A movie about one of the true founders of modern fear, a man who took the most ordinary and turned it into the extraordinary. He made use fear birds, he brought us spy thrillers and, most importantly, he brought us this:
Every American, both young and old, know this movie. Even those who have never actually seen it know the plot. It's been made fun of in popular culture (South Park, the Simpsons, etc) while also shaping how thriller movies are made with it's highly irregular soundtrack, high shrieking string instruments during action scenes, dead silence during certain suspenseful moments. "Give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare." Perhaps the pivotal thought for all of those hoping to terrify their would-be audiences such as myself. The reason I bring this up, of course, is not only to highlight one of my favorite creative minds from the twentieth century, but to highlight the movie being made about him.
As an Atheist/Buddhist, as well as a Historian and aspiring Horror novelist, I never pass up a chance to take a look at the more... esoteric fears that have come to bear in our society. While perusing my blogs and newsreels, I came across this:
Not bashing upon the young girl's grammatical errors (we all make them), I am actually intrigued by her apparent fear that homosexuality, and the spread of it, will somehow put us at odds with waterfowl. Her apparent disbelief in evolution and lack of understanding in the most basic concepts of biology aside, I feel she was trying to be satirical... but she doesn't know how. This is why we need a better education system folks! She either truly believes the ducks (or perhaps some other water born avian) will overtake us because of the Gays or she doesn't know how to write satire. The only piece of this article I didn't find terrifying was the fact the she is homeschooled, something that was a major relief to me. It's not the school system that's failing her, it's her parents. Thank goodness!
So the wife and I got an invite to see a special screening of Paranormal Activity 4 for free, at the Silverado. The movie itself was pretty much the same exact thing as the first three, with a few added surprise! moments thrown in to jerk around with the audience. Whereas the first and arguably the second of the two movies had a decent amount of suspense and scare factor, this one fell flat on it's face in both regards. Not to post too many spoilers, but the only time I truly, actually jumped was when the protagonist's boyfriend snuck into her house and yanked her off the bed while off screen, a play off of the numerous times the demon had thrown people physically. The rest of the movie was a pathetic, and rather blatant, attempt at shock scares with no guesswork, and unlike the advertisements are saying, no final answers. Spoiler Alert! One of the main characters in the movie is the neighbor boy Robbie, who the family takes in after his mother (Katie, the possessed sister from the other movies) is taken away in an ambulance. The boy is silent and strange, possessing a "Fork of Truth" and a century old stuffed sloth/bear/thing. It is revealed later in the movie that this bizarre little boy is indeed not Hunter, the stolen child from the second film, but some other boy with no origin story whatsoever. Hunter is actually the protagonist's little brother, who was adopted as a baby. Never explained how Katie lost him, or what the Hell is going on with all of the spookiness. In the first film, it wanted Katie. In the second film, it wanted Hunter. In the prequel film, it wanted Katie (to marry?). In this film, it wants to just be a strange ghost-demon that tortures and kills, and is an all around dick. So in conclusion: no questions are answered, only more are added to the pile; a new creepy boy is added to the character roll with no explanation, and nobody is checking their goddamn cameras on a daily basis when strange shit is going on around them. If they did that, the movie would have probably had some damn answers!
