After moving into a new house with a dark past, a family must protect
their daughter from a demonic presence who sets its sights on her. HORROR
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Paranormal Activity:
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After two decent films, one annoying prequel, one unnecessary sequel, and a hopeful spin-off, I think it was clear to everyone that the Paranormal Activity franchise would not go out on a high note. The sixth film in the franchise, The Ghost Dimension, proved that this series went off the rails years ago and that Blumhouse and Oren Peli have been suckling on this cash cow's teat ever since. After years of wondering just what the hell this demon's end game is, we are finally treated to a sort-of answer that really just brings up more questions. But of course, what else did I expect?
Like most found footage horror films, The Ghost Dimension suffers from the obvious problem of "Why Don't They Drop the Camera?" Despite continually losing its sense of realism, the characters never drop the camera because it's the only way they can see the demon. At least, until they don't need it anymore. Remember what we're dealing with here. I did, however, enjoy the final twenty minutes, which saw the family perform an exorcism of sorts on their daughter to remove the demon Toby from their lives. Of course, this fails, and we are treated to a poorly-CGI'd demon that rips everybody apart. Still, it was the highlight of the film, mostly because the first hour is the same as the other five films. They film their family doing mundane s**t until weird stuff starts happening and then they set up more cameras. It doesn't get any more formulaic than this. In the end, the Paranormal Activity franchise collapses into itself like a dying star. All of these sequels successfully sucked the life out of an initially revolutionary low-budget horror film that scared the hell out of everybody using bed sheets, wires, and flour. We didn't have witch covens, alternate dimensions, time travel, or any of that nonsense. It was a good old-fashioned ghost story that was scary. That's all anybody wants. That's why the first one was so successful. Until the Powers That Be realize this, us horror fans are going to be stuck watching rehashes of the same dreck. Hopefully, some of them have better titles than The Ghost Dimension. |
