Paranormal Activity 3 Creeps into Theatre

Last Thursday at midnight, was the release of the long anticipated movie, Paranormal Activity 3. Many Bellarmine students stayed up late for the scaring that is Paranormal Activity. The packed and crowded movie theatre added to the already suspenseful atmosphere. The reactions of the theatre made the movie seem less scary and more as an experience everyone was going through together. For those of you who are unaware of the Paranormal's, they are stories of a family that is being followed by a demon. The first movie follows the life of one of the sisters in the film. I'm not going to give away the entire movie, but for the purposes of this article, the first one ends with the classic "their whereabouts remain unknown".

The second movie doesn't pick up where the first one leaves off; instead it shows the life of the other sister, during the same time period, as the first movie would have been going on. This one, again, ends with the main character walking off screen and "their whereabouts are unknown". The third movie is a chance for the audience to see where the story begins; taking us back into the childhood of the sisters that are the main characters is the first and second movie. The movie begins like we all would have suspected, the connections between the first, second, and finally how the third one began and would eventually tie in.  The movie then transitions when the film transitions from digital to VCR tapes. I thought this aspect of the movie was essential, since the tapes were taken from the 80's. The writers stayed true to the activities of the "demon", each time making each jump higher than the one before. The plot stayed consistent throughout the entire first half of the movie, but the ending is where I was disappointed. Although the ending was extremely suspenseful and eerie, I think that the plot could have been much better. For me, the ending left questions unanswered and even confused me more. The final conclusion for why this family was haunted by demons seemed like a stretch and the writers could have done a much better job.  Overall, I would rate the movie a 3 out of 5. The scary parts of the movie were brilliant, but I think the overall idea of the movie was anything but Paranormal.