Paranormal Activity 3

Starring: Lauren Bittner, Chris Smith, Chloe Csengery, & Jessica Brown

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Paranormal Activity started the phenomenon of films that are shot on camcorder. At the time, it was considered to be revolutionary, but at this point it's getting a little old. How many of these camcorder films have actually been successful? ...and don't you get just the slightest bit nauseated by the constant movement of the camera? I guess that's for you to decide, back to the film. In the third installment of Paranormal Activity, we learn what happened to Katie and her sister when they were little. To be honest with you, I was pretty into this film until the last twenty minutes or so. Without spoiling it for ya, lets just say the story takes a dramatic turn away from the storyline. The result of this is that the overall story isn't as creepy and really doesn't make as much sense as it should. Paranormal Activity was never that scary to begin with, the film plays on the audience by having things suddenly jump out at them, but the story itself has gotten far less creepier as the series has gone on. Part 3 and 4 do have different writer/directors and that may be part of the problem. The first one freaked me out, the second one was a little slow, but also did the trick, and this one really didn't scare me. They relied much more on making the audience jump than they did on scaring them with the actual story. Number three didn't stick with me for days afterward, the way one and two did. As for the cast, they were all newcomers and the little girls were absolutely terrific! This series has a way of finding newcomers who seem like they've been acting for decades. Paranormal Activity 3 is good for a few cheap jumps and laughs, but the ending was really disappointing, leading me to think less of this film than I do of the other two.