I wasn't excited to see this film for a few reasons. A.) I was very disappointed with the Paranormal Activity film that preceded this one. B.) I wasn't very interested in "seeing" the activity. C.) It was yet another found footage film. Not only have audiences been inundated with found footage films but I felt that this last Paranormal Activity film should be a "proper" film.
This latest film is supposedly the last of the franchise. Let's hope that the filmmakers who allegedly claim that this is the last of the franchise are telling the truth and that no one attempts to resuscitate the franchise or at least that whoever does a much better job than the current filmmakers and makes an actual good movie.
This movie tells of a family named Fleeges who lives in a huge house and the events take place around Christmas. The family consists of the dad Ryan (played by Chris J. Murray), the mom Emily (played by Brit Shaw), and their daughter Leila (played by Ivy George). As it is Christmas time they have a visit from family in the form of Uncle Mike (played by Dan Gill) who is the brother of Ryan. For unexplained reasons there is also another young woman named Skyler (played by Olivia Taylor Dudley) who might be staying with them for unknown reasons but who also might be just a friend who visits the family. Not sure why she is here which is off putting at best.
Strange things start happening after Ryan finds a strange looking old style camcorder camera that has obviously been adjusted but why isn't apparent at first. The strange things include strange sights that are only seen through the camera. The strange sights evolve to strange happenings that seem to revolve around Leila. For those familiar with the franchise we once again encounter Toby the demon (which isn't a bad thing necessarily. At least it has continuity if you ignore The Marked Ones.)
The strange things get more frightening once Toby is spotted. The family tries their best to fight Toby and protect Leila. While doing research about the strange happenings Ryan and Mike find out that there are similarites and elements attached to other events that have happened with other families (basically references to the previous Paranormal Activity movies including a vague reference to The Marked Ones.)
This film is like other found footage films in that the camera is jumpy and usually first person pov. This Paranormal Activity film is more first person pov than the others for some reason. I guess it was an effort to bring the audience into the film more. If you are bothered by found footage films, avoid this one.
The story was pretty good at first. The characters were good. I was really confused by Skyler's presence. The only reason that I can imagine why she is in this picture is to have a blonde cute girl for people to look at. The actress wasn't bad but she wasn't great. Her character being all excited about the haunting activity was annoying at best.
I know that this is just a movie but I am bothered by inconsistencies in the film. While Leila is possessed/oppressed by the demon she is doing things like burying rosaries and attempting to burn a bible. Both of these actions imply that the family has enough faith in God for "Toby" to be worried enough to remove those items thereby crippling the family's efforts at resisting Toby/fighting Toby. Later the family calls in a priest who says that he doesn't believe that an exorcism is necessary. He further ludicrously adds that there will be an extermination of the demon.
First off, the priest wouldn't be so stupid as to avoid an exorcism. An average person would probably wisely first assume an exorcism would be needed in this case. A trained priest, after hearing a description of what Leila is doing coupled with actually getting physically attacked by Leila would know that an exorcism is absolutely necessary and there is no other option.
Also, if the family had such faith in God, the exorcism (because that's what it basically ended up being) would have worked at least long enough for the family to feel safe. If the exorcism didn't completely send Toby back to where he came from then it would have at least weakened him enough. In other words, Toby wouldn't have been able to kill anyone much less possess anyone to cause them to kill someone else.
Thirdly, why would an immortal creature want to be in a human body that is dying? You're talking about a creature that has no physical limits who has been around for millenia deliberately trapping itself in a human body that will die and that is for all intents and purposes dying. That just doesn't make any sense on any level.
I'm guessing that the filmmakers thought that this would be a better ending, a kind of "the bad guy" wins ending. The problem was that "the bad guy wins" ending has been poorly overdone over the last few years. Also the ending just wasn't good because it's stupid.
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