Eye Candy #584 - "Paranormal Activity 3"

Paranormal Activity 3:  The third in this better-than-average horror film series about demonic goings-on and “found footage” is a prequel, as we finally get the back story of what set the events of the first two films in motion (not a whole picture, mind you; there is still some ‘splaining to do).  In the first film, Katie and her husband Micah encountered increasingly disturbing paranormal phenomena in their house, before ending in tragedy.  The second film focuses on her younger sister Kristi, as the paranormal strangeness overwhelms her family too, with similar results.  We go back in time to 1988, the dawn of the personal video camera era, when both girls were children living with their mother Julie, and Julie’s boyfriend Dennis.  Kristi talks to her imaginary friend Toby, who may not be imaginary, while Dennis starts to hear strange noises and see inexplicable things on his new video camera.  This has a similar build as the previous 2 movies as well: foreboding doom for the first ¾ of the film and then poo hits the fan in the last reel.  The cast is full of relative unknowns (I recognize Dustin Ingram, who was the lead in “Meet Monica Velour”, and the two lead actresses from the previous films, but that’s pretty much it).  If you’ve seen the first movie, then you know it’s all closing doors, squeaky hinges, shadows, things you can’t clearly see that move quickly in and out of frame, though the filmmakers do go for some higher-tech special effects this time around (not crazy big budget, but more so than the previous two).   If you’re a fan of the first two films (like I was), you’ll enjoy this entry as well, though I think this is the least of the series so far (there is a fourth on the way).  Woodchuck sez, “Me likey.”