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Late To The Party: Paranormal Activity 1-3
There are movies that take off like a wildfire with audiences. Suddenly everyone needs to see the new shocking film. It happens every few years. I remember back in early 2009 a buddy of mine messaged me saying he just saw this pre-screening of this new horror movie, Paranormal Activity, that scared the piss out of him. The message started with “I know you don’t like found footage films but…..” That was where I was lost.
Its really no big secret my dislike and mistrust in the style of storytelling of found footage films. In fact, when I told some people that I was going to watch these films, they looked at me funny, never expecting me to actively seek out. While there are some that I like (Willow Creek, Chronicle, The Blair Witch Project) most are often held back by the constraints that come with this type of film making. So, Paranormal Activity eventually came out, became a huge hit, spawned five sequels and countless parodies. So when it came time for me to do another LTTP I figured I would go for the series I have been avoiding for almost seven years. That and the triple pack was wicked cheap at the used record store.
Paranormal Activity
As much as I don’t like found footage films, I loved movies about hauntings, especially when they have great sound design. I’ll admit, the first film had my attention because of this. The two main characters were well acted and didn’t fall into the realm of annoyance. The spectacles with the hauntings were wicked good, utilizing some great sound design to evoke a lot of tension. When it comes to why the characters are filming, a pretty big issue I have with most found footage films, this one address it pretty well. In fact, all three do a good job of giving good reason behind filming, even the first film’s characters have a mental breakdown about the cameras. The film is a great exercise in patience and drawing out as much time as possible as most of the film is basically B-Roll, but this works to its advantage and we are left staring at a blank space for long periods of time. Honestly the build up of the hauntings and the back story are really good until the very end.
These films have a very tough time with their endings and the first one is the prime example. Didn’t they film 4-5 different endings because they didn’t know how to wrap it up? I’ll admit, Micah being thrown at the camera only to have it knocked down revealing Katie was great. Even her crawling around, sniffing his body and then looking at the camera was great. What wasn’t great, that fucking CGI face at the very end. For a movie that plays out on how realistic it is, that one CGI effect killed the ever living fuck out of it. After an hour and a half of being drawn into this movie I was taken out faster then someone saying Bloody Mary in the mirror. Honestly, it’s my only big complaint. The film isn’t a masterpiece, but it does a great job of building tension in all the right places and is a fun ride. Luckily, the series just gets better from there.
Paranormal Activity 2
Paranormal Activity 2 does exactly what sequels are meant to do, build upon the original. Boy did they ever. More cameras and good reason as to why those cameras were set up, increased number and intensity level of the hauntings, adding more characters including a dog and a baby, and all around improved on the formula from the first film. PA2 follow’s Katie’s sister and her family, with the timeline starting before the events of the first film, though the final act takes place during and after the first film’s timeline. This choice to continue the story through a semi-prequel works perfectly for expanding what little story was presented with the first film and even made the events of the first more terrifying, showing that it wasn’t a random haunting. While most sequels fail because they expand and explain too much of what happened with the first, PA2 does a fantastic job of expanding without telling too much, all the while being its own film.
While PA2 does a great job of continuing what make the original great and fixing a lot of what didn’t work, it still suffered from a baffling good/bad ending. Basically Kristi becomes possessed by the demon and has a kind of explained exorcism that pushes the demon onto Katie (setting up the first film). The movie then cuts to shortly after the events of the first film where Katie has since become the demon possessed version of The Terminator. Seriously, what the fuck was with her just snapping the husband’s head? This moment was almost as bad as the original’s CGI demon face. It’s quickly followed by a confrontation between Katie and Kristi where Kristi begs for her sons life before being thrown at the camera in the room. Once again, the series does a great job of pulling me into the film only to pull me out of it again in the final moments. PA2 is still a better film than the first one, it was just disappointing seeing it suffer the same fate of the original when it came to the ending.
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 3 is a prequel to the prequel, because we needed more explanation on why this family is fucked. It follows when Kristi and Katie were young and were first haunted by Tobi, the demon from the first two films. It takes place in the 80’s and is “shot on VHS.” Ok, let just get this out of the way. It was not shot on VHS, it was shot in HD with VHS filters, which the film pretty much completely drops about fifteen minutes into the film. While I respect the filmmakers going for and embracing the aesthetic, I wish they kept it going for the entirety of the film. Or perhaps use the format to their advantage. Warps and tracking would have been a fucking great touch if used properly at the right moments. But I digress.
PA3 proves to be the most solid film of the three. The tension, motivation of the characters, and creativity behind it the found footage format are creative. One of my favorite parts is when one of the main characters jerry-rigs a VHS camcorder to a fan so it can move back and forth. This not only adds movement to some of the shots, but is also used in ways to show/not show scares. They even fixed their issues with ending with a truly creepy and confusing ending. All in all, PA3 is my favorite out of the three films.
Final Thoughts
The Paranormal Activity films did not change my distrust with found footage films, but I had a lot of fun with them. They act as great pieces of tension and seem like they would be a hell of a good time with a large crowd. Often I found myself immersed in them with their great use of sound, long shots of nothing and slow tension building. The jumps scares can be predictable at times and the CGI takes me out of it, but when the frights hit they land very well. The world building within the films is fantastic and I felt pretty satisfied with the story as a whole. I don’t really feel a need to seek out the following sequels yet. Mostly with Ghost Dimension, the idea of sitting through a 3D found footage film both angers me and make my stomach upset. I don’t regret not seeing these films sooner, but I do wish I caught at least one of them in theaters to have the experience of seeing it with a large crowd. Overall, the triple pack I bought was worth the $7.50 I paid at the used record store.
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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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