I know with most fans of the horror movie genre, this franchise has a love-hate relationship with the masses, especially after the initial first two outings. Then there's that ongoing boredom everyone gets with the "found footage/shaky hand-cam" films. You wouldn't be here if you weren't remotely curious about this film, so let's get on with this review shall we?
Cast:
Andrew Jacobs as JesseJorge Diaz as Hector
Gabrielle Walsh as Marisol
Richard Cabral as Arturo
Carlos Pratts as Oscar Hernandez
Catherine Toribio as Penelope
Noemi Gonzalez as Evette
David Saucedo as Cesar
Gloria Sandoval as Anna
Juan Vasquez as Santo
Plot:
The story begins in June 2012 in Oxnard, California. Recent high school graduate Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) has a party which includes his family and friends to celebrate his graduation. After days of humorous stunts, Jesse finds a bite on his arm. Days later, he and his friend Hector (Jorge Diaz) are confronted by two thugs who attack them, but the thugs are somehow knocked out. When they show the incident to their other friend Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh), Jesse cannot remember how it happened. After a few days of strange activity, he finds that he has superhuman abilities before he tests and plays with them.
The friends check the basement and find photos of Oscar, Jesse, and his family. One of which suggests that his mother was once friends with Anna. Over a few days of strange activity, Jesse begins acting more strangely - sullen, moody, and dark. He goes to Anna's basement to find the cause of a dog's barking noise, only to find ghostly figures, including those of young Katie and Kristi (Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown). He ends up back in his own room - now even more sullen and dark.
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| FYI... this scene from the commercials does NOT occur in the theatrical release. |
Hector flees, leaving a seemingly dead Arturo behind, and goes through the gateway. He finds himself in the household of Katie and Micah (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat), at the time the first film ended. Hector sees Katie walking from upstairs to get a knife. Upon seeing Hector, she screams for Micah, who arrives to attack Hector. But Micah is stabbed to death by Katie, as Hector flees. Hector is confronted by who appears to be a possessed Jesse, gets attacked and drops the camera. Without Hector in sight and the camera still recording, a random witch appears, picks up and turns off the camera. -- via Wikipedia
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| I think every kid wants to do this their bullies at least once... |
The Verdict:
Contrary to popular belief, this film is NOT Paranormal Activity 5. It is to be deemed as "cousin" or spin-off to the main series as to fill in the gaps on what else is going on outside of Katie's family and to give more details on this mysterious coven of witches that seem to be building an army for some unknown purpose. Paranormal Activity 5 releases in October, just in time for its usual Halloween weekend slot.For the most part, the duration of the film plays out like a Latino version of Chronicle. You have the teenager (Jesse) who discovers he has "super powers" and sets out to abuse and exploit them to his own advantage. Then things take the turn for the worse when Jesse and Hector realize that he's not in control of the powers it's the demonic entity that is slowly taking over his mind and body that is in the driver's seat. This one had me laughing a lot more than the protagonists of Paranormal Activity 4, where I was merely facepalming throughout the duration of the film on how stupid Alex and her boyfriend Ben were. Hell, I even applauded when the possessed Katie finally killed Ben's dumb ass. Instead, the bromance of Jesse and Hector was breath of fresh air in this narrative, which I was relieved to see that they removed the format of last four films of constantly recording each night periodically. Instead of the traditional method, this film uses a more believable hand-cam setup where Hector is almost always recording during their day-to-day activities. It's a bit silly that he would be still filming even during the events of the film's finale, but come on, if you want this to be believable you wouldn't be watching these films in the first place. I know I got a good laugh at Oscar's gang leader brother, Santo, declaring war on the witches, promising to "kill these bitches" as he armed himself with some heavy firepower. Santo had to be second most intelligent person in this franchise other than Randy in Paranormal Activity 3, who knew when to get the hell out of Dodge when things turned for the worst.
My biggest gripe with the film came from the so-called "scares". Almost all of them were recycled from the last few films and came off weak and highly predictable. For example, Jesse is chasing for his classmate and he disappears, only for him to reappear behind him. There's a shocker around the halfway point that caught a lot of people off-guard but for the most part, most of the scares are canned and highly predictable.
As for the story, I have seen people shit all over this film like it was Batman Forever-level bad. C'mon people, going in we knew this isn't part of the main franchise, so I wasn't expecting anything grand here to begin with. All of these films are filmed on a minimal budget, so if you were expecting a lot more, I'm sure you can rent the slasher film of your choice from your local Redbox or Netflix to find something more acute to your liking. For what little this film brings to the table story-wise, I can live with - including the plot twist of time travel. Yeah, you read that right - time travel.
When I initially left the movie theater, I thought the inclusion of time travel to the narrative was insanely stupid, but after I had the last two weeks to reflect and think about it, it opens the door to some interesting concepts in future sequels. That means that any character throughout the timeline of the core franchise can return in future films or pop up in other side stories/spin-offs such as this one. In other words, the Paranormal Activity series has it's own shared universe, much like how Marvel Comics has been doing with their films and this theme is quickly becoming the norm across Hollywood. I liked the way that it was introduced instead of a clever or jumbled mindfuck like that most video games or Hollywood blockbusters try to pass off as brilliant storytelling. It was hinted at initially and by the time they got to that point in the film's narrative, I found myself and the rest of the audience I was watching the screening with gasp in an unanimous eureka moment as everyone knew what it was. This opens up an explanation to how the coven of witches have amassed an army so large that was seen at the end of Paranormal Activity 4. They have been plucking recruits from all across time and all over the world.
If you are completely lost after this entry or just want an explanation to how everything ties together up to this point, look no further than here. The author does an excellent job at explaining the events of this film, along with tying everything together up to this point and providing a few easter eggs that you have more likely missed.
That being said, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones doesn't really bring anything new to the table if you are not a fan of these films since the original. For fans of the franchise, there's enough to wet your appetite here to hold you over until Paranormal Activity 5 in October, but this film definitely isn't worth the fee of admission. Definitely wait for the speedy DVD/Blu-ray release of this one for you can play catch up before Halloween. I'm giving this entry in Paranormal Activity franchise a 5.75 out of 10. The new approach to the narrative was a welcome change along with the change of scenery, but it doesn't just justify that this film is lackluster from top to bottom. It's far from the best film I have ever seen, nor is it the worst.
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