Review of "Paranormal Activity 3".

[Los Angeles resident]

Saw "Paranormal Activity 3" at a special Hollywood premiere Tuesday evening Oct. 18. I also had the honor of seeing Katie Featherston signing autographs for us fans waiting patiently to see it. Unfortunately, I left my Droid smartphone in the car because it was my understanding we would be wanded for recording devices. That didn't happen and many people had their cameraphones with them. I would have loved to get my pic taken with Katie. Oh well.

Anyway, back to the movie. "Paranormal Activity 3" is a prequel to the first two movies. The movie starts in 2005 with Katie getting together with her younger sister Kristi at her house and both come across some old VHS tapes of them taken in 1988 when they were children left behind by their deceased grandmother. They watch a tape and that is the premise of the film.

The overriding glaring error in this film is that the entire 1988 portion of the film was shot in HD in 1:85:1 or 16 x 8 ratio which caused me to ask the question "oh really?" If my memory is correct, HD video in that ratio did not exist. The film would have been more realistic had the picture quality looked more like VHS with the ratio in 1:33:1 or 4x3. The father, Dennis, works as a wedding videographer and he has a linear editing system consisting of two 4x3 monitors and VHS tape similar to the editing system I used when I took video production classes in college in the early 1990s so the film gets kudos for that.

The film starts with young Katie celebrating her birthday with her little sister Kristi looking on. As the story progresses, we discover that Kristi has an imaginary friend named Toby. When it's time for the girls to go to bed, Kristi gets up, walks toward the camera (yes, just like the first two movies, this family has camcorders set up around the house recording their life) and starts talking to her imaginary friend. Meanwhile, Dennis and his wife Julie decide to make love while the camera is rolling. Just as things start to get hot, an earthquake strikes. As Dennis and Julie run out of their room to check on the kids, crushed pieces of plaster fall from the ceiling. When the plaster lands, it appears to hit something invisible, the first sign that there is a spirit in their midst. Throughout the film, things escalate as Kristi's imaginary friend starts taking things to higher levels causing her older sister Katie great worry and concerning Dennis as the paranormal happenings are all caught on tape.

The first "Paranormal Activity" film had a great premise in which a couple liked to record their life on tape. Problem with making sequels with a story like this is you get every family recording their lives on tape and so you start to wonder why is it that every generation of this family likes documenting every move they make? Another thing I found tedious is that like the first two movies (and practically most clichéd horror films), this film contained quite a bit of "scare scenes" that makes you jump. This film had a few legitimate scares but had one that was so predictable, I didn't even budge in my seat when it happened.

With every subsequent sequel having more or less the same premise, you start to wonder when this story is getting old. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 6.

"Paranormal Activity 3" starts this Friday October 21 with special midnight previews Thursday night.

[russtafa]

i prefer INSIDIOUS a far better film

[Dino Velvet]

i prefer INSIDIOUS a far better film

Insidious is very good.

I might wait for PA3 to come out on DVD. I enjoyed the first 2 in the theater.

[SirCumsAlot]

wait... there's seriously a paranormal activity 3??? First one sucked ass imo

[SirCumsAlot]

i prefer INSIDIOUS a far better film

:iagree::iagree::iagree:
that movie was like the best new age "scary" movie up to date. White noise 2 is a pretty good one too. Good movie to watch with ya chick, but insidious is awesome

[deadlyray]

i prefer INSIDIOUS a far better film

The first half of Insidious was outstanding, the second half was completely shitty. I thought Paranormal Activity got much, much better at the end.

The effect first Paranormal Activity can't be duplicated in my opinion...

[TSMichelleAustin]

Yea watch previews, the time on the, so called recorded video has a new font that looks like it was put on in editing. If u look at videos in 88 they had that green block font. The first was stupid, the second wasn't worth seeing and this is ridiculous! It all looks fake!

[bassman2546]

How would you rate it compared to Paranormal Activity 2, or what I like to refer it as Paranormal Activity Blew? If it's the same or worse, I will pass pass pass on it.

[Kari]

Wasnt very impressed with the first two, i'll watch it on Dvd when it arrives

.

[tsadriana]

Wasnt very impressed with the first two, i'll watch it on Dvd when it arrives

.
I can give u a link and watch for free ...:)

[Kari]

I can give u a link and watch for free ...:)
Hahaha, you mean another link to you showing your arse?

I fell for that before :-P

[tsadriana]

Hahaha, you mean another link to you showing your arse?

I fell for that before :-P
no sugar ...

:):):):)

[Los Angeles resident]

How would you rate it compared to Paranormal Activity 2, or what I like to refer it as Paranormal Activity Blew? If it's the same or worse, I will pass pass pass on it.

It was scarier only because it involved children in peril.

[Los Angeles resident]

Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, October 19, 2011

"PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3" HAS A SCARY GOOD LOVE-AFFAIR WITH FANS
Fans from L.A. to Melbourne, Australia attend special "Paranormal Activity 3" previews. The third in the horror franchise should keep tensions, profits high.

By JOHN HORN, Los Angeles Times

The scene Tuesday night at the ArcLight's Cinerama Dome looked like any other Hollywood premiere: a high-energy mix of bright lights, loud music and enthusiastic crowds. Yet there was no red carpet, no celebrity entourages, no drove of paparazzi — because the real stars of "Paranormal Activity 3" are not the film's cast, but its fans.

