The original Paranormal Activity’s bump in the night scares suggest the more plausible and chilling possibility of home invasion but, more significantly, it also evokes the sense of dissociation in unhappy relationships. Nonetheless, there are these little resonances that slip through these commercialist cogs. If I’m honest, I’m pretty sure these themes are almost entirely accidental these films are more product than art. The reason I have more time for these films than most critics is the way their bare bones stories act as a prism for more meaningful themes. They operate reasonably well as scare factories, using negative space and stillness to create fear in the mind’s eye rather than on the screen effective horror comes from within, after all. I don’t think criticism of the films is unwarranted: the aesthetic ensures that the cinematography is uniquely unmemorable, and means character development is slim to none (turning into a demon: not actually character development). While I’m not going to herald the first few Paranormal Activity films as masterpieces, genre or otherwise, I have some respect for the films. The Marked Ones is fortunately less interested in reinforcing the series’ convoluted and, frankly, silly mythology it isn’t until halfway through the film that an explicit link is made between the events on display and the earlier films. It’s certainly an improvement on the disappointing third sequel, which got tangled in its own mythology and pretty much forgot about providing interesting characters or effective scares. The important question remains – is it scary? If the moans of dread and screams of terror in my packed screening were anything to go by, it’s at the very least adequate. Found footage with jump scares, possession tropes and a dash of Chronicle for good measure. It eschews the static cameras that defined its predecessors but – aside from Hispanic protagonists as opposed to lily-white ones – it’s utterly conventional. These films are primarily a vehicle for frightening its audience, and The Marked Ones is very much in that tradition. The reason for the series’ longevity isn’t complicated people (especially teenagers) love to be scared.
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