You may have thought it was over, but it’s not. “Paranormal Activity” is back once again with the fourth installment in the series. The first three were far less than fantastic, and “Paranormal Activity 4” only continued the trend.
The film begins with a teenage girl named Alex filming her younger brother Wyatt’s soccer game with a hand-held video camera, the typical filming technique of this particular series of horror movies. The camera pans in on another small boy awkwardly standing on the sidelines of the game, watching. After refocusing on the game for a few minutes, the camera swivels over to the boy again… but he has disappeared. Later that night, Alex and her boyfriend Ben are heading to her backyard clubhouse, expecting a romantic evening, only to find the little boy hiding out there. At this point, it’s clear that the little boy is Alex’s 5-year-old neighbor Robbie – but there’s something slightly off about him from the very beginning, from his eerily antisocial personality to his silly socks-and-sandals combination. Not to mention that he is constantly lurking in places he’s not supposed to be.
One night Robbie’s mother is mysteriously injured and taken to the hospital. Consequently, Alex’s mother volunteers to babysit Robbie until his mom is able to recover. Robbie immediately makes himself at home, forging an instant bond with Wyatt, also five years old. Robbie is obnoxiously creepy, consistently roaming the house in the wee hours of the morning for no apparent reason. Alex and Ben begin to suspect ‘paranormal activity’ when they turn off the lights and the infrared tracking dots of Wyatt’s Xbox Kinect detect an invisible person moving next to Robbie on the couch. The entire movie consists of them videotaping Robbie doing creepy things, like sneaking into Alex’s bedroom in the middle of the night or wandering into the living room and talking to the TV.
Like every other predictable “scary movie,” the parents do not seem to believe their children about the obvious supernatural forces in the house, even though it’s all being caught on film. I suppose it wasn’t a dead giveaway when Robbie started drawing devil-worshipping cult symbols on Wyatt’s back with magic marker.
I appreciate the work that went into making this movie, but the overall quality was ridiculously substandard. Needless to say, I was not impressed. It’s true that child demons are always a nice touch if you’re going for a healthy dose of disturbing. For me, it was more of a dark comedy than a horror movie, particularly the scene in which Wyatt is riding a tricycle around the dining room while an invisible force pushes a chair in front of him, blocking his path. Instead of panicking and hyperventilating like his sister probably would have, Wyatt simply giggles at the entertainment of the “magic” unfolding before his eyes.
All in all, “Paranormal Activity 4” has potential, but it was painfully predictable. I would definitely recommend something with more substance and plot depth, something that you will not consider a waste of your time and money when you walk out of the theater.
