It’s a bit of a well-worn cliché for a reviewer to state that a particular film deprived them of a certain amount of time (in this case a mercifully short 84 minutes) they’ll never get back, but for want of a better description I’ll use it here.
Described as a spin-off from the original franchise and not given an official sequel number, PARANORMAL ACTIVIYY: THE MARKED ONES is nevertheless the fifth installment in this hugely successful, low-budget, schlock horror franchise and for hard-core fans of both the franchise and the genre is likely to hold at least some appeal.
The evil spirits have returned with a vengeance, this time in a working class Latino neighbourhood of Oxnard, California, where best pals Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and Hector (Jorge Diaz), in their late teens, live in a rundown apartment complex.
After their elderly neighbor Anna (Gloria Sandoval) is found dead, Jesse and Hector decide to go snooping around the woman’s apartment, as one does, where they happen upon a room filled with demonic iconography and ritual paraphernalia, suggesting that Anna was engaging in malevolent activity over the years, possibly as part of a coven of witches. Most alarmingly, the boys discover pictures of Jesse and his family from years earlier.
It’s at this point, which incidentally took far too long to arrive at, the so-called supernatural fun starts, and Jesse finds himself changing and displaying what appears to be superhuman abilities like being able to levitate and blow up mattresses with a single breath, all of which is captured by Hector’s camera.
One new devise introduced in this instalment is the use of a sinister device known as Simon, an electronic Milton Bradley game, which answers yes/no questions like a Ouija board, to the astonishment of those huddled around it seeking answers.
Before long, however, Jesse’s inexplicable mood swings begin, leading to some highly charged temper tantrums, while Simon’s role becomes increasingly more apparent.
Jesse awakes with a bite on his arm, people start to disappear, and when the situation seems to be getting out of control, Hector and Jesse’s sister, Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh), consult Ali (Molly Ephraim), who recognises the telltale symptoms of demonic possession, from which point the effects are poured on thick and fast, making up in some small part for the sluggishness of the film’s opening.
It would be stretching it to say there was anything new in this instalment, with the possible exception of it being taken out of waspy neighbourhoods and into a Latino one.
The haunted-house set pieces provide reliable, if somewhat predictable jolts, some of which were genuinely scary, and writer/director Christopher Landon, who was involved in the earlier films, does manage to pull off some clever camera shots and a few minutes of fast-paced paranormal mayhem which leads to some overdue heightened tension, and there were no shortage of screams in the viewing I attended.
The three young leads; Jacobs, Diaz and Walsh are all convincing too, with the limited material they had to work with.
There’s obviously an audience out there for this franchise, or some sort of “paranormal appeal”, and it did have its moments, but in the main part it was very dull, taking far too long to warm up and then dragging when it did.
I was actually surprised to learn after the event that the film only had a running time of 84 minutes, given that if felt much longer, even despite a cynically chopped ending which seemed to simply lay the groundwork for “Paranormal Activity 5”, which is scheduled for an October 2014 release.
It seems that there are still a few more drops left to be squeezed out of this particular series. Where it will end is anyone’s guess. Perhaps someone will write a more scathing review of Paranormal Activity 15 in 2022.