Paranormal Activity 3 Review Thread (Spoilers)

[Diesel]

Lots o' spoilers for the first two films

So Paranormal Activity 2 is a box office hit, and Paramount is already talking about their plans to make Paranormal Activity 3 (surprise).

However, given how Paranormal Activity 2 ended, can the next chapter in the Paranormal Activity franchise still use the found-footage format that has made the series so popular?


Before we get into talking about the next chapter, let’s recap what’s happened so far. For those who haven’t pieced it all together yet, here’s the series of events that have been established by Paranormal Activity 1 & 2:

• As kids, Katie and her step sister Kristi were tormented by a mysterious paranormal entity. They’ve blocked out a lot of the memories, in forced denial of the supernatural nature of those harrowing events.
  
• We eventually learn that this entity is a demon and that a shared ancestor of Katie and Kristi may have made a deal with said demon in exchange for wealth and power – a deal that would require the sacrifice of the first male offspring of the bloodline – i.e., Kristi’s infant son, Hunter.
• Kristi and her family are haunted and eventually attacked by the demon, who supposedly comes to claim Hunter.
  
• Kristi is possessed by the demon and to save her, her husband Dan and step-daughter Ali perform an exorcism of sorts, with help from the family’s hyper-spiritual housekeeper, Martine.
• The exorcism ritual frees Kristi, but at a steep cost – the demon is not killed, simply transferred to the next member of the bloodline, which is Katie.
  
• Katie and her boyfriend Micah are haunted and eventually attacked by the demon that Kristi’s family sent their way. The demon ultimately takes possession of Katie and kills Micah before vanishing into the night.
  
• A day after Micah is murdered, the demon (wearing Katie’s body) reappears at her step-sister’s house, looking for revenge. It kills Dan and Kristi, abducts Hunter and disappears with him.
  
• That’s pretty much the mythos that’s been laid out by the Paranormal Activity franchise so far. In both installments, events took place from the point of view of home cameras and/or surveillance cameras setup by the parties being tormented by the demon. Indeed, the whole hook of these movies was the audience’s fear that these kind of supernatural occurrences could – or maybe do – happen in their homes as well.

However, with the demon seemingly having gotten what it was after, the “found footage” format of Paranormal Activity 3 suddenly becomes a tricky thing to factor.

Here’s what Paramount Executive VP of Distribution Don Harris is saying about the studio’s approach to Paranormal Activity 3: “The company is certainly going to take a look at making a third but will be exceedingly careful in how to go about it.” For those of you who don’t speak Hollywood PR lingo, that basically translates to: “We want to keep making money off this franchise, but we don’t yet know how to do the next one.”

Truthfully speaking, a lot of us were wondering just how they would pull off another home footage format in Paranormal Activity 2. Then, to my pleasant surprise, screenwriters Michael R. Perry, Christopher Landon and Tom Pabst turned the supposed sequel into a story that actually functions as a prequel/midquel/sequel, explaining how and why the events of the first Paranormal Activity actually took place, and expanding that small story into an entire mythos worthy of a franchise. Our official Paranormal Activity 2 review was fairly glowing, and even those who didn’t like it have to admit: there have been far worse sequels to breakout hits (Blair Witch 2, I’m looking at you).



That all said, the story for Paranormal Activity 3 would presumably cover one of two scenarios:

• The hunt for the Katie-demon and attempted rescue of Hunter.
  
• A flashback to when Katie and Kristi’s family made the deal with the demon and the young girls were first tormented by the demon.
  
• The latter option seems the highly unlikely (though not impossible), so let’s go with the former.

Now, it would be easy to imagine a film where a church organization or some other group specializing in demon killing (who you gonna call?) put together a team to investigate the now multiple murders that have been left behind in the demon’s wake – while documenting the whole event on video, of course. Maybe the group members are a mixed bag of supernatural believers and supernatural skeptics, and maybe their hunt takes them to some truly terrifying places, to face some truly terrifying evil. Maybe the battle for Katie’s soul becomes just as important as saving that poor baby from whatever ungodly fate awaits him at the demon’s hands.



Sounds like a reasonably good premise for a movie, right? And it was, back when it was still called The Last Exorcism. But there (beyond my sarcasm) lies my ultimate point: if Paranormal Activity 3 continues as many of us expect it to, in the same format that the series has established, the risk of it coming off as a Last Exorcism or [REC] clone is pretty high. There are only so many ways you gather a group of people, give them a camera and send them off to some strange locale on a demon hunt without the subject matter starting to blend together in movie goers’ minds. The challenge facing Paranormal Activity 3 is how to distinguish itself from the pack while still tying up all the dangling loose ends. It will be interesting to see how they pull it off.

