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Critics Consensus: While it does manage to wring a few more screams out of the franchise's surprisingly durable premise, Paranormal Activity 4 provides fans of the series with dismayingly diminishing returns.
Critic Consensus: While it does manage to wring a few more screams out of the franchise's surprisingly durable premise, Paranormal Activity 4 provides fans of the series with dismayingly diminishing returns.
All Critics (108) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (82) | DVD (3)
We're still seeing things through handheld devices and built-in laptop cameras, even though nobody seems interested in looking at the footage the cameras were supposedly recording.
Even for a something about supernatural shenanigans, this ending is embarrassing.
They could have called this Paranormal Inactivity.
The mood is often playful, with teases and fake-outs that are sometimes humorous and usually right before shocks. Violence is rare, quick and devoid of lingering close-ups.
There are at least a half-dozen or so decent jolts to be enjoyed over the film's running time, but prepare for a long wait to actually get to them.
The mythology has deepened, largely to the negative, and the formula is as rigid as the fixins of a fast-food sandwich-tastes the same in every city. But the effects are eternally reliable.
Silly-minded and riddled with telegraphed convolution, Paranormal Activity 4's only legitimate scare tactic is its inevitable fifth sluggish serving waiting in the wings for a future flaccid presentation in a selected October month of your choosing.
What it shows will shock and scare you...provided that you've never seen a horror film before in your life.
Doesn't seem interested in offering anything new or building on an already well-established mythology.
Paranormal Activity has lapsed into self-parody.
There's some fun to be had, but we've officially reached the "for fans only" stage of this particular horror franchise.
Paranormal Activity 4 is arguably the weakest entry in the series, but if one still gets their kicks out of these films then that probably won't mean all that much.
A great 10-minute short expanded into a tediously boring 90 minute feature that only reflects the studio's desperation (and lack of inspiration) to milk this franchise for all its worth.
Super Reviewer
Story fatigue had already crept into this series well before this installment. Once again we are presented with lots of found footage from computer webcams. Shots of seemingly empty rooms, doors that close by themselves and loud bursts of noise following a period of silence. A couple jolted me awake. The script's contribution this time is to introduce the camera from a Microsoft Kinect video game console with the infrared tracking dots bathing the room in an eerie green light. The outline of an unexplained figure is about as scary as this gets. The human star is Alex, a teen girl played by Kathryn Newton. She is an appealing presence and conveys the natural vibe of a real teen. The same goes for actor Matt Shively who plays her boyfriend Ben. They are understandably freaked out by the strange goings on while the rest of the family inexplicably dismiss flying knives and possessed children as nothing, natch. The Featherston sisters, Katie & Kristi, have historically been the focus of the supernatural activity in this franchise. Kristi appears only in flashback and Katie is relegated to a minor character. The drama isn't advanced in any meaningful way. We're merely left with more of the same parlor tricks you've seen in 3 installments before. Except this time they're done with less enthusiasm. Despite the lackluster performance at the box office, PA5 is coming this October. fastfilmreviews.wordpress.com
Told almost entirely through Skype on computers and cell phones, "Paranormal Activity 4" is not just the worst of the series, but it just an overall poor film. The acting is fine, but the plot makes almost no sense, because it tries too hard to intertwine the story lines from the previous films. Nothing about this film works, and even though some of the previous instalments relied on cool jump scares to make it watchable, this film doesn't even try to accomplish that, because it waits until the last moment of the film to be even remotely terrifying, and that is be being as generous as I possibly can. This film is only 80 minutes long, and when a film that short, feels too long, there is something wrong. Everything about this film from the directing, to the script, is just so sloppy. I don't know how the studio green lit this piece of shit.
The very worst movie I have seen for a long time. I remember at the end of the movie and turning around to a stranger saying "Well that was **** wasn't it?"
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