Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Looking back at the box office numbers for Paranormal Activity 1 - 3, you realise how much the audience love this found footage horror style. From my personal opinion, i enjoyed number 3 most, because the story was both deeper and had more to say about the paranomal activities happening inside a family´s home. But suddenly something happened. Paranormal Activity 4 did not do as good as the previous movies at the box office. It still made a profit, but not as much as the predictions were. I can understand why, this was a poor sequel with no interesting plot, just trying to be scary without any real effort. You might think this is the 5th one, but it is not. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is a spin-off of Paranormal Activity franchise, and this means we get a completely different story. Considering i did not really enjoy Paranormal Activity 4, is this spin-off a step in the right direction, or another example of a bad choice that should have laid on a shelf ?

June 2012. Jesse ( Andrew Jacobs ) have just graduated high school, and hold a party with friends and family. Jesse´s friend Hector ( Jorge Diaz ) make sure Jesse have a great time. But lately Jesse have noticed that strange noises are coming from a neighbours appartment, her name is Anna ( Gloria Sandoval ). They send down a small camera in the ventalation system, where they notice Anna is doing some kind of ritual. Confused and worried about what is going on, they try to find answers to who she is. Suddenly one night, Anna is found dead by Police. This is a chance for Jesse and his friends to find more answers about Anna, and what she was doing in her appartment. They manage to get inside her place, and find strange objects, as well as ritual belongings. There are also pictures of Jesse at the ritual table, and Jesse have no idea how they got there. Jesse suddenly begin to change, he have bad temper and seem to have something following him wherever he goes. What seemed harmless in the beginning, is now becoming a nightmare when the truth is revealed.

Thankfully director Christopher B. Landon tries to take this motion picture in another direction, compare to the previous Paranormal Activity movies. The latino influences in L.A. is a good idea, with the ritual perspective. But the problem is he does not deliver enough to make this story interesting. In fact, not untill the last 18 minutes we get some interesting details, that should have been told much earlier. There are parts where i feel kind of bored, because nothing really happends. And when something finally do happen, it still does not feel scary enough to make me jump out of my seat. The acting is nothing i remember much of, but in the ending we do at least get something positive. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is not anything i can recommend, but still this is better than Paranormal Activity 4. Am i looking forward to the 5th sequel ? Not really, but i will see it. Hopefully they come up with an intelligent plot, then maybe we might actually have some more details explained from the 3rd movie. There are many questions that needs to be answered.

Rating: DD