Who knows – maybe a séance at Katie’s house? I’ll bring the Ouija board, you bring the popcorn.

Do you have any ideas about a story and/or format for Paranormal Activity 3? Should they stick with the found footage format or branch off in another direction?

Source - ScreenRant

[Foggy]

Hmmm, never really liked either the other 2, but if it continues going in the right direction, I should really enjoy a 3rd. But they really need to sort out the acting and characters, for christ sake

[Moviemaniack1993]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Hmmm, never really liked either the other 2, but if it continues going in the right direction, I should really enjoy a 3rd. But they really need to sort out the acting and characters, for christ sake

The acting and characters from the first two films are completely convincing and fine just the way they are. What more could you have wanted?

[ArmyOfDarknessAW]

I can deal with the acting for these movies because face it the first movie was a low budget home made movie that nobody thought would become what it did. They where not actors when they made the first and if they replaced them for the 2nd with that would have been worse imo.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Moviemaniack1993

The acting and characters from the first two films are completely convincing and fine just the way they are. What more could you have wanted?

Yes, the demon expert from the first 1 was completly convincing

As for the characters, Micha from the first was a (lack of a better description)

[Show spoiler]nobhead, he was told no don't do this, don't so that. That he mange to get a list of things not to do, and then runs though them one by one, and all Katie did was tell him no don't do that, Micha deserved to die for his stupidity.

As for the sequel,

[Show spoiler]stupid ignorant dad kept saying Demons don't exists when on your security tapes clearly has your baby being dragged out of it's cot you useless idiot.

All these films consited of are the mentally awkward being messed with by demons, and do everything wrong just so we can have a movie

[500_Days_of_Night]

Gonna be very very, hard to stick to the "found footage" formula if they want to make a third film and have it be believable. I do believe it'll be the documentation of the hunt for Katie & Hunter. That's the only logical way to go.

[antwonaj]

Yay, i so hope this happens.

I hope they go with the idea of trying to find Katie and Hunter.

What i want to see is the Sister going to find them.

[DiscoDan]

i'm up for a 3rd, and I think they'll stick with the camera thing. How about a group of film students get lost in the woods seeking the rumored demon girl? LoL

[Batman1980]

Wow can't believe it's going to be a trilogy, I haven't even seen the second one yet, wonder if the hottie from the first one will be in the third one a lot.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

Wow can't believe it's going to be a trilogy, I haven't even seen the second one yet, wonder if the hottie from the first one will be in the third one a lot.

She's in the second one quite a bit so probably

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by Foggy

She's in the second one quite a bit so probably

Awesome, just watched the first one last night again, still creeped me out, even turned it off

[Show spoiler]before she turns and lunges at the camera

that scene gets me every time.

[MaCruz]

Dang! I still need to watch Part 2. That won't happen till it's released on BD though.

[cinema sickness]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Stormcrow

Wow can't believe it's going to be a trilogy, I haven't even seen the second one yet, wonder if the hottie from the first one will be in the third one a lot.

There is a "hottie" in Paranormal Activity? I think you have this film mixed up with Paranormal Entity.

[connect42]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Yes, the demon expert from the first 1 was completly convincing

There was no demon expert.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by connect42

There was no demon expert.

There was a demon expert, they just never consulted him,

[Show spoiler]supposedly he was out of town or some such.

[financially stable]

im wondering if there will be a new paranormal activity each halloween (ala Saw)?

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by financially deprived

im wondering if there will be a new paranormal activity each halloween (ala Saw)?

That would kind of take away from the quality of the first movie, also not sure they can keep coming up with enough scares to really go past 3 movies.

[PS3-Playb3yond]

I watched the ending of the first one on YouTube yesterday and I didn't sleep good today.

[Show spoiler]The part where she watches the guy while he was sleeping for about 2 hours was creepy and then there was the screaming and the throwing before she finally killed him and came for us (camera).

There is no way I would make it through the whole movie.

[detective392]

It was announced that Paranormal Activity 3 will be released October 21st 2011.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/22451

[fatediesel]

This franchise is going to become like the Saw franchise. The movies are extremely cheap to produce and as long as they stay profitable a sequel will come out each year.