Paranormal Activity 4

kryogen

Saw a trailer for it tonight, and scanned through a couple of pages and saw no thread on it here so said I'd start it, delete or merge as appropriate!

Where do they have to go with this franchise? Is it going to head down the route of Saw and turn what was pretty good at what it was supposed to be to a joke of a franchise?

jpm4

kryogen wrote: »

Saw a trailer for it tonight, and scanned through a couple of pages and saw no thread on it here so said I'd start it, delete or merge as appropriate!

Where do they have to go with this franchise? Is it going to head down the route of Saw and turn what was pretty good at what it was supposed to be to a joke of a franchise?

Well the 3rd one was pretty good in fairness, albeit more of the same. These films are a wet dream for film studio's - cost a few bob to make and take millions at the box office. There will be more.

Mickeroo

Still haven't got around to watching the 2nd or 3rd one. I enjoyed the first one though, for some reason I find movies like this a lot more genuinely creepy/unsettling than conventional horror films. I see them as more a rollercoaster ride than a film though, they do what they're supposed to do when you watch them but they don't really have much worth beyond that if you get what I mean.

marcus2000

Mickeroo wrote: »

Still haven't got around to watching the 2nd or 3rd one. I enjoyed the first one though, for some reason I find movies like this a lot more genuinely creepy/unsettling than conventional horror films.

I purposely avoid all these genuinely creepy/unsettling movies - Usually they leave me disturbed, for a night at least. Anyway, I got persuaded to go to see the third one of these (didn't see 1 or 2)...and I thought it was average to poor - I was more distubed by the amount of unpopped kernals in my popcorn. I didnt find good at all!!

briany

jpm4 wrote: »

Well the 3rd one was pretty good in fairness, albeit more of the same. These films are a wet dream for film studio's - cost a few bob to make and take millions at the box office. There will be more.

I really enjoyed the whole series up 'til now but I agree that they'll pretty much keep on making them until the public utterly rejects them and they aren't able to make a profit on the direct to DVD/Blu ray/future medium sequels, spin-offs and reboots.

briany

briany wrote: »

I really enjoyed the whole series up 'til now but I agree that they'll pretty much keep on making them until the public utterly rejects them and they aren't able to make a profit on the direct to DVD/Blu ray/future medium sequels, spin-offs and reboots.

Give it 3 or 4 years and this franchise will have been shelved and the Saw reboot will be in cinemas around the world. There's a lot of mileage in the concept and the low budget production and return make it a no brainier.

Films like these, Insidious and Chernobyl Diaries are being produced for under a million dollars and are pretty much guaranteed to make money. Even released direct to DVD they'd clean up. Hell the world wide TV rights would more than cover production costs so expect to see similar films from the same people opening ever 6 or do months for the next few years.

One thing I am curious about is what ever happened to Area 51. It's been sitting on a shelf for years and must be a truly terrible piece of crap.

kryogen

I find them ok to watch in general, think the evolving story in them could have or maybe even still could go somewhere interesting, but I just cant see anything other then them become a total disaster in the near future.

For what they are they are clever enough, I found 1 boring tbh, always remember my first thought after seeing it was that they could have made better use of the lead females excellent rack. Cant be a positive thing, cant remember much of the second, few bits were good though I think. The back story coming more into it I enjoyed.

The third one was a bit better I thought, the bits from when they were kids and all that. Dunno what they can do with it next though if they want to keep the story going along a similar line

eviltwin

I enjoyed the first one but the subsequent ones just didn't work imho.

I tend to wait for them to come on sky and then just fast forward to the action, the day to day bits are boring.

briany

kryogen wrote: »

I find them ok to watch in general, think the evolving story in them could have or maybe even still could go somewhere interesting, but I just cant see anything other then them become a total disaster in the near future.

The execs probably wouldn't want to kill a cash cow like PA by attempting to take it to new and interesting places and risking premature disaster rather than the one we know is coming but may be further away.

Goldstein

eviltwin wrote: »

I enjoyed the first one but the subsequent ones just didn't work imho.

I tend to wait for them to come on sky and then just fast forward to the action, the day to day bits are boring.

That might be why the sequels don't work for you as they're cut from the same template as the original. Fast-forwarding through anything will destroy the flow/pacing of whatever you're watching dispelling all sense of tension and suspense. This is especially true for anything in the found-footage sub-genre where the build-up or "day to day" scenes is fundamental in defining and giving weight to the "action" scenes.

willmunny1990

Just after coming home from watching this and i have to say it's the worst film i have ever seen bar Keith Lemon.

I really only went to see it as i have seen the other 3 Paranormal activities but this is the worst by some considerable distance.

The only thing these films really offered was jump scares but this had none and when i say none i literally mean NONE. I know the films have been on a downward spiral since the first but this was just embarrassing. I really hope this is it for the series.

I don't recommend anyone waste money on this and I don't say that often.

blueflag1

I went to see it last night. Definitely the worst of the 4. The Kinect lasers were a nice touch, but the film as a whole just felt repetitive and predictable.

There were only 8 of us in the screen so maybe this added to the disappointment of the experience. I think the cinema needs to be packed to get a good atmosphere for this, well I suppose, franchise is now the word.

Da Shins Kelly

I can't really believe anyone goes to see these movies. I watched the first one online one night and thought it was terrible. Nothing happens until the last half an hour or so and then everything happens. Wasn't particularly creeped out or scared at any point.

briany

Sounds like this film is a bust. A pity but that's what inevitably happens to just about every film franchise. Will still give it a sneaky watch at some stage though. The series has gotten to the point where it's trying to live up the expectation around it and in this it can't help but fail. You can see that in the trailer where it shows the nightvision shots of hysterical movie goers wetting their pants. They had the same promo technique for the first but it looked a bit more natural that time. It's just a series that's gotten too big for it's own good.

