The Unborn, Texas Chainsaw, One Missed Call and now Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones all have something in common. Every one of these films is an incredibly dumb and unbelievably dull horror film that has been spit out by their distributors during the first weekend of January. Distributors do this throughout January if they have absolutely no confidence in their film (take a look at last year's Mama, A Haunted House and Movie 43) with the hopes that no one will be at the theater in January. However, the first week of this oh so awful movie going month is always reserved for that one horror film that the studios, writers and directors have no confidence in whatsoever. This year, the film comes from Paramount Studios and writer-director Christopher Landon who continue the annual tradition of being justified in having no faith in their film. However, this may be the best first week January horror film yet. It's sad to say this because this film was horrid but I also know that it's 99.9% because this is not as much of an obvious cash grab as the previous entries in this series.
The film follows Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), his friend Hector (Jorge Diaz) and Jesse's sister Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh.) Jesse and Hector decide to sneak into the house of an old woman who lives below Jesse directly after she is mysteriously killed. However, what they don't realize is that this woman was a witch and will now possess Jesse and everyone knows where this is going.
This is not a good film at all. However, since it has the Paranormal Activity name attached to it and does relate back to the four previous films...I couldn't help but hold it up to the light and compare it to the other installments. Generally when I watch a film I force myself to watch it on its own terms. However, I had to compare and contrast this one. What I found was that this installment, as with the previous ones relies way too much on someone jumping out from behind a curtain or someone being behind someone else. However, unlike the previous installments I found that this one does not rely too heavily on loud noises after long stretches of no sound and has genuine effort being put into it. While this is still a shameless cash grab, the actors do try and Landon (the writer of the previous three) does try to create genuine tension. Landon succeeds well enough for his first time actually directing one of these films and the actors are actually not terrible. First timers Jacobs and Walsh are both effectively creepy and intense and Diaz who has been in previous films makes his performance work well enough.
It may sound like I'm giving this film a lot of praise but I haven't gotten to the huge problem yet. The flaw that is totally detrimental to this film is that nothing and I mean nothing happens until the last five minutes. Watching three actors give decent performances isn't enough to make up for the fact that the first 75 minutes of this film has literally nothing happening in it. Simply put...it's not worth it.
I was honestly bored out of my skull for 99% of this film. It's dull as ditchwater and only takes off in the last couple of minutes. The only way I can recommend this film is to say watch the last five minutes when they make it to Youtube in a week. Needless to say...this series of "films" has totally run its course.
(1 out of 5 Stas, The film is rated R for pervasive language, some violence, graphic nudity and some drug use)
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