Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

There is an inherent problem with the entire found-footage horror subgenre, in that there seems to be an awful lot of clumsy people losing these videotapes, and then someone else seems to be taking it upon themselves to find them, edit them and release them to the public. The Paranormal Activity franchise has been particularly forgetful, as The Marked Ones is the fifth time someone has lost this footage, with a sixth (and supposedly final) tape to be found this Halloween.

Switching things up slightly from the set formula, gone are the static security cameras from the previous entries, as we follow this movie’s protagonists about with the camcorder they take with them everywhere. Mostly gone too is the Katie and Kristi story, as this time we’re in and around an apartment block with a group of friendly Latin American friends and families, except for the one scary lady who everyone thinks is a witch. When she dies, and a group of teenagers investigate her apartment for clues of her supernatural leanings, things begin to take a turn for the horrific.

Having a bit more in common with superhero flick Chronicle than its own series, thanks to footage of the teens testing out the limits of their haunting, which they’ve kind of confused with superpowers. It helps that the teens we’re spending time with are actually quite likeable, and performed well by the young actors.

If you’re not a fan of the Paranormal Activity series, then this is neither going to change your opinion, and nor is it an easy entry point for those completely uninitiated. The Marked Ones expands the entire mythology of what’s been going on with the series to date, but it doesn’t really stretch itself in terms of scares. It’s the same trick as usual: rumbling bass of dread, camera pans, there’s nothing there, camera pans again, SUDDENLY THERE’S SOMETHING THERE, camera pans again, it’s either gone or it’s running at the camera. But for whatever reason, it still works. Probably because it takes it’s time getting to the scares – the proper jolts don’t really arrive until the final half hour – and it’s nice that a horror franchise takes it’s time building tension rather trying to get us to scream before the opening titles have finished.

Not a classic horror film by any means, and not even the best entry in the PA series, but still better than 90% of the scary movies we had to put up with in 2013.