Embedded Files
Last year we reviewed the second movie in the Paranormal Activity series, and this year I went to go see the third installment of the trio, a sort of pre-prequel of the series. Hoping this review won't be as wordy as the previous one, I'll talk a bit about some of the things I liked about the film, and some observations. Some plot spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Before we begin, a great opening weekend. 8D Without a Saw movie cluttering up the field, the film had a great chance to make a good chunk of change.
Hitching the Trailer
First off, watch the trailer. Now keep in mind, you won't see half of what is new footage in the actual theatrical release. Movies these days seem to cram a lot of money shots into a trailer that you won't see in the actual theater release. Why? I have no clue. Maybe to drive DVD sales, I don't know. In fact a lot of images I've found for the film appear to be parts of press packs that don't include things you'll see in the movie. Again, I have no clue why.
So if you're expecting the epically unnerving Bloody Mary scene between Katie and Kristi, prepare to be disappointed. Pity, because that scene is one of the best hooks in the trailers.
Similar things happened in the trailer for the second movie, including shots of baby hunter crawling in the street. I haven't yet watched the DVD release of the second film, so I don't know if this was provided as extras.
Most of the footage from all the trailers for this movie will include footage from the last 2 movies, just to situate you in the plot. Unlike the first film's trailer which included more movie theater reactions than actual footage, you'll be seeing precious little that will be in the final result. In fact, almost all of the footage you'll see in the trailers (I've got 2 here) isn't in the theatrical release, from Kristi jumping off the balcony, to a paranormal specialist being beat to all hell and back.
While disappointing, it does set you up for expectations, then yanks the rug out from under you. PA3 will do this a lot. A hallmark of the series is misdirection, which, if you let it, will enhance the film. If you've come expecting scenes from the trailers, you'll sit in a tense ball, waiting for a scene, then be blindsided by an altogether different one. I will say that there are some great scenes that are even better than the teasers in the trailer, and the aforementioned Bloody Mary scene is replaced by a climactic scene that stands very well on its own (almost better than the teaser, and is in fact in part shown in the trailer below).
Also, pay attention to when the film starts, as there is no flash of the production company or movie title. In fact it dives headfirst into the film of Kristi painting Hunter's room, preparing for his birth, as well as Katie bringing these tapes to Kristi's house, given to her after their grandmother died. If you've watched the trailers for upcoming films and they were of the handycam nature (Chronicle being one of the ones we saw), you might not notice the film was already starting. This subtle beginning was very well done. And unlike the previous scenes, there is no card to tell you about the found footage by police, as if this is a police release of the footage. The true beginning of the film (namely the tapes about the girls' childhood) begins right after Dan mentioned that the tapes Katie brought were gone in the first big robbery/event of the first film. Who found the tapes? Who took them? These are all questions that leave one thinking long after the film is over.
The Devil Went to Foley
What I loved the most about each film in the series is the excellent foley work. From the gradually crescendoing bumps in the night from the first film to the demonic roars and thundering of the second's climax scene, all the foley work in PA3 was top notch. However, there were some big changes.
While some of the greater sounds were the footsteps and door creakings, the signal sound, the rumble that tells the viewer the demon is present, is surprisingly almost absent for most of the film. In its place is a different, altogether unnerving and (for me and my sensitive ears ;.;) piercing high frequency noise, not unlike the sound that one might hear when turning on a tv. You know what I mean.
Its not a prolonged sound, unlike the rumble, but a short repeated sound, usually twice, or only sustained for a few seconds. In PA2, the rumble only showed up roughly a third to halfway through the movie. The rumble in PA3 appeared much later on, when the demon, who is now named (I'll discuss this in the next section), appears to grow in power/strength. The roars and demonic moaning only occur at the end of the film, at the climax.
Was the high freq noise a good call? I do admit it was a good change of pace, but the signal noise didn't appear every single time the demon was present (such as the babysitter scene), which either means this was a change in the script, or that maybe, perhaps, the demon in the scene wasn't the demon at all.
Toby
"Don't call Toby fat", is a request by Kristi of her new imaginary friend. If you've read the awesome book How to Survive a Horror Movie, you know if your child has an imaginary friend whom may be supernatural in existence, then you should determine if the said friend is friendly or harmless. In this instance, we can assume that no. No, this friend is not harmless or friendly. In fact, Kristi's new friend, whom she calls Toby, is anything but.
Toby, invisible and whose whims are only told through Kristi, is a very tall being, who seems to tell her "secrets" and if she tells anyone what they are, she "won't be safe". All these details about Toby unnerve Dennis, mom Julie's boyfriend, whom is the primary male character in the film, and the one who sets up all the cameras (being a wedding film editor).
Being named, and very obviously communicated with (albeit only with Kristi), the demon does not diminish in power or threat in this installment. In fact, Toby is very proactive in his/its menacing, going from playing hide and seek in the middle of the night and looming under dust in the first few scenes of the movie, to outright attacking in broad daylight by pulling Katie's hair, or locking her in the crawl-in closet in the girls' room. He's also very creative, though at times almost too whimsically evil.
The best scene in the film is the kitchen scene, near the end of the film, where the demon's creativity and the movie's misdirection make the best combination and best the kitchen scene of the the second film. I can't possibly tell you exactly what it is, but I will say a friend who went to see it with me said, "They made me think A, and they hit me with B. Slapped me across the FACE with B." This is not your mother's Poltergeist.
