Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

11% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 53 reviews)

Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Gregory Plotkin

Starring: Chris J. Murray, Brit Shaw, Ivy George, Dan Gill, Olivia Taylor Dudley

From: Paramount

I finally saw this movie and while most hate it, I think it's because it's so goofy and preposterous, I ended up enjoying it. I explain why in the Letterboxd review below:

I close out this season of watching Halloween movies by giving a review to what is said to be the final Paranormal Activity movie... but then again they said the same thing about Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger so maybe Toby will make a return. Personally, I think it's time for this to end for good; they certainly stretched the series out (the 4th film is still rather pointless after this story was fully wrapped up).

I have mentioned this in other parts of the Internet but I'll mention it here: way back in 2007 via a horror podcast I heard about a little film called Paranormal Activity; while they gave little details about it I was interested. I and those other listeners patiently waited as Paramount figured out what to do with it; finally, they slowly rolled it out and I went to a screening in Orlando, which ended up selling out. I may have been the only person in the crowd that had any knowledge of it whatsoever. At first, people were snickering and acting like “What in the hell is this crap?” as they set the story up. When the filmed night scenes happened... the mood quickly changed and I wouldn't have been surprised if several of the auditorium seats had been soiled.

I certainly enjoyed it and while one day I should give proper reviews to all those movies on this site, I can say that I rated the first one at 4 stars, the second at 3 stars, the third at 3 ½ stars, the fourth one at 1 star (I've only seen it once but that experience made me mad because it was so nonsensical), and The Marked Ones at 3 ½. Well, even I am surprised that I also rate this goofy piece of crap at 3 ½ stars when most of the public seem to think it's bad. I mean, almost all the scares being of the “loud noises” variety, the sheer silliness of the story now that I know how it ended and the fact that we can see those evil spirits by a wacky GHOST CAMERA is just preposterous... but maybe it's the fatuity of it all that gave me such enjoyment on what was before then a blah day for reasons I won't get into.

I managed to avoid pretty much all publicity on the movie so I knew nothing about the plot except that this was supposed to be the finale. What I'll say is that it involves a young family at a California house and the dad's brother and a random young blonde woman pal are also involved. If you've seen one of these movies, you can guess what ends up happening... only now there's a wacky camera they discover that can record spirits and demons and all sorts of spooky s***. I do have to mention that besides the magical filming device there are such things as:

* A version of pot brownies is consumed
* That brother... he has a pornstache!
* Pabst Blue Ribbon is consumed
* There is meta commentary as footage from a previous film is watched & two of the characters offer up their opinions

It's all so silly... and yet somehow I was able to enjoy it. The 3D stuff is plentiful and at least it looks good, although I imagine it'll look so goofy and stupid if seen in 2D. Thankfully I paid the extra cash for the added dimension. I know that many seem to not enjoy the ending or what “the big bad” ended up being after all this time and build-up. I was fine with it, but maybe it's because I realized how cockeyed and gonzo this movie was. If it wasn't for such elements I imagine I'd rate it more similar to what most people here have.

To think that when the original came out the concept of “found footage” was new and original. Now... many people grew tired of it long ago and the thought is that more often than not a film would be better if done in the more traditional style. But, as it's cheap to do for producers and studios, I am sure it'll be around in some form for a long time to come.