Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

The Marked ones is without doubt one of the best films from the Franchise (first one apart.) It's the usual format, every stereotype included, kids, found footage, person turned away, being on top of the ceiling, but somehow this one has an air of originality about it. Unlike the last few films the character's are well rounded and for the first time likeable, so when things start happening to them you care. There's nothing particularly original here, the ending has definitely been done to death, but it doesn't seem to matter. Not bad at all.

After the abomination that was PA4, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Sure, it's your standard possession story, but I found it believable and reasonably well acted. The young guys were easy to like and their friendship really came through on-screen. It also had some great scary/eerie moments. All in all, I think the PA franchise has pulled itself back on track with this one. Definitely worth watching!

The acting is quite good, that is the only reason why I am giving it 4 stars.

I love the first 3 movies they were exciting and fun. The 4th and 5th one don't feel like the same movie. When I watched this I realized I shouldn't have watched it because it makes me appreciate the first three less. This sucks I loved these movies until the 4th and 5th one. The writers are jumping around scraping for a way to draw out a movie concept that was fine the way it was. The main two actors were great though so don't hold it against them. But the movie wasn't scary and had a couple okay moments but all in all not worth your $$. You pretty much wait an hour for the movie to actually get exciting. Maybe there's hope for the next one if they decide to make one but honestly I want to just stick with the first three.

If you're a die hard PA fan and this will be a great movie. One of the best.

Good acting, and the twist at the end relative to the first PA was a good surprise

I've only seen the first Paranormal Activity so I'm reviewing this as a standalone movie, even though it's actually a spin off or whatever. It's the same premise though - found-footage, teenagers, ghosts, demons, and what have you.

The first 30 or so minutes I was invested in the movie. I really was. I liked the characters, I thought the filmmakers were doing something interesting and fresh, there are some comedic bits thrown around, it was just enjoyable to watch. Then it turns into cliché city. Easy jump scares, stupid mythology that isn't even explained and makes no sense, people running around from room to room with no suspense. It's like halfway through the movie the filmmakers were like "oh crap, this has to be a Paranormal Activity movie. Let's just make a bunch of supernatural crap happen to these characters we developed and wrap this up as quickly as possible". And that's how the entire third act feels: rushed and lazy. It basically went from being an intriguing murder mystery to a generic possession movie.

I won't say it's terrible because I didn't hate myself watching it. It just got really uninteresting really fast. Near the end I was just waiting for it to be over because you know there's not going to be any explanation or any depth to the story at that point. You just want these stupid jump scares to stop so you can go about your life not watching this movie. There are worse found-footage movies out there, but The Marked Ones is definitely one you can skip over.