Lithium Magazine

Paramount

By Jamie Bertolini

If I had to describe the recent installment of the Paranormal Activity series in two words, they would have to be along the lines of “truly terrifying”.

Paranormal Activity 3 is the second prequel of the horror series. The sisters from the first two films, Katie and Kristi (played by Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown), are only kids when they first experience their demon’s presence. Dennis (Christopher Smith), the wedding videographer boyfriend of their mother Julie (Lauren Bittner), decides to set up a few of his cameras throughout the house in order to record some of the weird sounds he’s been hearing. Kristi, who speaks with the demon regularly, says his name is Toby and he tells her many secrets for which she will be in “big trouble” if she tells anyone what they are. Although Dennis believes Kristi is communicating with something, Julie, the naïve character in the movie, says it’s just a phase she’ll get over in a week.

Once the cameras are set up, we are taken on a journey across 14 spine-chilling nights (and days!) where the paranormal events progressively worsen until the family needs to escape. Perhaps they will be safe at Grandmas?

One of the most memorable scenes – and definitely one of the most frightening – was the “Bloody Mary” scene, which is partially modified from the one shown in the trailer. Instead of Katie and Kristi playing the game together, Katie plays it with Dennis’ assistant, Randy. The scene was chockfull with so much suspense my heart nearly beat out of my chest even before the climax.

A marginally disappointing part of the movie was unfortunately the ending.  It was the kind of conclusion that, if you weren’t paying close attention to some of the back story that was being explained by the characters, you would probably have a hard time following. After first seeing Paranormal Activity 3 in theatres, I found the last few scenes very confusing and it left me with a number of questions like: Who are those oddly dressed women? Or what do those symbols mean again? It was more than a little frustrating.

The Blu-ray/DVD itself comes with the option of watching the theatrical as well as extended version of the film. Though there’s no huge difference between the two, the extended version does include some delightfully spooky scenes that were not seen in theatres.

During a Blu-ray and DVD release screening at the Rue Morgue House of Horror, I was able to have the rare opportunity to participate in a Q&A with directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman as well as actor Christopher Smith. The event was named “Tea with Toby.” Luckily, his presence was rather quiet throughout the evening.

Joost and Schulman were able to answer a lot of questions the third film brought up regarding some aspects of the storyline that sometimes didn’t add up to the story lines of the first two films. For example, in the original Paranormal Activity when Micah (Micah Sloat) finds a burned picture of Katie (Katie Featherston) from when she was a little girl, Katie says she hadn’t seen that picture since before the fire. The third movie does not directly address this event for the most part because it wasn’t supposed to be a part of the story, Schulman explains. Apparently, Featherston mentioned the fire off script while improvising during the scene. Since the majority of the three films have been improvisation, the filmmakers have had to fill in pieces of information that weren’t supposed to even be a part of the story.

Although there has been some talk of a fourth installment of the Paranormal Activity series, nothing has been decided, says Schulman. However, he also said if they do decide there is “a great story to tell,” it will likely delve even deeper into Katie and Kristi’s (and their demon’s) past.

Paranormal Activity 3 was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on January 24, 2012.

www.paranormalmovie.com/trailer