Paranormal Activity 4

I feel like I could literally copy and paste my review of Paranormal Activity 3 and it would be almost identical to the review for part 4. Instead of being a prequel like part 3, this is a direct sequel to Paranormal Activity 2 and it picks up several years after the abduction of Hunter by Katie. This is the new yearly horror franchise that replaced Saw and somehow they have eclipsed the Saw movies in terms of popularity. Even after 2 sub par opening days, the fifth installment of the franchise has just been announced, much to the chagrin of horror enthusiasts.

This installment follows the Nelson family, who live in a very typical upper middle class neighborhood. Katie from the first movie (still possessed) moves in next door with a child and then really weird things start to happen. The kid starts to randomly show up on their property at different times during the day and he moves in with them when Katie is taken off to the hospital with an undisclosed medical condition. As soon as the kid, Robbie, steps in the house weird shit starts to happen. Doors open and close by themselves, and people hear loud noises in the house. Alex Nelson, a teenage girl, and her boyfriend keep track of all of these events by using the webcams installed in the family's various computers to record everything. When these recordings start is when the real fun stuff happens.

There is really no point to these movies anymore, seeing as how each installment is used to set up the next. There is no attempt to have any real conclusion to the film, there is just a cliffhanger that will more than likely have nothing to do with the next movie. There is no reasoning behind why the characters would continue recording in certain situations. The whole movie seems like one big anti-climactic haunted house attraction. This movie carries over none of the innovative effect sequences from the third installment, but it reverts back to using very simple scare tactics that were used in the original but with none of its charm. This was just a huge let down after the surprising performance of the last movie. I really hope the next movie is the final in the series because this movie series really needs to die as soon as possible. None of the actors are compelling and the story is so basic that it is laughable.

This is a franchise that needs to go away as soon as possible. There is no desire by the creators of the series to innovate or even bring a compelling story to the screen. This is just more of the same crap that has been produced for the last 4 years. The only way this franchise could have worked is if the story changed completely from year to year, with whole new scenarios and characters being used. This story has been milked to death and it really needs to be resolved already. Because without a speedy ending this franchise will become a laughing stock, of which I already consider it. This is a steaming piece of shit of a movie and does not deserve anyone's time, the only reason to see this movie is to see the crowd's reactions and they weren't even that great for this movie. AVOID. AT. ALL. COSTS