Review of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) by Mark K — 22 Oct 2015

The latest installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise is by far for me the best in the series since Paranormal Activity 3 and it surpassed Paranormal Activity 4 and the least well received spin off Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones not only that it is one of the best Horror films of 2015 since Insidious Chapter 3, the new Poltergeist remake, Sinister 2, Regression and the beautiful and haunting Crimson Peak.

The story of this film takes place after the events of Paranormal Activity 4 where a new family moves into a new house where Katie and Kristi used to live back in the 1980's. But soon the only daughter of the family starts making contact with the spirit of Toby who made contact with Katie and Kristi in the past and soon Toby shows his ghoulish and haunting form towards her as the girl starts to get possessed slowly and soon the family must save their only daughter before the ghoul/demon takes over her mind.

I just came back from a screening in Robinsons with my mom on this film and to my surprise I was impressed and satisfied with it. This film takes the series to a darker and more horrific and terrifying direction as each film goes this film also expands the mythology surrounding the ghost activities in the previous films.

While part 3 is a heart stopping and super scary prequel that explains the origins of the previous characters from the first film until part 2 and 4, Paranormal Activity 4 works really well despite being the least well received by critics but in my opinion I love that movie and it is my favorite Paranormal Activity film in the series and it is better than the first two.

The latest installment ends the series in a satisfying way by answering all the questions and blanks from the previous films. What I like about Paranormal Activity The Ghost Dimension is that this film expands the mythology of the series by revealing the true form of Toby in the film and it also shows what happened to Katie and Kristi at the end of Paranormal Activity 3 and you get to see how the ghost starts haunting the previous characters from the first film and its sequel along with Part 4 and its a nice change to the series because the basic concept of the series is getting old really fast for most critics and viewers and its a nice change to reveal the true form of Toby in this movie.

I love how Toby shows up in his true form as a shadowy ghoul throughout the whole movie and you get to see glimpses of his face during the scares in the film. The other thing I like about this movie is that the film is well paced from start to finish.

Ok I admit that its the same old pace as the previous films and it gets old really fast(Slow in the beginning and packed with jump scare after jump scare in the next half) but like its predecessors The Ghost Dimension adds something much more new to the series like revealing the true form of Toby which is what I said a while ago and showing how the ghost haunts the family and how the child gets possessed along with showing the portal going to the other dimension where the ghost enters to haunt the victims in the next half of the film and the apparition of Toby is extremely scary to look at.

The other things I like about this movie is that this film has a spooky and haunting atmosphere and I love the dark shots of the film and it creates a dreadful and sinister look which makes the film's tone a bit more darker than before.

I also love the scenes in this film and there are tons of major scenes that expands the history of the haunting activities in the house not only a lot of suspenceful and scary moments(The opening scene which is the end of Paranormal Activity 3, Scenes where Toby's real form shows up, the intense and super frightening kitchen scene and the shocking and frightening finale where the whole family including the priest gets slaughtered by the apparition of Toby) and although the use of CGI on Toby was a bit distracting it at least worked well and there are loads of cool effects used in the movie that adds up the scare and creep factor and heightens the tension at the same time despite the formula of the series getting old really quick at least the use of effects was something different for the series and it is good for this movie.

Now the acting is really good. Everyone who worked on this movie did a really good job with their performances in this movie. First time director Gregory Plotkin did an amazing job with his work on this movie and since he edited Paranormal Activity 2-4 along with The Marked Ones his feature film debut is pretty good and to my surprise he understands the basic formula of the series since he worked as editor in the past four films and I love how he expanded the series' mythology by revealing everything from start to finish and Mister Plotkin ends the series in a great and satisfying way.

Overall Paranormal Activity The Ghost Dimensions is an entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the popular found footage franchise that scared millions of people around the world and it ends the series in a terrifying, scary and frightening way.

This movie gets a 10/10. This is one of the best Horror films of 2015 since the super scary Insidious Chapter 3, the haunting Poltergeist remake, the disturbing and entertaining Sinister 2, the dark psychological Horror Thriller Regression and the beautiful, disturbing and haunting Crimson Peak.