Hopefully Orin Peli's Area 51 will be of some use but I fear he's becoming like the Morgan Spurlock of found footage films.

Ah well. Roll on Halloween 2013 and the PA reboot; "PARANORMAL".

Banjaxed82

Terrible sh!t. Literally a series of mundane day time shots followed by predictable night time jump scares one after another.

Not as bad as the recent resident evil film though, which was riddled with plot holes. PA4 avoids this same pitfall by just not having a plot in the first place.

Piss poor.

candy-gal1

Well fcuk me, went to see this last wedensday night, twas my first one to see on the big screen and missed the last one as as much as i thought those movies were good I wouldnt say I was a major fan or anything!
But this one, the 4th, completely caught me off guard, wasnt too cheesy, didnt go off on one thing too long and some very cool surprises of the scary WTF variety, like the last few minutes especially :eek::D
One of the great and different things about it was a lot of the scary/gost appearing parts etc happened during the day, imho very different to the first two! The cinema audience did add quite a bit to the atmosphere though, lots of screams etc etc and was fairly packed!
Now im in the Halloween mood, thanks to that, brilliantly scary fun!

BArra

really dissapointing, its going in circles

Papillon!

The worst thing about Paranormal Activity 4 is that it ended with the option for another stupid movie about the same crap. I won't be seeing Paranormal Activity 5

willmunny1990

It's already been confirmed by Paramount that there will be a 5th film set for October 2013.

briany

willmunny1990 wrote: »

It's already been confirmed by Paramount that there will be a 5th film set for October 2013.

That's going to be a much creepier film because people will be watching it in virtually empty theaters.

Tom_Cruise

Seen this last night.

Please - don't waste your money,it is terrible.

Goldstein

Bad and all as it supposedly is it still grossed 6x times its production budget in 3 days so I don't see greenlighting the next one being a massively difficult decision for Paramount.

Just like the Saw sequels & parody movies of a few years ago, there are only one group of people to blame for the next one.

BArra

please avoid paying to see this rubbish, it is one of the worst films ive had to sit through for a very long time :mad:

what the hell!

Very disappointing and I enjoyed the others!

briany

Goldstein wrote: »

Bad and all as it supposedly is it still grossed 6x times its production budget in 3 days so I don't see greenlighting the next one being a massively difficult decision for Paramount.

Just like the Saw sequels & parody movies of a few years ago, there are only one group of people to blame for the next one.

To be honest, it's not hard to see why the decision is made to make more pictures in the series. It is basically free money to the studio and to the majority of people who watch these films now it is fast becoming a bit of a Halloween tradition (not one that will last though) and just a dumb thrill ride. None of this affects the quality of the original film though. It's still good no matter how many crappy sequels they eventually make so the best thing for people like me is to just ignore the sequels of ever declining quality. It's about all we can do because Paramount won't be listening as they'll be too busy hearing the sound of a scraping cash rake instead.:pac:

Crooked Jack

Absolute drivel. 90-minutes of doors creaking open on their own does not a horror make.
No tension, no atmosphere, no story, just the odd thing appearing on screen really quickly.

johnny_ultimate

Hehehehe: http://www.avclub.com/articles/british-children-scarred-for-life-by-exposure-to-p,87852/

I'd imagine that story might be more entertaining than the film itself, which I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in watching.

johnny_ultimate

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Hehehehe: http://www.avclub.com/articles/british-children-scarred-for-life-by-exposure-to-p,87852/

I'd imagine that story might be more entertaining than the film itself, which I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in watching.

an accidental screening of the horror movie's opening scene, wherein a corpse is propelled directly into the camera without so much as a how-d'ye-do,

Ahahahaha

Goldstein

Goldstein wrote: »

Bad and all as it supposedly is it still grossed 6x times its production budget in 3 days so I don't see greenlighting the next one being a massively difficult decision for Paramount.

Just like the Saw sequels & parody movies of a few years ago, there are only one group of people to blame for the next one.

I'd take the Saw franchise over the PA one any day of the week. While some of the Saw sequels were neer going to be mistaken for high art at least they were never boring and did something interesting over the course of the franchise. The way they tried to tie in each entry in the series was fun and there were some truly wonderful moments in each film. Darren Lynn Bouseman's visual flourishes were stunning at times. The Saw series was visually impressive and each entry successfully created some real tension and featured some great kills which at the end of the day was what they were all about.

TerrorFirmer

Saw took a serious dip in quality with IV and V, only to return to smashing form with the final two movies, who knows what's in store for the PA franchise.

I did think the movies got progressively better, but PA4 is more of a sideways step, but you have to give it a little credit for taking itself a little less seriously this time around - I have to say I enjoyed the comic relief in the form of the boyfriend, and for the first time, I actually liked the characters, something I wouldn't say of the other movies, which were however admittedly scarier.

PA4 isn't a great movie, and it's not as scary as its most recent predecessor, but it's fairly entertaining once you know what to expect - I don't get the people moaning about it, this is the forth movie in a franchise that hasn't claimed anything other than more of the same since the first sequel.

If you hated the first three movies than it's fairly obvious you're not going to like this one either, otherwise, it's more of the same with a largely successful attempt at comic relief which dilutes the scares quite a lot, but it does have the strongest characters in the franchise yet.

One thing I really liked was the deliberate teasing with cliche scare tactics, such as the several instances of

the fridge door

being used for extended periods.

Good solid fun.