Activité paranormale: La dimension fantôme

When you look back on old horror series like 'Friday the 13th' or 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and you see 'Part 8: Jason Takes Manhatten' or 'Part 5: The Dream Child' you can't help but shudder at just how ridiculous the sound of that sequel is. Sadly I fear when people look back on the 'Paranormal Activity' series 'The Ghost Dimension' is going to sound equally ridiculous and appear the same for anyone who bothers to watch it. The film isn't good and does a real disservice to an otherwise great series. A huge disappointment.

The filmmakers on this one seemed to have absolutely no understanding of what made the first four (or five including 'The Marked Ones') so effective. It was the fact that even for those of us that don't for the faintest second believe in ghosts or demons, it's still scary because everything was so simple. A person standing over their partner at night simply staring at them for hours on end is much more frightening of an image than actually seeing a completely unrealistic monster-like creature jump out of nowhere. This film did not belong in the series and if it is indeed the last 'Paranormal Activity' film to be made, it was a sad way to end things.

I approached this movie with low expectations due to the negative reviews and the slipshod quality of Paranormal Activity 4. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised to discover that this movie did not suffer from the plodding pace of the first movie or the frustratingly unintelligent characters that were featured in PA2 and PA4 (recall that the father in the second movie had cameras installed but then refused to watch the recorded footage). This entry moves along at a brisk pace and is never boring, and you never have to wait too long for some creepy visuals or a good jump scare (yes, there are jump scares and this will turn some viewers off, but it didn't bother me as I was in the mood to be startled). The character of Mike is somewhat annoying but he's there to serve as comic relief.

Many of the visual effects are subtle and done quite well, such as the particles and shapes captured by the modified "ghost camera," but the use of CGI becomes much too heavy-handed in the latter half of the film. Whereas most of the scares are done very well, a few of the CGI effects seen near the end of the movie are more funny than scary and this is not a good thing; sparser use of computer- generated visuals would have been a wise move, but instead they were VERY liberal with its application here (especially in comparison with the previous entries). Also, without spoiling anything, there are some frustrating problems raised by the plot twists that occur near the end of the film and PA5 ultimately creates more questions than it answers.

Fans who were hoping for a neat and tidy wrap-up to the franchise will be somewhat disappointed with PA5. However, if you accept that these films have had convoluted plots from PA2 onward and you're just in the mood to be scared and entertained, you'll probably enjoy this one. It's a solid popcorn movie for a rainy night.

Just don't puzzle over the continuity of the plot too much... You'll give yourself a migraine.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A couple, their friend and one of their brothers are staying in a large house when they discover a video camera. They start to experiment with this camera and soon realize that it's picking up ghostly images that they can't see without. Soon the young daughter is being visited by someone named Tobi and the adults begin seeing frightening images.

I guess I should give a breakdown on my option of the series leading up to this sixth entry, which the producers are saying is the very last one. I found the first film to be truly frightening and I rank it as one of the best horror movies from the past thirty years. The second film was a complete bore while the third one had an interesting and good story but no scares. The fourth and fifth films in the series proved that they had gone to the well one too many times and it was time to put a nail in the coffin. I walked into this sixth film with low expectations and the film started off having me fearing for another bad entry but then it turned out to be much better.

Is this a great film or a good one? Absolutely not but I thought there were some interesting developments with the plot and there were some really effective scenes that make this worth sitting through. Whereas the first film had the majority of its scare scenes work, this one here isn't nearly as lucky because I'd say only fifteen or twenty percent of the scares work but when they do work they're pretty powerful. The budget here was a lot higher, which allowed for some CGI scenes and I thought these effects were the worst of what we get here. There are moments where the camera is slowly moving around and you're expecting something to happen. The director does a very nice job at the build up and pay off.

The most effective scenes have things running or jumping towards the camera. There are some logical issues and there are moments that don't really connect to the events they're trying to tie to in the series but I liked some of the new stuff here. There's a twist involving the two men watching a tape of Katie and Kristi as a kid that works well. There's also a few other nice elements that help this film seem more than just a rehash of the first movie.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION might be the last and at least they go out with something better than the previous two films.

The Paranormal Activity franchise has definitely been one to follow. The story follows a demon, under the guise of 'Toby' who has been steadily haunting a family and racking up quite a body count. This entry, which promises to be the final one, seems a little distant from the rest of the series. The family move into a house where they find a video camera able to pick up spirit activity and a collection of VHS tapes documenting Katie and Kristi after the events of PA3. The spirit camera is the USP of the film, as they delve into 3D filming ectoplasm and eventually showing 'Toby' as he starts haunting the families daughter. As you can expect, they do start to milk the 3D element too much towards the end of the film, especially in the climax, and quite a lot of the 'activity' scenes seem to play to the audience more than the characters. However, being able to see the demons movements definitely add to the building of tension, and is a much stronger installment than PA4 and 'the marked ones'. The main problem lies within the need for another, final installment, to finally tie up all the loose ends.

Oh yeah... this movie was not great! It was probably closer to being the absolut worst! In that case i am gonna be honest and sau the only good Paranormal activity movie, is the first one! 2 and 3 are watchable and the rest are either insulting or embarrising, including this one!

The story and plot is nonsens and boring as it tries to connect this movie with the third! Characters move into the house, watches a tape from the third movie and then portal opens.. ot something! Idk.. movie does not explain so I can't either! Characters are also flat and lifeless!

The movie though commits the ultimative sin by showing us the demon in his full form! This eliminates all horror as the demon is a floating black mass of bad CGI with 3D effects! It really pulls you out! The first movie was great cause it was realistic! No effects or anything! This movie though has a lot of CGI effects!

This is just a cheap horror movie found footage style! No where near anything good about the first movie!