The people behind Paranormal Activity deserve a lot of credit for keeping their unrivaled horror franchise afloat this long. As the standard bearer for the latest wave of found footage horrors, so far they've managed to keep each film relatively fresh with some slick technological advancements, or in the case of the last film going a bit retro. But the greatest accomplishment has been crafting an expansive storyline while also establishing a character that ranks among one of the best modern horror villains.
That would of course be Katie (Katie Featherston), whose simple suburban origins and common appearance somehow make her arrival all the more terrifying. Paranormal Activity 4 picks up five years after Paranormal Activity 2, a simple recap reminding us of her casual slaughtering of her sister's family, stealing away with their son, Hunter. The previous film was an origin tale that revealed much of the motivation behind the attack, and this story not only moves us closer to the present but takes those plans a step further. Set in 2011 Nevada, we're introduced to bubbly and webcam-obsessed teen, Alex (Kathryn Newton), who flirts with her horny best friend Ben (Matt Shively) both in person and over Skype. Her parents are going through a rough patch, leaving her primarily responsible to watch her 6-year old brother, Wyatt (Aiden Lovevamp).
When an emergency occurs at the home of the new neighbors across the street, the creepy young son named Robbie (Brady Allen) comes over to stay for a few days, and of course that's when the weird stuff starts happening. The old tricks still carry a lot of weight, and the usual "booms" and "bumps" in the night while the family sleeps are as disturbing as ever. This has never been a franchise recommended for those who are light sleepers, and doesn't change here. Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman return and they employ many of the same angles and tricks of perspective to keep you off-balance for the biggest scares, getting a good deal of mileage out of Alex's distracted conversations over laptop. As she wanders around the house in conversation with Ben, you just want her to look up and notice that shadow moving in the corner. But she's got all of the attention span and focus of a typical teen, which makes her different than all of the lead victims we've seen previously.
The newest technological wrinkle is certainly clever if underutilized, as the Microsoft X-Box Kinect is used to emit beams of green infrared light while in total darkness. It's a freaky sensation as the family's silhouettes move about the house, and is even freakier when something that shouldn't be there starts moving as well.
Much of what happens will feel very familiar, and you can pretty much predict the escalating pattern of events. When it's too quiet and it seems like something's about to pop out, something usually does. If someone seems a little too strange, it's probably for a reason. The worst things happen in the dead of night, as the rattling chandeliers and hovering butcher knives don't strike that same visceral sense of fear and helplessness.
The tagline for the film was "All the Activity Has Led to This", and that's a bit misleading. After three straight films that pushed Katie's storyline further along, this one takes a lateral move and doesn't reveal all that much. It's enough to make one wonder if the ideas are starting to run dry, and if Katie has terrorized her last family. Probably not. Paranormal Activity 4 may not move the needle in any significant way, but it provides all the arm-clutching scares and uncomfortable laughter that fans of the franchise have come to expect and love.
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