More than 2,200 ardent followers of the "found-footage" horror franchise queued up for several hours for a special "Paranormal Activity 3" preview two days ahead of the film's Thursday midnight opening. Thousands of other fans in Vancouver, Canada; Melbourne, Australia; Panama City; Tel Aviv; London; São Paulo, Brazil; and Mexico City also got to attend their own premieres — having been among the cities that cast the most Twitter votes for early screenings.

"These are the most passionate fans, the most vocal supporters," Rob Moore, the vice chairman of "Paranormal" maker Paramount Pictures, said as he walked along Sunset Boulevard, eyeing a raucous and ethnically diverse crowd that circled half the giant block. "We know these are the people who are going to champion it. It's a phenomenon completely driven by word of mouth."

Facing the new wide releases "Johnny English Reborn" and "The Three Musketeers" the third "Paranormal" film should easily win the weekend, capping a remarkable chain of events for the movies about a spectral invasion in the suburbs. Audience tracking surveys suggest that the roughly $5-million, R-rated "Paranormal Activity 3" could gross some $40 million in its first weekend, with little competition in the weeks to come.

Shot in his own condo with an improvised script, time-lapse effects and just $15,000, writer-director Oren Peli's first "Paranormal" film became a global sensation in 2009, grossing more than $193 million worldwide. Last year's sequel took in less — $177.5 million total — but disproved the notion that you couldn't make a successful sequel to a "found footage" film. ("The Blair Witch Project" blazed a trail for such scary faux documentaries in 1999, grossing nearly $250 million worldwide, but its follow-up in 2000 flopped.)

"What works best about the franchise is that it's tiny and intimate — and that the audience is happy with that," Moore said. "We've tried not to blow that up into something gigantic. Just because you can afford it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do."

"Paranormal 3" focuses on the not-very-innocent childhood of Katie, the main protagonist. The horror series emphasizes tension over gore, so it's imperative to keep the scale small and the scares organic, lest audiences quickly tire of Katie's ghost troubles. At the same time, the "Paranormal" movies follow surprisingly rigid rules about how and why a video camera is recording something.

"It's very tricky to do, because you have to remain consistent and always justify why the camera is filming, which you don't have to do in a traditional film," said Jason Blum, who produced all three "Paranormal" movies. Said Ariel Schulman, who co-directed the third film with his fellow "Catfish" filmmaker Henry Joost: "There's basically a list — a manifesto, like Dogma films. And you have to follow the rules, because the audience subconsciously knows the rules."

In the third film, set in the late 1980s, the film's recording begins with a sex tape session interrupted by an earthquake. When falling plaster dust reveals the outlines of some spirit in the bedroom of Katie's mother (Lauren Bittner), her videographer boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith), starts placing cameras around the home to see what's happening. It's quickly apparent that as children Katie (Chloe Csengery) and her younger sister, Kristi (Jessica Brown), might know someone — or something — named Toby, who or which isn't keen on leaving the premises.

In "Paranormal Activity 3's" signature invention, dreamed up by screenwriter Christopher Landon, Dennis places a video camera atop the housing of an oscillating fan, so that it can pan from one room to another, looking for any ghostly mischief. Because the camera moves so slowly over the same sets, it forces the audience to study the frame as if it were examining tiny brush strokes in a giant oil painting. Consequently, you're so focused on the frame that when something happens, you're likely to jump that much higher.

As important as the series is to Paramount, the "Paranormal" movies don't fit the traditional filmmaking model, where a studio revises a screenplay with one or more writers, hires a director who casts the production and shoots the script, and then repeatedly tests the movie with preview audiences to make sure the whole thing works.

The "Paranormal" movies are often improvised during production, and the finished "Paranormal 3" bears little resemblance to the film's original outline. One of the film's more shocking scenes, coming near its final moments, wasn't shot until just a few weeks ago. The film's third act — in which the protagonists leave their home, in a "Paranormal" first — was a late addition, and the filmmakers made some tiny tweaks after its sole test screening, on Sept. 14.

"These have turned into the craziest production techniques of any movies we've ever worked on," said Adam Goodman, Paramount's production chief. "We do all of our reshoots in the middle of making the movie. With this kind of production, you have the ability to keep making and remaking it until you get it right. It's so cheap."

The first two "Paranormal" films were particularly well received by Latino audiences and teenage girls, and this one should be no different. The built-in fan base means the studio will spend less than $20 million marketing "Paranormal 3" in the U.S, about half of what it typically costs to launch a wide release.

Asked if Paramount would be interested in a fourth "Paranormal," Moore said with a laugh: "As long as we can find some more footage."

Copyright © 2011 Los Angeles Times

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i169/AndrewInPhoenix/Katie_Featherston.jpg

(ABI Images/Alex J. Berliner) "Paranormal Activity" franchise actress Katie Featherston is greeted by fans Tuesday, Oct. 18 at a special preview screening of the series' third installment at the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

[BraveHeartz]

The movie is only in HD for cinemas, coz grainy VHS picture wouldn't be too popular with current ticket prices.
In the movie though, the footage is clearly 4:3 and grainy as fuck on the guys TV.

I think it's just something they had to do.

[kaiser1one]

The first 2 were better than the 3rd.

The children dont make any part of the movie scary. Children do not make things scary.

[deadlyray]

I enjoy these movies because of the audience moreso than the movie itself... and the audience really got into the movie and screamed. I loved this movie.