Here it comes: The creaking noise, a vague whirr of anticipation, the graininess, the stop-and-start scares. It’s ... a laptop. And it’s the whoo-hoo innovation of “Paranormal Activity 4.”
As “a-ha!” ideas go, this ranks slightly below “PA 3’s” hook, when we saw why, in the 1980s, a girl named Katie became the obsession of an invisible demon called Toby.
In this year’s edition, the adult Katie (Katie Featherston) is back. After a brief video shoutout to the baby abducted two paranormal activities ago, “PA 4” picks up in 2011, as grade-schooler Wyatt notices a strange neighbor kid across the street. Wyatt’s teenage sister, Alex (Kathryn Newton), sees the boy as well, hiding in her old treehouse.
The strange kid, Robbie (Brady Allen), winds up spending a few days at Wyatt’s house when the woman he calls “Mom” — Katie — is mysteriously spirited away by an ambulance one night. Soon, laptops provided by Alex’s annoying boyfriend (Matt Shively) are filming Robbie’s late-night wanderings, as well as floating knives, strange toy formations and doors opening sloowwlyyy .
“PA 4’s” best idea, besides reintroducing the slow-walking, statuesque Katie, is a strange video trick involving lots of little lights filling a darkened room. It’s tough to describe, but the cameras, of course, capture a figure the characters can’t.
What hard-working directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (who also did “PA 3,” as well as the tricksy faux-documentary “Catfish”) can’t capture is the correct ratio of scares-to-tedium. These movies, with their meta-You Tube frights, live or die on those. There are a few jolts, yet most are from someone jumping into the frame (which quickly grow tiresome). And there’s, of course, a promise of more activity to come.
But unless moviegoers think it’s worth watching another whole cast of characters sleep while their furniture moves around them, only diehard fans will stay awake for that next entry.
Watch the "Paranormal Activity 4" trailer here
Source : nydailynews[dot]com
