Five and counting in the Paranormal Activity flicks and they’re still more than watchable
As far as the law of diminishing returns for franchises goes, Paranormal Activity is a different level than that of the ‘Saws’ of this world. This, the fifth in the still popular low budget series, is another engaging old school ghost flick with a modern twist.
The self-cam sub-genre, which has been doing the rounds since The Blair Witch decided it was sound to actually put ‘Baby’ in the corner, was invariably going to run out of steam sooner or later. But after a couple of the sequels in this series managed to be better than the original, there seemed to be life in the eh, middle aged (?) dog yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39iyK_aqDE
More of a spin-off than a straight up continuation, the filmmakers and studio apparently saw how big a Latino audience the franchise had in the US so decided to make Hispanic characters the main focus.
Said characters are Jesse and Hector; two happy-go-lucky lads from a working class area that have just graduated from high school. The focus shifts more towards Jesse as the film moves on, as Hector acts as organic cameraman, filming some increasingly bizarre situations.
The one thing the Paranormal Activity films arguably haven’t had is a recognizable bad guy; it goes down a different route and actually spends time developing it’s characters before gradually unleashing hell on them.
‘The Marked Ones’ follows that formula carefully and works all the better for it. There’s nothing particularly new here, but it’s well acted the characters engaging and in the last twenty minutes or so the scares effective.
Good enough for you to see a sixth in the series come this Halloween.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
