Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Updated: Aug 3, 2021

The Breakdown: In this direct sequel to Paranormal Activity 2, a family takes in a young boy when his mother ends up in the hospital, and strange phenomena begin occurring surrounding their strange new tenant.

Watch If: You like the lore of the franchise.

Not If: You liked PA3 but not PA2

Related Media: Paranormal Activity Franchise

SECONDARY FACTS

Overall Rating: 2.2

Length: 1:28

Country: USA

Language: English

Scare Factor: 2/5

Gore Factor: 1/5

REVIEW

THE QUICK AND DIRTY

Paranormal Activity 4 is a poorly executed film that feels like an after thought shoved in to connect 1 and 2 to the rest of the series. Its only value is in its framing of the continued lore of the universe, and even that is shoddily done at best.

PREMISE: 2

As we've discussed previously with this franchise in particular, I am of the opinion that, if your film does not have merit as a film outside of the franchise, then it didn't really succeed as a film. So far, Paranormal Activity 4 is the least stand alone of all of the films, and is a near 180 of all the directional shifts that were implied in Paranormal Activity 3.

Not only does the film rely on you having seen every other installment for its enjoyment, but further than that, the plot doesn't make sense if you havn't seen the earlier films. And I get it, I do. It's a franchise, to a degree, that means and necessitates that the audience has at least some prior knowledge of the existing elements, but when every twist and "uh oh" moment relies entirely on outside sources, without even being framed in the current work, well, that's just kinda lazy.

ACTING: 2

On more than one occasion the actors would have been right at home if someone had over-layed an old fashioned "dun dun duuuuun," over the film. That's the level of cheddar we're working with here. Now, there is no love lost between me and child actors, but the small ones are actually not the problem I have with the film. The problems I have come down to poor writing, and even poorer execution.

The main teenage girl plays her character like she's seen way too many teen horror films. She's almost constantly surprised and confused (Fair enough, so was I for most of the film), but the moments that are intended to be frightening are somehow glossed over. Not to mention that the character herself not being aware of any previous events really diffuses some of the dramatic irony that the film tries so desperately to capture.

There's just so much punch in the acting where there doesn't need to be any, and not enough where there should be, and at some points the source of the cheese (acting or writing) becomes indistinguishable,

AUDIO AND VISUALS: 3

Paranormal Activity 4 has two new effects that do somewhat change the game. The first is the edition of the "infared" camera setting. This, while being a bit of a visually lackluster effect, does offer a new take on the done-to-death 'constantly watch the background style of the franchise as a whole. It also gives you a better framing of when that level of attention is required, somewhat rectifying the exhausting over use of this trick in the second film.

The second is a sort of 'clipping.' Which, once you realize that it isn't your device or disk acting up, not only looks cool, but also adds a new trick to the franchises much worn out toolkit.

ATMOSPHERE: 2

This film has a real problem with maintaining suspense. There's alot more scenes that take place outside of the main character's narrative, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but does sort of break up the tension. On top of that, most of said tension is simply a dread infused waiting that caries over from the previous installments, rather than any sort of individual effort put in by the film.

On top of that, all of the big "ah ha" moments are entirely rooted in this films predecessors, which means, if you aren't freshly reminded of Paranormal Activity 1-3 this entire film is a collage of "wait, what?" moments.

DELIVERY: 2

Paranormal Activity 4 is basically an hour and a half of "Meanwhile..." before Paranormal Activity 5. There isn't anything special or groundbreaking about it, nor does it add all that much to the series as a whole beyond potential framework for its successors, which, while that is an important aspect to a lengthy franchise, it doesn't need its own entire movie.