Paranormal Activity 4 (trailer)

Paranormal Activity 4.

So apparently in the new Paranormal Activity, Katy, with Hunter in tow, moves into a suburban neighborhood and starts terrorizing the couple next door.

This could be good or bad. On the one hand, I don't think the premise makes any sense. This demon has waited decades in order to recieve the son he was promised, and then once he has it, he does what with it.... settles down in suburbia and starts scaring kids for sport? Why on Earth would he possibly do that?

I'm sure they'll explain why this has to happen in the film. And that's the point of contention for me. Part of me wants them to come up with a really good explanation for why such a weird plot makes sense. But the other part of me wants the movie to forgo the mythos-building and get back to what makes Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 good. Better than good, in fact, some of the best fucking films ever made.

What made PA 1 and 2 great is exactly what inspired Oren Peli to create Paranormal Activity in the first place. He had always been frightened of ghosts, and tapped into that universal fear to create the film. Put emphasis on universal. Those films are so scary because they're some of the most relatable horror films ever made.

Everyone's been alone in a house or building and heard random noises that 99+% likely are nothing sinister, but then you hear it again, and again. Paranormal Activity rachets up the action slowly so that you can put yourself in their place. The universality of the experience is part and parcel of what makes these films so unsettling and the richer of a backstory it gets, the more complex of a mythology it weilds, the less universal it becomes and the less scary it is.

With PA4 taking on the ole' "scary neighbor" motif it seems like it could potentially be returning to a more classic scare, with less of the mythos building. But it could just as easily take the mythos-building to yet new heights. Only time will tell.

In any case I'm excited for it and I love to see this franchise expand and proliferate, no matter the results. Paranormal Activity has become the first, and inarguably the best, found footage franchise and for that it deserves kudos from the likes of me. Twenty, thirty years down the line Paranormal Activity may well still retain the title as the ultimate found footage franchise. [REC] turned away from found footage a long time ago so it's not even a contest.