Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

39% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 67 reviews)

Runtime: 84 minutes

Directed by: Christopher Landon (believe it or not, his dad is Michael Landon)

Starring: Andrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz, Gabrielle Walsh, Renee Victor, Noemi Gonzalez

From: Paramount

Yes, I eventually went and saw this motion picture, my first 2014 movie. I figured I should given that I've watched all the previous four on the big screen and while the 4th was pretty bad, it's still tradition. In fact, here are the reviews of the four movies done by me. Just click on the titles for the reviews

PA 1

PA 2

PA 3

PA 4

In 2014, I'd rate the movies 1, 3, 2, and way below that, 4. As for this one-the 5th in the series-I knew it would be “Latino-themed” but aside from having a real wacky moment in the climax spoiled, I was really in the dark on what it was about aside from it being notably different from the first four.

I went and saw this in a place I only rarely see movies at: about an hour southwest of where I live, a.k.a. Lakeland. I decided to go there as I wanted to visit a place or two down there that I am not able to experience closer to home... and just this past Friday a brand new fancy Cinemark Theatres opened connected to a mall. All of them have big screens and fancy sound systems & it sounded like a pretty neat place. More on that in a bit.

To steal part of the plot description from the IMDb: “Jessie begins experiencing a number of disturbing and unexplainable things after the death of his neighbor. As he investigates, it isn't long before Jessie finds he's been marked...” 

The story overall is done differently from the first four, which offers a breath of fresh air and made it more interesting for me. I won't spoil much but this doesn't have people filming stuff on stationary cameras during the night; rather it's hand-held and you get to follow a pair of Hispanic males, 18 years old and they have a lower-class more normal background than the rich people that you have in the first 4 films. Those two were pretty funny and amusing in how they acted; they were typical teenage males, meaning they busted each other's balls often and they were girl-crazy.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie. Sure, it has some really wacky/odd moments (especially the ending, where they went in an incredible direction) but along with the amusing moments there were enough creepy/scare moments for me and the story was never boring. I am glad I did not hate this movie and I can now feel more confident in the franchise. The story is actually expanded on (and it makes the 4th even more superfluous and pointless) and while I think that some parts of the mythology don't make 100% sense at that point... at the time I was entertained so I won't complain.

Concerning the Cinemarks Theatres I saw it at, they now have new theatres across the country known as NextGen, which means all auditoriums have a giant screen and fancy sound system, with one XD screen that is huge and tries to be IMAX quality. The joint looks real nice and the concessions is mostly self-serve. I did think it was done very well and if I lived closer I would be there more often. The picture quality didn't really matter but I know the sound system was effective; that was appreciated with me as that is important in the series, various sounds and the signature sound of the mysterious entities.

I'll be back Thursday night.