From crafty characters to a big twist, MTV News tells you why you should watch the newest found-footage film. By Kevin P. Sullivan
Kathryn Newton in the "Paranormal Activity 4" Photo: Paramount Pictures
Over the past four years, "Paranormal Activity" has become an October institution, reappearing to scare audiences annually with a new set of low-budget scares.
For its fourth installment, the found-footage series relocates the action back to the present day to follow a new family and the strange goings-on that start when the new neighbors move in.
If you're still undecided about checking out "Paranormal Activity 4," here are your five reasons.
An Actual Heroine The main characters of the "Paranormal Activity" series have never been much more than moving targets for Toby to terrorize in increasingly alarming ways and eventually murder. For three movies, that has been the standard operating procedure of the series, but that's no longer the case. Alex, the camera operator this time around, isn't going down without a fight, a relatively new concept for the series. One scene in particular has her facing what would be a fatal trap for any other "Paranormal" character, but her craftiness gets her out and earned a round of applause from the audience.
A Meaner Toby Part of the time-honored formula of a "Paranormal" movie requires the demonic scares to escalate as the film hurdles toward its always-horrific conclusion. This time, however, there isn't the feeling that Toby, as he was named in "Paranormal 3," is just biding his time before whipping out the big demon guns. There's a better explanation in "Paranormal 4" for why the events play out over a specific amount of time. As director Ariel Schulman told MTV News, "Toby don't play that."
Matt Shively Another element that is required for the "Paranormal" series is a little comic relief. For "Paranormal Activity 4," most of the laughs come from Matt Shively, who plays Alex's horndog boyfriend. When he isn't trying to get his girlfriend to give him a show over the webcam, Shively's character is consistently delivering some of the film's best lines and making us forget how scared we are.
Laptop Scares You may not realize it, but the format of the "Paranormal Activity" series has never allowed a true close-up. Usually the camera floats a few feet from another character's face during conversations, but that all changes with "Paranormal 4." Since most of the cameras in the film are actually laptop-based webcams, many of the scares come during video chat conversations. It completely shifts the dynamic and creates new opportunities to scare.
A Big Twist You're just going to have to trust us on this one. While we won't reveal the details of the surprise, we can tell you that it's probably the biggest in the series to date.
Check out everything we've got on "Paranormal Activity 4."
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