popular horror franchise disappoints with its overt predictability and weak plot.
Paranormal Activity 4 is set in Nevada rather than California, following 15-year-old Alex, played by Kathryn Newton, 6-year-old Wyatt, played by Aiden Lovekam and their suburban family. After his mother is hospitalized the family takes in their neighbor Robbie, played by Brady Allen, for a few days. During his stay, mysterious sounds and strange supernatural things begin to happen.
Alex brings a refreshing take to the series being that it is the first film in the franchise to focus on a teenager. Alex and her iChat buddy Ben, played by Matt Shively, setup the family laptops to monitor the disturbing things Robbie does at night.
The scenes in the beginning are fun, because of the genuine chemistry between the two teenage actors and their hilarious dialogue, however the laptops serve no purpose when no one watches the recorded material.
Some of the attractive scenes come from the product placement of the Xbox 360 Kinect. The sensors on the Kinect combined with night vision produces a motion detection visual that Alex and Robbie use to detect some of the strange activity that occurs at night. When Ben turns the sensors on one night the viewer sees a being standing beside Robbie. At first it is intriguing, but the over usage of the visual gets old quick.
Uninspiring tricks are played on the audience such as cheap scares, lackluster possessions and dark shadows in the background.
Most horror films would have tried to avoid this lapse in good writing by letting the characters find out what the entity is that haunts them and why it is even there, but all they find out is that it is a demon, which was barely an explanation to start with.
Each person in the family takes part in horrifying scenes toward the end of the film, but the scenes are unusually long and predictable. The audience would have either walked out or waited for it to end.
Like any other Paranormal Activity film the plot builds slowly and comes to a rigid and unnerving halt. Afterwards, the audience is left disappointed wondering what happened.
The first three films brought new ideas and depth to a stereotypical genre, but the fourth film only brings more unanswered questions to a soon to be dead series.
If the writers and directors did not depend so heavily on the usual tricks and treats of the first three films in the franchise, it could have been good.
With three great films ahead of it, the fourth film in the Paranormal Activity chain was destined to be produced, but sadly destined to disappoint.
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