Writer: Christopher B. Landon
Starring: Jessica Tyler Brown, Chloe Csengery, Christopher Nicholas Smith
The big story with this film (aside from its incredible record-setting opening weekend) is the trailer controversy. At least half the scenes that were shown in the trailer are either not in this film (the house burning, the medium getting his head knocked into the table, the presence being revealed by a thrown cup of water) or appear in vastly different form (that memorably creepy Bloody Mary scene, which is much more effective in the trailer than in the movie itself). I'm not going to factor this issue into my rating, because I'm of two minds about it: yes, it can be considered a fairly egregious case of false advertising, but on the other hand, the trailer DOES do a good job of getting across the general feel of the movie without giving away any major plot points.
So controversy aside, is the movie any good? Well, yes and no. The jump scares, which are perhaps the hallmark of this series, are often either simple retreads of things that happened in the first two films or are a bit too over-the-top for the found-footage genre, whose best examples (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, the first PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) strike a perfect balance between realism and the supernatural. Putting that aside, however, there are several effective and amusing scares and a few interesting plot devices that make it worth watching -- the best conceit is a camera that's placed on the base of an oscillating fan so that it pans slowly back and forth between the kitchen and the living room; this setup provides most of the film's best tense and frightening moments, as the viewer is kept at the edge of their seat wondering who or what might pop into frame during the next oscillation. PA3 also does something stylish and cool with the classical image of the ghost in the white sheet.
Sadly, though, the law of diminishing returns has finally begun to seep in with this third installment in what may be the scariest horror franchise of all time. Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (creators of the intriguing is-it-real-or-isn't-it? documentary CATFISH) have some new tricks up their sleeves but not enough to escape the overall been-there-done-that vibe. To make matters worse, the ending (without giving away too much) feels like it was spliced in from a totally different movie altogether and creates several plot issues that don't make a whole lot of sense when placed beside what we've learned about this family in the previous films. (To be fair, though, the unanswered questions will more than likely be addressed in the inevitable sequel).
RATING: 2.5 out of 4
