent sequences, but none of them feel as if they managed to embrace the true potential of the format in the way that this movie does.

Unfortunately, Landon seems to lose his nerve, or perhaps just remembers that he needs to deliver a product consistent with the branding, in the third act of the film, which goes for the usual tricks that we've now seen so many times in found footage movies. Night vision? Check. Sudden movement towards the camera accompanied by a loud noise? Check. Vision being obscured by decor? Check. All signs of a writer-director working on a movie that will get him a . . . . . check.

I wouldn't say that this is going to win over any new fans - the brand name either attracts or repels film fans by now anyway - but it ends up, surprisingly, being one of the best instalments of a franchise that just might end up having some life left in it yet.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Activity-Unrated-Blu-ray-Digital/dp/B00HRCBGRA/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1408896491&sr=1-3&keywords=paranormal+activity+the+marked+ones