Review Tuesday: Paranormal Activity 3

Mrs. Bax0jayz and I enjoyed the first first two Paranormal Activity movies so much we decided to see this third installment.

Fallowing suit, this movie comes before the previous flick, so it takes place while the women are little girls. You may recall that the sisters mentioned in the last movie about the strange things that went on when they were little girls. Well, this movie focuses in on that whole aspect: the first appearance of the demon, the mother, the wedding movie step-dad, and the grandmother (and her role in the grand scheme of things).

We read reviews saying that the movie was largely dull until the last 15 minutes, then it turns terrifying. I disagree with that, but I'll tell you why in a moment.

The movie starts around the time that the girls are adults and strange things start happening. A box of old video tapes from the 80s is out into storage. This movie is supposed to be the footage from those tapes. Strange things start occurring and Dennis (the step-father played by Christopher Nicholas Smith) decides to tape-record the home to see what's causing it. The movie is the footage recorded over the course of weeks until the end of it all. It starts off very slowly and picks up momentum. You have already seen a lot of the tricks from the previous movies, I suppose that's to establish a recurring behavior on the part of the demon. The twist really comes up in the end when you find out who the villain really is.

The acting is as cheesy as you'd expect. And it's as low budget as ever. But that would be okay if it had the scary pay-off that you want. It was certainly creepy, but it never got too scary. I did, however, see a lot of people jump from their seats during scenes of heightened suspense, but I don't think this gave anyone sleepless nights as a result.

A plus is the girls' mom, Julie (plated by Lauren Bittner), who seemed very sexy and milfy in her role. Well done!

In the end, it's Halloween time so this should be fine for some quick thrills, but it probably won't scare the wits out of anyone. Still fun to see where all the Paranormal Activity started.

More on imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1778304/

EDIT: Something annoying... pretty much all the cool stuff you've seen in commercials and trailers are NOT actually in the movie. I imagine the extended cut DVD will be much cooler.