Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) Review

"One of us is gonna be dead by the end of it."

-Randy Rosen

This prequel to the first two films follows a young Katie (Chloe Csengery) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown).  Their Mom, Julie (Lauren Bittner), makes a sex tape with her boyfriend, Dennis (Chris Smith), and while looking at the footage, Dennis notices an invisible figure.  Dennis sets cameras up all around the house and continues to record strange activity that seems to be connected to Kristi's imaginary friend.

What Works:

Paranormal Activity 3 gives us by far the most likable protagonist to this point in the series in Dennis.  He just seems like a super nice guy and is nothing but kind and caring to Julie and her kids.  It's nice to see a a positive step-dad figure.  It's a character we don't get enough in movies.  He's a great lead character and an excellent lens to view the plot of the movie through.

What I find really interesting is the gender-role swap in the film.  In the first two movies and many supernatural film, the male characters are usually shown as the skeptical, rational ones, while the females are believers and seem to be irrational at the start of the film.  The roles are reversed here with Dennis being the one to believe something is wrong and Julie is the last to get on board.  It's really interesting and a different dynamic than we saw in the two previous films.

The scares are pretty awesome here.  I love the classic disappearance of a figure under a sheet and, of course, Julie walking into the kitchen only to find everything on the ceiling.  That made me jump when it crashed down all around her.  The filmmakers took the kitchen scare from the previous film and brought it to the next level...literally.  I was also really caught off-guard by the cult storyline.  I have some issues with it, but I love Dennis running into a group of cultists at the end of the film.  That was another scare that got me.

My favorite sequence is when Randy (Dustin Ingram) and Katie get trapped in the bathroom after doing a game of "Bloody Mary."  It's a really intense sequence with excellent acting from both actors.    It's a great sequence and enough for Randy to just leave the plot of the movie.  He's a smart man.

Finally, since this movie takes place in the 80's, I like that Dennis' technology is more limited than what we saw in the first two films.  We get to watch him be pretty ingenious with setting a camera up on the base of a fan.  This moving camera does a great job of naturally building tension and was a great idea by the filmmakers.

What Sucks:

The most annoying scene in the film comes when Dennis tries to explain to Julie what is going on.  Instead of starting with the tape showing everything she needs to know, Dennis starts off with a backstory about a cult that Julie immediately dismisses.  It's really frustrating to watch because this conflict was completely avoidable if Dennis had just been smarter about how he presented his information.

I don't like children, especially in movie.  I typically find them annoying and that is definitely the case here.  The scenes with the two girls interacting just made my skin crawl as they are both pretty insufferable as are most kids their age. 

Finally, I don't know if this movie needed to exist.  I was fine without the backstory of what happened to Katie and Kristi when they were younger.  I think it was creeper that it was left to our imagination. If I had seen this in theaters, I would have been disappointed that it wasn't a continuation of the first two films.  I don't think this story warranted a prequel.

Verdict:

Paranormal Activity 3 is better than the second movie and almost as good as the first.  Dennis is a great protagonist, we get some genuinely scary sequences, the reversal of gender-roles is interesting, and I like the setting of the 80's.  I don't think this story needed a prequel, the girls were annoying, and there is one really frustrating scene, but, for the most part, this movie has got it going on.

 7/10: Good