Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) Movie Review
Written By: JASR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Gregory Plotkin
Producers: Jason Blum, Oren Peli
Writers: Jason Pagan, Andrew Deutschman, Adam Robitel, Gavin Heffernan, Brantley Aufill, Oren Peli
Date Released: October 23, 2015 (USA)
Cast:
Chris J. Murray as Ryan
Brit Shaw as Emily
Ivy George as Leila
Dan Gill as Mike
Olivia Taylor Dudley as Skyler
Michael Krawic as Father Todd
Rating = 1/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Ryan (Chris J. Murray) and his brother Mike (Dan Gill) discover an old camera and a box of tapes that show the young Katie and Kristi. Some of the tapes are from 1988 which we saw in Paranormal Activity 3 while others are footage from 1992 when the girls would practice their supernatural abilities. While watching the tapes, the brothers notice that the dialogues of one of the girls respond to their present actions. As for the camera, Ryan learns that it can capture invisible entities and later uses it to film eerie occurrences in their house – especially since his daughter seems to have befriended an entity named Toby.
Gore Factor
Probably the only scene that falls under the gore category would be the one where Skyler vomits after the priest and the family try to trap the demon. However, things do go haywire before that with furniture flying around and people being dragged on the floor.
The Grave Review
The quality of the Paranormal Activity installments seems to go down as the franchise progresses. The franchise started strongly with the first two movies, but slowly went down with each succeeding installment. While this is the last installment as of now, it’s also the worst one. Some sources say that there will be a seventh movie next year, but with the way each installment has been going down, I wonder if the upcoming movie will bring them up or only pull them down further.
This installment is the most unnecessary one of all. It seems too forced – as if the creators just wanted to add another story for the sake of having more installments. In reality, the Paranormal Activity franchise could survive without this movie. In fact, it feels that Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension ruined the whole narrative and illusion.
The movie seemingly intended to give viewers answers on who Toby is, and while many viewers wanted answers, it is not necessary for them to actually see how the entity looks like. The whole reason why the first few Paranormal Activity movies are terrifying is that we do not get to see the demon. We only feel it through items around the house and the actions of people in the scenes. The lack of visualization prompts fear because of how the demon seems to have such power over the characters despite being invisible.
Now that we see the “ghost dimension,” we lose the fear we once had because everything just appears to be fake at this point. The image of a black creature moving around the house and some unusual particles captured by the camera only make the movie unrealistic. These elements do not achieve the movie’s apparent goal of making it more terrifying than before.
More than this, the movie relies too much on jump scares and sound effects. While these two elements are essential in any horror movie, the irrelevant story canceled out their importance.
For th foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015) one grave out of five graves.
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