First off - major complains about The Ghost Dimension:
- It's way too dark (more than usual)
- It's way too blurry (more so than usual)
- I spent the whole time going WHAT'S HAPPENING WHERE ARE WE
- There's just too many "twist and turns" that don't work
The Ghost Dimension is the end to a long franchise that includes 6 films. It came out this October in 3D and was directed by Gregory Plotkin. Plotkin was the editor of the last four PA films but this is his first foray into directing.
Paranormal Activity was, of course, not the first found footage film, but is one of the greats. It helped cement the idea that you can make a horror movie for very little money and bring in a ginormous profit with a good ad campaign. And Paranormal Activity was scary. It was unpredictable and jumpy and haunting. The story was nothing special but you didn't really care because you had so much fun watching it. Inevitably there were sequels, the second being set a few weeks before the first film, the third being set in 1988 when our lead characters were little girls, and the fourth being set after the events of the first two films.
Then came The Marked Ones which was a breath of fresh air into the series and the story itself. And now finally we have The Ghost Dimension. Which is just sad. It's like the creators just gave up and pulled ideas out of a hat. "yeah, that makes sense, go with that one".
The Marked Ones, in my opinion, brought a new hope to the series and made the storyline so exciting. It spoke deeply about the cult that surrounded all of these movies and stories and it had some really creepy shots. Think, sticking a camera down a vent into an apartment only to find a creepy naked woman doing some sort of ritual.
But Ghost Dimension destroyed all of that. It follows a new family who have moved into a new house. There's a father, mother, young daughter, the uncle, and a friend. Of course, more of the same happens - child acts weird, spooky stuff happens around the house. The father finds a box with an old video camera in it and tapes. The camera, it turns out, can see ghosts. And the tapes are of the Midwives cult. Sure, some questions are answered, but it's all a bit underwhelming. Even the scares are boring and overused and completely lacking. The beauty of Paranormal Activity was sitting there watching an empty bedroom for two minutes just losing your mind knowing something would happen but not when. And of course, you expect people in horror movies to be dumb, but these people are just infuriating.
Although Ghost Dimension is lacking, I don't want it to damper the franchise itself. Paranormal Activity had a great run. It was unique, scary, and super fun to watch. The Marked Ones is a wonderful horror film that brought something unique to the genre and the franchise. I think what happened was they set themselves up too much. The story got too big with all the jumping back and forth between timelines and houses and children. They lost themselves. But all of the movies are great standalones and I don't think we should discredit the franchise for a few bad ones. It's just natural to have some stinkers! Not every franchise has a perfect lineup. So, don't give up on PA, and keep watching the original few movies and enjoy them for what they are, not for what they're leading up to.
So, a disappointing end to a franchise. Guess now we'll just look for the inevitable "re-boots" and "re-makes" in a few years.
4/10
Stay Spooky!
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