Starring: Katie Featherston, Chloe Csengery, Sprague Grayden

Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Well, I decided to hit the mall today to see, “Paranormal Activity 3” and do a little shopping for myself. Today, I picked up the new Stephen King book, “11/22/63”, the new Megadeth album “Thirteen”, and I also picked up the “Marilyn Monroe – Special Anniversary Collection” DVD set, I’ll talk about that in another post some other time. This will be the last week I’ll be buying stuff for myself ’cause Christmas is obviously around the corner, and I got to start my Christmas shopping. On with my review….

Plot/synopsis: This is a prequel of the first film. It is set 18 years before. It shows the childhood of the young Kristi Rey and Katie Featherston. Kristi and Katie both live with their Mom, Julie, and her boyfriend, Dennis. Dennis notices that something is wrong with Kristi, that she has an imaginary friend, named, Toby. Strange things begin to happen around the home, and Dennis becomes obsessed with it by video taping everything. Dennis thinks that there is something in the house and Julie thinks he is crazy, of course. Throughout the film, Dennis tries to investigate the home on whether or not it is haunted. 

When the first “Paranormal Activity” was coming out, I was at first skeptical of this new franchise. I actually tried to stay away from it. I thought to myself, these films are just another , “Blair Witch Project”. I never planned on seeing the films at all, but when the first film first arrived on DVD, I was pulled into seeing it when family members were watching it together. I ended up loving the first film so much, that I couldn’t get enough of the series. I’m usually never scared of horror films ’cause I’ve watched so many of them over the years. Horror is my favorite genre as some of you know. Then they made the 2nd movie, “Paranormal Activity 2”, which I actually went and saw in theater. I loved that movie too.

I just love the storytelling and the writing. I like what they’re doing with the Katie Featherston story, keeping her story mysterious. What is it with her obsession with ghosts? What is wrong with her? That’s what these movies don’t want you to find out until the time is right. Found footage movies are awesome, ’cause they are so realistic. These movies wants you to believe that ghosts could be real and there could be actual haunted houses out there, even though these movies are fictional. They want to make these movies seem believable. They are doing a very good job so far.

So here is “Paranormal Activity 3”, and I think this is the best film of the trilogy so far. The filming style is similar to the first two, but they take the scare to the next level. I was actually a little creeped out watching this movie and that rarely happens when watching horror films. There is a huge shocker at the end of the movie, I must warn you. Most found footage movies usually try to end the film with a shocker, but “P.A. 3” ending, this one will do it to you. While this film can be a bit predictable at times, I loved how it revealed most of the secrets and mysteries from the first two films. It basically explains how the stories of, Katie Featherston, all started.

It’s still keeping Katie’s story mysterious though. They want to keep you watching to see what’s going to happen to her up ahead. I absolutely loved, “P.A. 3”. The first two films weren’t that scary, but this one actually is pretty scary. I’ll be looking forward to “Paranormal Activity 4”, which I hope would take place after the events of the 2nd film. You don’t need to have blood, guts and scary music to make a good horror film. The film makers have something to prove. Good low budget horror films still can be successful to this day.

Score for “Paranormal Activity 3” = **** (4 stars as in “excellent”)

Kev