Review of Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) by William O — 03 Apr 2013

A malignant supernatural force surrounds Katie and Kristi, and it seems that it first came into their lives when they were both young girls.

Here we have the third entry in the 'found footage' horror franchise, and yet again we have another prequel. This story is set 18 years prior to the events of the first and second film and deals with the two sisters when they were young children. The story is good, but is still weaker than it's predecessors, as there is very little supernatural horror, and it relies a lot more on the inherent creepiness of a young girl with long hair wearing an ankle length white nightdress doing odd things (the Japanese have built an entire horror genre using this form of image). As always, there are still a couple of stand-out sequences that manage to put a chill up your spine, but on the whole the story feels a lot more like a movie plot. The final portion, though quite nasty, does start to make things a little silly, and detracts from the subtle creepiness that was at the core of the first movie. Also, there is that same problem with a prequel that is made after the first installment, where it leaves a lot of nagging questions as to why the sisters do not know more of what is going on when they are haunted in later years. All in all, this is an enjoyable movie, but as the franchise continues, the story does seem to be getting incrementally weaker and less about the 'real life' happenings that made the first movie such a hit when it was initially released. It will be interesting to see how things progress with part four.