PA4
Kathryn Newton definitely won the DNA lottery, and I guess if you are to stick a camera in the face of an actress over a prolonged portion of a film, hers is the right choice. She's photogenic and has an appealing personality, and we spend so much time with this person because the technology inside her household is mainly used by her Alex. Like in the previous films, the focused girl is the "final victim". She's the one we follow as all the spooky stuff happens. In this film, what records the events inspired by a demon (following a weird kid named Bobby, brought into the home of a suburban family as the adopted son, named Wyatt is "chosen" and his "time is near") are laptops, carried around by Newton's Alex or placed in areas to capture what happens during the night/early morning. She has a teenage boyfriend who notices the same strange events recorded and this knowledge will eventually catch up to him as it does the unfortunate family. Bobby's influence on Wyatt grows disconcertingly, and you just know before its over nothing will stop the possessed Katie (last seen in PA3 behind the murders of her sister and sister's beau) from doing as the evil commanding her bids.
The bread and butter of the franchise are the levitation effects and faint figures of the evil flying across the screen or behind characters or in the background, peculiar sounds of footsteps, doors creaking or silently opening on their own (what I liked about PA4 is that doors actually open for Wyatt without his even touching them, the "it" opens the door for him), objects (toys, a basketball, shaking chandeliers, and, my favorite, a butcher knife) used in various ways by "it", and introduced heavily as a technique to creep, a camera with "infra red tracking dots", that allows us to see the "residue" or silhouette of the evil as it moves about (and Katie emerges in a key scene producing the customary, "uh oh").
Katie has become the face of the franchise; she was the first film's possession victim, unable to escape thanks to her family's being in league with Lucifer, and has showed up in the other films seemingly as a weapon, as bodies leave their feet in a hurry when she enters the room. When you see her in PA4, she's the one that produces the gulp in your throat because her purpose now is clear. She isn't that girl who can't get away from the evil that follows her, but now a tool for the evil's use.
I figure many will consider this Paranormal InActivity as it takes a while to get the goods, and the spiritual misconduct is sparingly delivered in small doses, with the ending really hitting on all cylinders as bodies are jerked around by that invisible force the franchise is famous for. But I think this fourth film, a punching bag for critics and fans alike, shows how the franchise is tired and out of ideas. The twist seems to say that demonic possession has now become an epidemic with the image of a group of people mirroring zombies about to strike.
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Its success will probably green light another film, but I do wish the widespread discontent with PA4 would be enough to consider the franchise through. I watched it in the small theater of a Malco Cinema 10...you know the kind, the little theater room that shows a movie on its waning legs at one time only (for me 7:20) before it is dismissed. I had two guys behind me in constant chatter (even if whispering, it was non-stop and just loud enough to distract), while one goof-off often played MST3K, as some teens would say sometimes, "Holy Crap!" At any rate, it was hard to concentrate and with a film like PA4 where it sometimes takes focus to see the activity so promised by those involved in the distribution and marketing, such distractions can be detrimental. I can't say I thought it was a total waste and I enjoyed this a bit more than I expected, but I'm through with the series as a whole. I have nothing else invested interest-wise in continuing with any more of these movies.
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