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Author
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Topic: Paranormal Activity 4
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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008
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posted 10-20-2012 02:54 AM
I haven't seen any of the previous entries in this series (not in full, anyway) and, sure, the 3rd sequel isn't the best jumping off point for entering any franchise but, hey, I've read the wikis on the previous movies and it doesn't look like I've missed a hell of a lot.
Paranormal Activity 4 seems to the standard of its predecessors as not a lot happens in it either. In truth there's probably sufficient material in all the entries so far for a single movie but such is not the benchmark for these "found footage" projects (I struggle to call them "films") which practically relies on the plot advancing at a snails pace to maintain a sense of "realism". This is deceptively tricky to pull off and the danger is that it results in a movie which is eye-glazingly boring for the most part while you wait for its (hopefully) shocking and scary climax in the last few minutes. This precisely describes the problem with Paranormal Activity 4.
It is ironic that this franchise means to explain through each succeeding movie what is actually going on with its supernatural shenanigans when explanation tends to be the antithesis of this type of picture. What made The Blair Witch Project creepy was that we didn't know what was going on. The point of a "found footage" movie is that you don't know any more than the incumbent subjects. This "knowing too much" kills the tension. We know Katie is the baddie, that was in the previous features/wikis; and we know that kid is evil, he wears socks with sandals. As a result, nothing surprises, we're just killing time until the final demonic action sequence which we all surely know is coming.
PA4 also suffers from the same ailment as all its kin in that there comes a point in all these movies where any sane person would drop the camera and get the fuck out of there. PA4 takes this to a ridiculous degree in its final moments - no one, and I mean no one, in their moment of greatest peril, is going to pull out their iPhone and document their own demise, especially when doing so increases their chances of their own demise! I suppose an exorcism app could be useful but no one is going to be recording videos to post on Youtube in the unlikely event that they survive the ordeal. Yet this is exactly what PA4 expects us to believe.
The Blair Witch Project cleverly drew on old In Search of... documentaries and harnessed the exploitatory nature of the internet to create something which was fresh and new. But "Found footage" is a one trick pony - it's not a whole genre - and it's a trick that we've seen too many times already.
1 out of 10.
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-21-2012 08:50 AM
"Grey Gardens" is a verite style documentary about Edith and Edie Bouvier-Beale, aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Onassis who lived in a squalid, old house in East Hampton, NY.
100 minutes of two old, crazy women running around half naked and cackling at the camera is more than any human should ever be subjected to.
The "shaky cam" technique isn't inherently bad. It can be useful in small doses, to augment certain types of scenes such as a battle, a fight or a football game. Maximum use: thirty seconds! If the movie is about football and there are a lot of action scenes, you might be able to stretch your total use of shaky cam to a minute or two, throughout the entire movie.
To make a whole movie with nothing but shaky cam is fatiguing. Frankly, it's an insult to the audience. They come expecting a certain amount of polish and professionalism in the movie and to subject them to such abuse is like saying, "I think you are stupid!"
Again, it's not the mere USE of such techniques. It is the RELIANCE on them to make an entire movie.
There is nothing like suspense and mystery in a movie. Movies like "Alien" and "The Shining" became classics because of suspense and mystery.
Even though the action in "The Shining" came mostly at the end there was still enough action in the plot to pull the story together at the end. There was no real, "hard" conclusion to the movie like most people, nowadays, are used to but the questions left unanswered, in this case, add to the movie. (Who were those people in the pictures on the wall?)
In the case of "Blair Witch" the whole movie seems to depend on the fact that there will never be a conclusion or even a consolidating question at the end of the movie to bring it all together.
So, if you take the boredom and lack of plot from "Grey Gardens" and add the shaky cam from "Blair Witch" then subtract out any other redeeming qualities from the rest of the production, what do you get?
Sounds to me like you're saying, "Paranormal Activity 4."
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