Girl's Town
After viewing the film, my sister's boyfriend turned to me and said, "Man. This movie just loves to kill men." If you've seen the previous movies, then you know that the male protagonists don't end up being Final Boys (in fact, there are precious few Final Girls). Here in this installment, we get 2 (not counting the father in the second film whom makes a brief vocal cameo in the beginning of the film, more on that later): Dennis, Julie's boyfriend, and his friend in his editing business, Randy. Let's recall the other main males of the series, namely Micah of PA1, Dan the father of PA2, and Hunter, the baby of PA2. If anime and video games are deadly to be a mother, then PA is deadly to men.
Micah, the disbelieving and overly macho boyfriend meets his end by bullying the demon, and in fact meets his end by Katie's hand. He comes off as almost unlikable (just likable enough to want to stick with the movie, but know he's dead meat by the end). Dan, on the other hand, disbelieves initially to protect his family, and in the end must make that difficult and painfully fatal choice that seals his fate. While you see his behavior and choices as dumb initially, you do come to the understanding that Dan must protect his family and do it at any cost.
Dennis' failing, then, is his curiosity. Like a doomed folklorist of the Fatal Frame series, Dennis' fate is his being drawn into it without his real intention. Sure, as the weirdness begins, he pursues it by filming and insisting that there is indeed a presence (unlike his predecessors whom deny the demon almost immediately), but his is a curiosity, rather than aggressive goading (Micah) or desperate denial (Dan). He does not seek to provoke Toby, but does try to discover its true intentions or its origin. This makes him likeble almost immediately; and unless one walks into a horror movie with the destestible notion that ALL decisions made by characters to move the plot are all stupid, then you can't hate Dennis for his curiosity and drive to figure out what is going on in his new family.
Julie's denial is not unlike Dan's, and for the same reasons of trying to keep her little girls from being scared. You do have some misgivings of her, since she vehemently denies the occult origins that Dennis discovers later, and her odd behavior in the first big scene shortly before the earthquake. And then there's Grandma, whom asks Julie why she doesn't have a larger family, or when she's getting a grandson (HINT HINT HINT). After Ali's research from the second movie, about the deals with the devil in Katie & Kristi's family and the cultist coven mentions, you know this is going to be addressed in this film. Some reviewers call it cliche and out of place in the movie. This seems like a totally ridiculous issue to lobby at the film when it was mentioned fully in the previous film (which is my short way of saying that particular reviewer is either not paying attention or just looking for something to say that is dissenting). You knew this was coming, and now we get to see it.
What is this series really trying to say about men in the film, then? Its obvious the men are all guilty of certain masculine traits that end up doing them in at the end (with the exception of Dennis, who is only guilty of curiosity, and Randy whom does not die but does get hurt). Its also obvious that men are victims (including Hunter, who is the lynchpin to the whole demonic terrorizing), while the women seem to possess all the power; consider Randy who tries to dissuade Katie from her Bloody Mary venture many times, and ends up being hurt by the event. You can debate the male/female power dynamic til the cows come home, but unlike other female empowerment films you'll see in horror (most obviously the sometimes completely exploitive rape-revenge fantasy genres like I Spit on Your Grave), this one is more subtle (slightly less so in the third film admittedly).
Maybe Katie
Remembering the other films, you do wonder: why Katie? Its obvious that the demon preferred to deal with Kristi (Toby only seems to respond to her, or at least speak and hang out with her), and in fact did try to harm Katie numerous times (the hair pulling, the closet locking, even one of the bigger scenes where the demon attacks near the end of the film). Katie doesn't have a son that the demon seems to want; Kristi does. Katie is the one who is tormented by the demon primarily, and ends up killing her way to Hunter by the end of the second film. Katie is the one who seemed to wield that weird and frightening power in both PA3 at the end, and on Micah in PA1. Katie, it seems, is really Toby's avatar. Because of the transference in the second installment, Toby's/the demon's powers go along to Katie, but is that really all there is? Perhaps. Perhaps not. If Dan hadn't moved the demon's attention to Katie, what would have become of Kristi's family? Would she have taken Hunter to his end? It seems to take the edge off the baby Hunter angle, having the aunt kill her way to get him, rather than watch a mother do it herself, but could that angle also have borne similar, if not just as potent fruit? Or maybe I'm just babbling. But that's fun too.
Order Up
I do recommend this movie,though its tricky to tell one in which order to see them. Obviously, the chronological order is 3, 2, 1 (though one can make the case to watch 1 then 2, and it can work). But if one asked me, I would recommend watching them in release/numerical order. There's nothing wrong with watching it in this way, after all, this is how many of us had to. Sometimes some stories don't get told in linear order, even ghost stories. That's what make them real in their own way.
Bottom Line
Oh, god, yes, go see it. You don't necessarily have to have seen the other movies (as I mentioned above), and in any case, the scares are the same either way. Its a unique trio of movies that everyone should see once (or see more than once to see what you missed the first time). Yes, its the most fun in a theater with everyone else screaming their little heads off, but don't cheat yourself and only vow to see it that way. Watching the other movies at home alone is just as effective. The only bottom line is that you should see it. Its just as fun as the originals, and really, you have got to see the fashions anyway. Totally 80s. Highly recommended.
--Dio (10/25/11)
(Images and trailers from Beyond Hollywood.com, entertainment weekly.com, movie web.com, the Hollywood Reporter.com, USA Today .com, IGN.com)
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