(Photo from IMDB.com)
Cristina Vasques-Munez
Vasquez.cristina@wgecho.org
“Paranormal Activity 4” is yet another disappointment in the line of “Paranormal Activity,” so when is enough enough?
Five years have passed since the disappearance of Katie (played by Katie Featherston, who has appeared in every Paranormal Activity movie) and her nephew Hunter.
When a woman and child move in across the street from her, 15-year-old Alex (played by Kathryn Newton) is the only one to notice something odd about the boy, Robbie, played by Brady Allen.
When Robbie’s mother is sent to the hospital, Alex’s family is forced to take him in. Here begins the convoluted story of children talking to ghosts and teenagers being the only ones to not feel at ease. As usual, parents are disbelieving, ignorant and happy to constantly leave their children home alone.
This fourth installment is a weak and strung out version of the first “Paranormal Activity,” a movie that made $193,355,800 with a budget of only $15,000.
In comparison, “Paranormal Activity 4” has made $118,488,138 since its release on Oct. 18, with a budget of $5 million.
Another comparison: The original “Paranormal Activity” received an 89 percent Tomato-meter rating on Rottentomatoes.com (meaning 89 percent of critics liked the movie), while “Paranormal Activity 4” is sitting at a measly 25 percent.
This should be enough indication to warrant an end to the “Paranormal Activity” franchise, and all those of the sort. “Paranormal Activity” has gone far beyond its humble and truly scary beginnings, and become a hyped-up cash cow.
Oren Peli has even given up directing these awful sequels, so why do they keep coming? One wishes this would be the end of mercilessly squeezing out every last drop of money from a series, while losing the quality that the franchise started with.
The problem is that people continue to go out and see these movies with the hopes that they might do the first film justice. Usually people leave the theater disappointed or laughing.
This Paramount Pictures movie, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, is pretty much 88 rated R minutes of unintended jokes and boring scares.
Unfortunately, the 25 percent who liked the film can look forward to “Paranormal Activity 5”coming out in October of 2013.
