Paranormal Activity 3
Directors: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Writers: Christopher B. Landon, Oren Peli (characters)
Starring: Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown and Christopher Nicholas Smith
Reviewed by: Char Hardin
(1-10) 6.75
Movie Experience 8
Category: Short-Horror

Paranormal Activity 3
“HOLY F…HOLY WHAT IS THAT?” Randy

It’s Friday night at the Hammond AMC Palace Ten and the lights are flickering signaling the previews are about to roll. It is a packed house with wall to wall people packed in the stadium seats and even the front floor rows are filled with teenagers and adults anticipating the start of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3. The excitement is thick and kids are cutting up and talking and whispering about the trailers they had seen in conjunction to the movie they were about to experience…for that is what this movie and the previous two have become fun scare filled experiences. PA3 did not disappoint as far as in the experience of being scared with over a 100 people, but as far as technical faults there were many.

Technical faults have been discussed in other reviews and I will not harp on them…merely touch on them and move on. This review is based on the experience of the film with a large group of strangers and friends watching the movie. As for faults missing scenes, that were included in the trailer were not in the actual film, inconsistencies with the continuity of the storylines and sure the jerky amateur shaky cam “look” and the quality of the VHS tapes…far cry from what I remember of 80’s. If you want to read a reviewer who did an exceptional job at picking out inconsistencies click on over to: http://zombiesdontrun.blogspot.com/2011/10/house-by-cemetery-1981-blue-underground.html. See my fellow Horrorphilia reviewer Chuck Conry’s review.

Moments into the film there is still people chattering and filling in the blanks to friends and strangers as for setting up the movie for them. It is the prequel to the women of PA1 and PA2 Katie and Kristi are two little girls who an imaginary friend named TOBY. A entity with more on his mind than benign tea parties and playing house with the young Kristi (Sprague Grayden), Toby wants something from the girls and their mother’s boyfriend Dennis tries to uncover the who, what and how to stop the entity Toby for destroying their lives.

Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith) films weddings and after a night of turning the camera on his girlfriend Julie (Lauren Bittner) things start to get creepy. The couples’ follies are interrupted by a earthquake that shows something that leads to the setting up of cameras all over the house. Dennis becomes obsessed with catching “something” on film.

Twenty four hours a day Dennis films and to say he doesn’t capture anything would make for a boring movie…he catches plenty and the theatre rocked with laughter, screams of fright and shouts of warnings to the cast as we the audience are drawn into the movie. For just a little while we were all on invited to a haunting and it was fun! Even the Ponchatoula Paranormal Society had one someone there watching the film. Some of the comments bouncing off the walls from the audience are quite funny and some a tad vulgar:

“Holy shit, Oh My God, She just ran into TOBY, Insane, check out the light swaying, SHUT UP I didn’t pay ten bucks to hear a bunch of girls screaming…oh SNAP that’s one bad mutha, What is that…what is that…what is THAT IN Katie’s bed?, Run Katie, Bloody Mary…bloody Hell get out of that bathroom Randy! That chick is CRAZY, ha-ha the babysitter got blown, Oh My GOD look at the sheet! and the list went on for several napkins. (Note: while in theatres I write my notes on napkins while watching the film)
The twist at the end was cool and as much as I want to tell you…I don’t want to ruin it. Will say the scene in the bathroom with young Katie (Chloe Csengery and Randy (Dustin Ingram) playing Bloody Mary was a scream…when the lights came back on the whole room room shrieked!

Paranormal Activity 3 is a fun movie to see with friends and even a few hundred strangers, I would recommend it merely for the pleasure of a good time and who knows you might feel the presence of Casper the Friendly ghost sitting next to you…but I can guarantee that Toby was not “Casper the Friendly Ghost”…he was pure EVIL.

After the movie was over, I asked the couple sitting next to me David and Rachel what were their feelings about the movie and they agreed upon liking it and David said, “I thought it was best of the 3.”

Others commented on the way out the theatre, “Toby was badass”, “Loved this one best”, “I was so scared, I about wet my pants”, “Dennis…those weren’t his kids…he should have left their little asses and got the hell out of there” “I thought it was funny and we had a great time watching the teenage girls scream”, “Granny was scary”, “My favorite scene, where Katie ran into Toby and then he pulled her up by her hair, lol that was funny” and “Can’t wait for #4”.

My favorite quote from the film came from Dennis’s friend Randy, the first time he saw something on the tapes, “Holy F! Holy F! Holy what is THAT?!” and Second from Randy when he is babysitting Katie after the whole Bloody Mary scene, “This isn’t Casper the Friendly Ghost.”

The ushers came in to sweep the room of all left over debris and one in particular cracked me up with something he said. We were talking about horror movies and Jonathan Heinz said that he liked the Saw movies, but that, “I have a phobia of creases in skin.” Totally left field, but said with a laugh and just listening to them as they talked…cracked me up.

The one thing I did not look forward to was driving home and going to bed in a dark room filled with shadows on the wall where the lights from my microwave and printer made for scary shapes on my walls. I am not ashamed to say, I sleep with a night light, but Friday night…I left the bathroom light on all night long.