Review of Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) by Sinistervortex — 09 Feb 2012

As horror movies go, PA3 is great, containing clever ways to shock viewers. But as PA movies go, it shows that the current series as it stands is beginning to show its age. PA3 does have more creative events then PA2 (which was really just more of the exact same from PA1).

Even so, I have become trained enough by the first two movies that when I saw this one I already knew exactly when surprises would occur, which goes to show that PA3 really should have done even more to differentiate itself from its predecessors.

It tries to explain some of the backstory to give a reason behind everything that happens in the first two movies. However, it only goes so far in this as to allude to a witches coven, which is a disappointingly flat and uncreative twist that failed to serve the atmosphere of the series, and made me wish that the writers had just left it unexplained, because the PA series is one that thrives on the unknown in the first place.

But even with these misgivings, PA3 is still a hell of a lot more effective then basically all other modern horror movies. If you have never seen a PA movie before, I do recommend this one (the plots of the three movies are independent enough of each other that they can be watched in any order) because it at least understands how to go about scaring someone, which cannot be said for any other series, and that alone warrants a score above average.