Beware the demons, the children, in ‘Paranormal Activity 4’

On the official movie site of “Paranormal Activity 4” there’s a “Chat with Alex” feature, so I took it for a spin.   When the beatific 14-year-old face of Alex Nelson (Kathryn Newton of “Bad Teacher” and “Gary Unmarried”) came up on my browser and the website took control of my camera, I knew how this was going to play out. Shadowy figures behind me, stuff like that. But it was still an interesting, effective marketing ploy that let me experience what the beleaguered Alex and her family might feel if there’s an unknown, malevolent presence inside the house that conveniently shows up on the footage.   Ah, “Paranormal Activity 4,” I had such high hopes of frights for you.   As it is, “PA4” is a perfectly formulaic place holder for the series that has pushed the envelope of the horror sub-genre that’s come to be known as “found footage.” But where predecessors like “The Blair Witch Project” or the “REC” series had professionals (filmmakers, journalists) wielding the cameras, the PA franchise puts amateurs and ordinary people behind the lens and in bad supernatural situations.   What really interested me in this sub-genre is how you can progressively raise the bar in intensity. With the “PA” series specifically, I’ve found that, as the demons get bolder, the frights and fun rise in direct proportion to the intensity of the evil portrayed onscreen.   The first and second movies were great delight for me. Oh, the schadenfreude of watching a family under attack from infernal forces! Not so with the fourth instalment.   We start this movie with the perfectly happy, ordinary family of the Nelsons. The couple live in the suburbs and have two children: their teenaged daughter Alex and their 10-year-old son Wyatt--whom we later learn is adopted.   Events start taking a turn for the weird when Robbie (Brady Allen), the creepy little boy from the house across the street, starts showing up on their premises. First, Alex and her boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) find Robbie sitting by himself inside their tree house at 10 PM. At dawn the next day, Alex hears an ambulance outside Robbie's house and we learn that the child’s mother has been taken to a hospital, where she has to be confined for sometime.    The Nelsons thus take in Robbie, who lives with them for a few weeks. Bad idea, as we see Robbie waking up at around 3 AM and talking to invisible friends. Not the imaginary, harmless ilk, though.    In this movie the demons stay true to their nature of “nothing’s sacred,” so they move next door and literally haunt you where you live.   We eventually see how events at the Nelson’s house tie in with those in the previous movies, how it’s been five years since the disappearance of Katie and Hunter and no one’s known what happened to them. . . until now.   We focus on Alex as the central figure who records and films everything with her boyfriend. Soon, the movie hints that she must be sacrificed to complete the possession of a boy—in this case Wyatt.   Alex and her boyfriend Ben are what I like about this movie. They’re not only relatable and sympathetic characters, but it builds up Alex as the only sensible individual inside the house even as she IS the target of most of the attacks. This ties in nicely with her coming of age. She also uses the tech available to her ably and with resourcefulness, as the demons (and the demon-possessed) throw her curve balls.   In one scene, I liked how she resorted to a baseball bat when the digitals failed her. A nice use of analog brute force, that.   Oh, and the cameras here feature the Xbox Kinect, a Macbook, smart phones, a Canon XA10, motion sensors, static cams installed inside and outside the premises that usually comes bundled along with a security package--along with a snooty woman’s voiceover that announces doors opening and closing.     Aside from Alex, the potential for a “Children of the Corn” or “The Omen” (the whole spooky kids theme) aesthetic is so wide open it could stand up and scream “I’m wide open!” But this is one idea that was never pushed and remains half-baked, static even. Robbie, however, effectively hams it up as withdrawn, quiet, and all around spooky. He just stares at you.   Sadly, “PA4” has nothing new to offer besides that. No new tricks up its sleeve. Not even better escalation of suspense. Still, across the board critical failure hasn’t stopped it from becoming a bona fide box office success. It grossed $29,003,866 in the U.S. during its opening October weekend, and $119,566,574 when it opened worldwide.   See, demons are suppurating thorns in reality. They don’t belong here. I mean that as a matter of both physics and occult science. If demons could manifest physically they wouldn’t need to possess us puny humans. Extended possessions like the one featured in this movie are as rare as albino sperm whales.   Still, I took that in stride and gave the directing team of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, along with series creator Oren Peli (the same guy who helmed the critically-acclaimed but ultimately axed ABC Studios TV series “The River”), the benefit of meeting them halfway. Just let me see someone getting rag dolled by invisible hands again, pretty please.   The tweens here are far more interesting and far better actors (with better excuses for Instagramming and filming everything) than the previous protagonists of the earlier instalments. Thank you, Skype, et al.    A hallmark of the PA series is unbelief. This is how residents can stay unfazed and in denial of unexplained phenomena in their house without ever getting expert help. Predictably, this is how the Nelson parents react, whereas if the kids start Crayola scrawling ancient runic marks on each other, it’s a good sign for Pinoys to evacuate the place pronto.   As a creepy not-so-fun fact, the parents in the film (played by Stephen Dunham and Alexondra Lee) are married in real life. Thing is, Stephen Dunham died on September 14 of a heart attack, before the film was released.   And the horrors? Here, they are purely of the surprise and shock variety. The subtle eeriness of the other instalments is almost fully absent, except for some tension-filled exceptions. It’s off-beat, like a drummer playing dismal odd time on a bad night, with one too many Jaeger shots.   Given the themes of possession, spiritual terrorism, and escalating invasion, there should be a goldmine of occult horrors to explore here. But the demons never quite go to town on this family that’s as tender as the virgin’s thigh (in Alex’s case, literally). Where’s the rowdy infernal host when you need them?   Even the ending had me scratching my head. Albeit, I must admit, it was pretty scary for about 10 seconds there as Alex got chased around. By the time the climax of the last 15 minutes arrives I’m expecting a hoedown of Gehenna proportions, but instead, it felt like a hurried catch-up before the total running time ended.   Watch for kicks. Leave your fright expectations at the threshold. And, for crying out loud, turn off your webcams. – YA, GMA News   All photos courtesy of Solar, UIP/Paramount Pictures