Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

   

Directed by: Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman

Written by:
Christopher Landon

Story by: Chad Feehan

Starring:

.... Alex
Matt Shively .... Ben
.... Wyatt
Brady Allen .... Robbie

Stephen Dunham .... Doug
.... Holly
.... Katie

Release Dates: Theatrical: October 19, 2012

 

Rating:

 

Katie (Katie Featherston) has been missing for 5 years and a new family move into her home and suddenly a mysterious mother and child move into the neighborhood and the family's youngest son Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp) starts to have an imaginary friend and their objects seem to be disaapearing and reappearing as well as their video camera's catching alot of ghostly events along with many near deadly incidents as well.

 

An interesting beginning as we see the character Holly with her kids and newborn baby spending time outside of their home on a nice sunny day while someone is videotaping her. Also a nice setting with her at night in a room trying to get her baby to sleep and suddenly something makes you jump with a sudden force attacking her which is a nice start off to the story indeed.
Then we get into a different story taking away with what we saw which is a nice teaser with a new family that moved into the home as well as showing some goofy moments on the siblings teasing one another that mainly involves Wyatt after his school practise in soccer. This all looked good and natural but at the same time not all that entertaining to watch as we've seen this type of stuff many times before.
Perfect moments with someone filming around their new home and then going in the backyard to go to Wyatt's treehouse as this looked spooky to watch and making you wonder if this will draw you in to the paranormal events later on. It was nicely set.
Then we spot more teasers as there's Alex doing a video chat with her boyfriend Ben and then she has to go out and do something and a moment of silence revealing her absence in the dark room as you wonder if something's going to happen but it is a little too overly long. Yet there's a near jumping moment when she returns as at first you wonder if a force is approaching this moment.
Then later on we have someone going to the kids's treehouse and they have an imaginary friend they're talking to which is supposed to make you think a ghostly moment but this seemed to not offer any suspenseful thoughts at all.
However there's fun and happy moments when Ben, Alex and Wyatt have a good time toying around with their camera and the effects as well as them dancing to some metal music which is a good touch to the story.
Also there's some creepy moments when someone is talking and they spot a ghostly figure zooming by or surprising situations similar to that along with Ben trying to show his friends what's on the videotape. This seems to get going a little bit.
Many nice moments on what's going on late at night including the family cat walking by or running past which offers some chuckles as all of this looked realistic.
Nicely done moments on Alex trying to run across the street and almost hitting a car as this catches you by surprise as well as trying to go by a neighborhood and a lady comes and questions her which looked pretty spooky to watch.
Then we have Wyatt playing in the house and a chair moves back as this looked well done but at the same time not as spooky as it was intended to be.
Nice focus on Robbie cutting some vegetables and she walks away for a moment and her knife shoots up to the roof and she goes back and gets frusterated wondering where her knife is as this can offer more chuckles indeed.
Then later on a good dark shot on Doug sleeping on the living room couch and then getting up to go near the kitchen and something distracts him offering a nice jumping moment as well as the kitchen knife plunging down stabbing the counter as this for sure looked creepy to watch.
Perfect look at Wyatt's dark room with a door opening by itself in which this looked spooky to watch as well as him going downstairs and we have a special effects of a child ghost following him and he is talking to something invisible and getting upset which is one of the best scene's in this film.
Nice natural moments when Robbie runs a bath for Wyatt and then has to get something in which we spot him staring at the camera in the bath which makes you wonder as to what will happen next along with Robbie answering a phone and then a nice surprising moment with Wyatt dragged underneath the water which makes you gasp wondering if he will drown as we continue to watch this.
Perfect suspenseful moments quarter way through the story when we spot Alex sleeping in her bed and then the ghostly child opens her door to come in and suddenly the sheets get pulled off on her and she rises up which really looked spooky to watch.
Terrific moments with Alex using her laptop to talk to someone and she goes into her garage with her spinning around and then the vehicle starts up and she's trapped and choking due to the gas as well as her struggling to find a way to get into the car as well as some damage happening as this for sure makes you cringe big time and things looked perfectly wild while watching all of this.
Nicely effective moment when we spot Katie standing in Wyatt's bedroom as well as Robbie in the living room and suddenly a force drags her up which is another great jumping moment as well as the real showdown when Ben comes in to see what's going on as well as Katie doing something deadly to him which looked terrifically well done too.
Perfect moments with Alex filming around Katie's home and trying to find her brother as well as panicking to find out on what to do as well as a perfect moment trying to get away from Katie and trying to get Wyatt to come with her and he doesn't move along with a perfect freaky ending which is shocking. Alot of this scene seems to resemble to the final ending on the Blair Witch Project.
Bottom line is that the makers seems to run out of ideas on how to make this one suspenseful at first as things seem a bit slow but then there's some nice surprising hauntings and near terror so it makes up for the film to be just plain average. Let's hope that there's an improvement on the next sequel.

The acting is not as great but not terrible either in which lead actress (Alex) seemed a bit wooden at first in her performance when she acts like a tease or being sarcastic but she does pick up the pace later on as she does well acting like a tease and being very bubbly as well as showing good hyped energy. Does well with her concerned behavior or reacting to something scared. Plus she really brings it up greatly when she is trapped in a garage choking and acting like she's suffocating as well as acting powerful when trying to struggle against these terrible incidents which she really focused well on. Plus does well acting disturbed later on and acting like a basket case. Shows a perfect hyped up and freaked out behavior near the end of her performance when she tries to get away from the madness which looked totally adrenalised big time.
Matt Shively (Ben) really brings on the attention with his bubbly happy go lucky type of behavior. He gets into everything in each scene like spending time with the young one's which looks natural as well as having video conversations in which he shows some great attnetion into what he's talking about. Also does well having concerned discussions or being strong on a ghostly situation by what he sees on a screen that was videotaped just being sharp about it all. Had the perfect boy next door looks too.
(Wyatt) shows a nice cute and charming appeal to his role acting friendly and social. Plus shows some nice spunk in many scene's especially dancing to music or spotting on what the video camera can do acting full of life and making this realistic. Does well going into a trance and acting disturbed while talking to nothing as well as showing some nice upsetting emotions in which he shows a good versatality here.
(Holly) knows her craft as a typical family woman in which she brought it so realistically as well there's a nice focus on her chopping some vegetables along with showing some mild frusterations when she can't find her knife. Plus does a good job when she runs a bath for her onscreen child as well as acting convincingly busy when getting a towel or answering a phone which she brings some nice and exciting energy into all of this. Plus had the right looks for this as well.
(Katie) adds a perfect mysterious to her role acting still at first in a scene when talking to someone. Plus she does a great job having an emotionless attitude while roaming in the house or getting deadly in other spots with her powerful blocking. Plus does a great job trying to viciously run after someone near the end of the film as this packs a punch greatly.

Although there's no composer for a found footage flick like this one we do have some kids turning on a stereo and dancing along to Rob Zombie's stompin hit "Dragula" which adds to the scene a great deal and will grab your attention greatly. A perfect song for a horror flick too and having a partying enviornment feel to it all.

Robbie: He does not like you.
Ben: What? Who? Who does not like me?
Robbie: You'll find out.

Alex: [after seeing Katie at the end of the hall] Please don't hurt me!