Review of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) by Jonny L — 29 Mar 2017

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is the most streamlined waiting-for-jump-scares film yet. There is virtually no other malleable content within this mess of a movie.

You know what is scary? The unknown, darkness, slowly rising tension. You know what isn't? Jump scares. Yes it makes me jump a bit, and there is that moment of fear. But that is low-brow horror. It's the cheapest form of creating fear. And that is basically all this move does and it makes it clear early on. Therefore through out the film, whenever there is a quiet moment - characters stop talking or moving, the music dies out and the camera slowly zooms - all you are doing as a viewer is waiting for a jump scare.

Speaking of jumps, jump cuts. Do you love jump cuts? If you do, then I have some amazing news for you - this film is your Citizen Kane. The series continues on its found footage style. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, and has worked well in the past in this genre (The Blaire Witch Project, the first Paranormal Activity). However, the film spans a decently long period of time. If it truly is found footage, then in that time you're going to have a bunch of inane dialogue and boring shots of moving from point A to B. To solve this, the film just uses jump cuts. Even when there is no need - there are cuts jumping over pauses in dialogue which would've been at most 2 seconds. Vlogging aesthetics are leaking into feature films. That is frightening indeed!

The movie is just bad all around. It isn't scary, or at least the good kind. The characters are boring. And it's annoying to watch. Something positive... uhhhh..... It had some decent laughs early on, and the special effects were well done, technically the plot isn't the most generic thing imaginable.... I really want to forget I saw this.