The end is here.
By Eric Goldman
The sixth installment in the Paranormal Activity series (referring to Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones as a “spinoff” just seems silly, especially considering how it ended) is being marketed as the final one, which obviously raises the stakes on the events this time out. It can’t be just another sequel; there has to be some sense of finality to it. Which is why Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is ultimately pretty frustrating.
It’s too bad, because I’d say much of the film works and functions as another fun installment in the series – the caveat being if you, like myself, are a fan of the series in general. The Ghost Dimension has a few differences from the other chapters, but it’s still a Paranormal Activity movie. It’s still all done found footage style and you still have to go with a huge amount of suspension of disbelief that these people hold onto their cameras (and point them properly) in the midst of some of the events occurring around them. But if you’ve sat through five of these suckers so far, here’s hoping it’s because you ultimately enjoy them and their often effective mix of stillness and mundane events with big jump scares.
Like the last couple of films, The Ghost Dimension introduces an entirely new group of characters into the mix, as we meet the Fleege family – married couple Emily (Brit Shaw) and Ryan (Chris J. Muray), their young daughter Leila (Ivy George), Emily’s sister, Skyler (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Ryan’s brother, Mike (Dan Gill) – the presence of visiting adult siblings explained by the film’s pre-Christmas, holiday setting. Ryan and Mike discover a box at the house with an old, 1980s home video camera and several VHS tapes. When Mike begins using the camera, he begins to see strange things through it, indicating a presence in the home… even as Leila begins to act very oddly, and disturbingly reminiscent of footage on the old tapes of, of course, Katie and Kristi (Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown, reprising their Paranormal Activity 3 roles through a mixture of old and new footage).
We want to hear it.
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is the first film in the series to be in 3D (amusingly mimicking the “last chapter is in 3D” gimmick of horror films like Freddy’s Dead and Saw 3D), which is somewhat used in-story to evoke the things seen through that old camera – much of the big 3D moments occur when something swirls (or lunges) towards the camera. It’s an amusingly on-the-nose use of the technique, and even as a pretty big 3D naysayer, there was some fun to be had with it, in the way you get with a crowded audience all jumping together.
With all of these visuals also comes an even more notable change, which is the fact that this movie has way more on-camera CG effects and actual visualization of the supernatural presence at work than the rest of the series – even beyond the “superpowers” of a sort the main character in The Marked Ones displayed. It’s an interesting shift, after so many movies where the biggest visual moments were often furniture suddenly moving and such, but also is a nice way to change up the dynamic after so long…
…Though in the final act, as we get more direct onscreen manifestations of what’s occurring, beyond the floating particles and shapes of the early scenes, it also leads to some cheesy moments where the budget limitations of these films are apparent, with less than believable FX undercutting some big moments.
The film is well cast, with the early scenes doing a nice job setting up this normal family and Gill doing a good job delivering some amusing quips as the comic relief – he even gets in a meta line where he mocks Katie and Kristi’s family for apparently filming their entire lives (though of course the same thing is about to happen with his family).
We want to hear it.
Especially notable is young Ivy George (who resembles a tiny Emma Stone), as a lot is asked of the little girl, who has to be adorable and playful and then scary and disturbed and does a commendable job with all of it. Child actors can make or break a film and they found a great one here.
While there is a decent in-story reason for the characters to keep filming so much this time out — as they can only see these spirits through the camera — there are still some times where it’s difficult to not chuckle at how silly it gets, since what is occurring would just naturally lead to someone dropping that camera (especially considering it’s a big, bulky one) on instinct.
In and of itself though, this is another decent Paranormal Activity film, even as you feel the strain to keep the found footage aspect going for the entirety of the running time after so many movies. It’s hard not to imagine a version of The Ghost Dimension where it’s filmed normally, until the scenes where we see the POV of the camera picking up the supernatural presence.
What ultimately knocks the movie down a peg though is its lackluster conclusion. Yes, we get some answers about what the coven of witches we’ve seen the past few movies have been up to and trying to accomplish – but that aspect of the series has always felt murky. Meanwhile, there are a couple of cast members from previous films who surprisingly and frustratingly don’t appear, and make the ending feel empty, given it’s them we have an investment in above whatever “the plan” is.
There’s one thing in particular I want to mention, that is sort of spoilery in that it discusses something not in the movie. Skip ahead to the verdict if you don’t want to know.
Katie Featherston never appears in Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension. Yes, her character does, as a little girl, and the adult Katie is mentioned, but we never see her. Featherston has been the staple of the series, having appeared, at least in cameo form, in every movie. She’s also evolved into the onscreen villain we have the most direct investment in, given she was the main character in the original. While she’s not the only Paranormal Activity alum I would have liked to have seen return one last time who doesn’t, she’s the one I’m frankly baffled is missing and the lack of any true closure for her hurts the ending a lot. Not getting a true wrap up with Katie is the biggest reason I kind of hope Paranormal Activity becomes one of those horror series that claims its on its final installment, only to go back on that promise.
If this were simply marketed as another Paranormal Activity sequel, it would be a decent one, albeit one showing the strain of almost any movie series going on this long (and sticking to this format). But this is supposed to be The End. Yes, what happens in the final moment is pretty huge if you were to simply state what occurs, but it lacks impact as far as wrapping up such a long-running series and our investment with the people and situations we’ve seen since it began.
