It's a well known statistic that third films in movie trilogies suck...or at least fail to live up to what's come before. Therefore it's a great pleasure to report that the second cash-in, er sequel, to Paranormal Activity is a resounding success.
As with film two, Paranormal Activity 3 is a prequel, this time taking us back to the events of Katie and Kristi as children, which was alluded to in the first film.
If anything, this plays better than part two. The job of any follow up is to retain the elements of the film series which work the best and define it as a brand...while at the same time make changes that keep the concept fresh and interesting.
The first part of this is done extremely well with another contemporary family in a recognizable contemporary suburban house being plagued by creepy noises and spooky goings on. The screenwriters make a smart move by making some characters catch on to the supernatural happenings early on allowing the audience to side with them as they try and work out what the hell to do. Again shot in a found footage style, the film has a realism and documentary like intensity that comes from the hand held camera style and long uninterrupted takes. And having learned their lessons from the preceding movie, directors Henry Joust and Ariel Schulman stage some beautifully and tensely crafted suspense sequences all generated by convincing performances, mysterious noises and some shit-your-pants jumpy bits.
Having two vulnerable, pre-teen girls at the centre of the story adds an extra degree of jeopardy on top of the usual high levels of suspense while the late 80's setting creates it's own rewards. A great creative breakthrough (for the writers as well as one of the characters) is when he straps a video camera onto a rotating desk fan...essentially creating a moving CCTV camera. It's a genius cinematic invention. As the camera slowly pans from the lounge to the kitchen tension is wracked to a whole other level as the audience anticipates what the camera will see next when it returns it's view to the next room.
It expands the mythology of the franchise in a way that doesn't undermine what's come before and allows you to leave the cinema both satisfied, and with a full pant load of shit. Excellent stuff.
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