Movie Details
| Title: | Paranormal Activity 3 | |
| Director: | Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman | |
| Year: | 2011 | |
| Genre: | Haunted House | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.28.11 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.28.11 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2011 So.. after the last movie which was incredible (i'll just leave ***this*** here), I stayed for the midnight secret screening because a) I love torturing morning-at-work me, and b) How can I not go to a secret screening, even if it's a movie I don't care about at all? This may very well be my last secret screening if I don't get a VIP badge next year, so what the hell... it's worth being (extra) tired Thursday morning. It's kind of funny. I hadn't heard jack about the first screening being Almodovar but it seems like there was all but an official announcement that tonight would be Paranormal Activity 3. So... let's see. I didn't see the second one. I guess I'll have to now in order to bridge the gap, although I don't think I missed much since this was a prequel. Spoiler-free, I sort of object to any sequels to this movie because the format only really works once so watching it again just becomes more and more ridiculous. That said, there were a few good gags and the ending was satisfying. I ended up liking it ok. Spoiler time. So... the beginning is pretty awesomely arbitrary. They find these tapes out of nowhere and like somehow just decide to go through them or something. There's no explanation for why or how they're edited (they pull the fast-forward thing and they number the nights just like the first one), it just is. So that's one. Then, since this one takes place in 1988, it's all supposedly VHS footage, but the night scenes are super clear and illuminated. I don't know what kind of crazy full moon happened for that whole month or whatever but my personal experiences as a kid trying to tape anything at night ended up with grainy black and jack shit else. So that's two. Then there's the classic white person problem of, once the spirit makes unequivocal its-on-video proof of his existence, the family doesn't do crap about it. There's an argument where the mom like refuses to listen to her husband when he tries to tell her what's going on that seemed completely wrong to me. Just watch the video, lady! It's the Mist problem all over again. There's no need to argue, just shut up and see the physical evidence readily available! So that's three. Then there's the fact that the whole movie is basically the same exact formula of the first film. It felt like watching a bizarro-version of the first movie that made less sense. But you know... scares are still scares just like laughs are still laughs. It's hard to argue with the ladies at the end or the Bloody Mary and ghost sheet scenes. I do resent the amount of cheap loud noise stabs in the beginning but whatever. So there you have it. Only one more day left. Three more movies. Then a glorious day off. I can't wait. |
