On Thursday night, Oct. 20, a line wrapped in and out of the Sunchase Cinema 8 like a snake for the midnight premier of "Paranormal Activity 3." People waited so very anxiously to get scared senseless, and trust me, they got what they asked for.
"Paranormal Activity 3" is the latest installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise, this particular film being different than the rest because it follows the main characters as children and dictates how the haunting began.
The movie begins by introducing main characters, Kristi and Katie as two young little girls. They reside in a seemingly normal house with their mother and the mother's boyfriend. Nothing about the family or house appears to be out of place until one day, the mother's boyfriend is home alone. He hears strange noises coming from the girls' shared room, but cannot understand what is causing the eerie thuds as he is the only person in the house. The boyfriend recognizes that the sound is coming from a crawl space in the corner of the girls' room. When he opens the door, Kristi appears out of nowhere behind him and acts very strange about his snooping in the crawl space. This is where all the trouble begins. You find out Kristi has an "imaginary friend" named Toby. Kristi describes Toby as an older man who she can share secrets with.
The more curious the boyfriend seems to get, the greater the mysterious events become. The boyfriend decides to set up video cameras in his and the mothers' bedroom, the girls' bedroom, and he connects a camera to an oscillating fan that will capture images from the kitchen and living room. Self proclaimed horror movie buff, Katie Bennett , exclaimed the oscillating fan camera was one of her favorite aspects of the film stating, "It was really genius to put the camera on the fan because you were literally sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to see what was going to pop up when the camera panned to the next room." The slow moving camera pan definitely created a greater sense of thrill.
Another smart move from the producers of the film was creating false trailers for the movie. For the past month, people have cringed at the "Paranormal Activity 3" commercials on television, but if you have seen the film already, you know none of the scenes from the trailers are actually in the movie! The commercials had audiences expecting one thing from the movie, but then you get something completely different.
What "Paranormal Activity 3" lacks in gore, as far as scary movies go, it completely makes up for in shock value. As soon as the movie seems to be heading in one direction, it does a complete 360. The commercials advertise that the last 15 minutes will ruin your life, and this was no lie! Props to you if you can predict the ending because everyone seemed completely off guard. I have never been more scared during a movie, yet I can't wait to go see it again. "Paranormal Activity 3" is well worth the 10 dollar price of movies today, and will keep you on edge at all times.
Rating 4.5/5
