The
Paranormal Activity franchise goes out with a whimper in Ghost
Dimension (2015). It’s a film
that strongly competes with Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) for the
title of “worst of the bunch.”
As readers of this blog are aware, I’m
a big fan of found footage movies, so obviously this result is a
disappointment. I wanted nothing so much here as to see the franchise come back from the dead.
Admittedly, Ghost Dimension features a great conceit -- a customized camera
that can “see” the supernatural -- but the gimmick has the unintended effect of draining
all suspense from the film
Allow me to explain. In previous franchise entries, viewers would nervously pore
over every inch of the camera frame for signs of invisible demons. The films featured long stretches of silence, as evidence of activity was sought. Viewer focus was galvanized, and intense.
Here, by contrast there’s
no need to pay such close attention, or any attention, really. The
camera obligingly shows you the evil “Toby” front and center on numerous
occasions. He's a special effects powerhouse, a kind of dripping black ooze in the rough shape of a biped. But because we see him regularly, he's not frightening.
The
franchise’s very reason to exist -- to capture strange, inexplicable footage of
something not quite right or normal -- has been compromised in service of this new idea. Horror has moved from the periphery of our senses and vision to a placement much less subtle and intriguing.
And
yet I can live with this flaw in the film, at least to a certain extent.
The conceit of a supernatural camera
is, at least, original and fresh. And
after five movies, perhaps it was time to try something new and different. I credit the filmmakers for attempting
something inventive. They had ambitions and the desire to attempt something unique. That they failed is not as important, perhaps, as the attempt to chart new territory.
But
where Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension (2015) really goes south is in the
concrete details of the narrative and the characters.
Nobody in the movie behaves in anything approximating a
reasonable fashion, especially given that the camera has recorded monstrous entities from
a nether realm. So the movie’s real and terminal flaw is that it strains plausibility
well past the breaking point.
I
predict the series, having apparently finished off its (ultimately lame) story arc here, will be
back at some point, however.
Likely with a
re-boot, because there’s just nowhere else to go in the original continuity. At least nowhere worthwhile.
“There
are particles of dip shit in your aura.”
The
Fleege family has moved into a home on the property where little girls Katie
and Kristi once lived.
When Ryan’s
(Chris J. Murray) brother, Mike (Dan Gill) shows up to spend the holidays with
the family, they discover a customized camera in a box of old decorations. The camera can apparently see supernatural
entities. Ryan becomes obsessed with the device.
The camera's unique capability to see into the spirit world comes in handy when Ryan’s daughter, Leila (Ivy George) develops a disturbing rapport with
an imaginary friend named Toby, really a demon looking to become corporeal and
able to travel between dimensions and across various time periods.
Ryan
and Mike also discover video tapes from the 1980s; ones revealing Katie and Kristi in
the care of a witch’s coven or cult. The
two young girls apparently have the ability to see into the future, and into
Ryan’s house. They apparently need the
blood of an innocent -- Leila -- to complete the ritual that will make Toby
fully human.
Ryan
and his wife, Emily (Brit Shaw) attempt to exorcise (or exterminate) the demon
in their midst, but are unsuccessful.
When Leila disappears through a rift over her bed, Emily must follow her
daughter through…
“Your daughter may be
being stalked by a demonic being.”
The
biggest and most insurmountable problem with Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension
is that none of the characters behave in any way that approximates sanity, or the behavior of real people.
For example, Ryan records on camera the presence of a huge, monstrous demon
lingering in his young daughter’s bed room.
The
daughter is allowed to sleep in that very bedroom, the next night. No sane parent would permit this. The child would be sleeping with her parents,
in their bed. Probably until she was eighteen.
Worse, the girl -- who can also see the demon -- has no fear of it. This plot development plays as believable in some films when the demon is invisible. We can imagine it takes the form of a child, for instance, to trick its young prey. But there is no seven year old kid in the universe who would feel comfortable befriending this particular denizen of Hell.
Similarly, a series of witch’s runes are found surrounding the bed and wall nearby it, in Leila’s
room, and the parents' research proves such runes are used for opening portals in time and
space.
So what do Mom and Dad do? The parents leave the runes
up, of course! They don’t cover them up with paint, or
scribble them out. And still the girl -- sleeping under a portal to hell, apparently -- is allowed to sleep in her bedroom.
Also, when
the daughter is alone, with just the camera, a ghost hand reaches out towards her from a mirror
in the bathroom, and cracks the glass.
The parents never notice this, or comment, even, on the broken mirror. Again, it seems like an important clue that the paranormal activity is real, one that could be used as evidence of the supernatural.
Then
there’s the appearance of a demonic being dressed like Santa Claus, and who is
never explained. What's that all about?
And
then, next, there's the off-screen visit to the police, with tapes in hand, but no
follow-up report.
Did the police believe the parents? Not
believe them? How did the police dismiss the footage? Why did they not even send an officer to the house to check on the story?
Or a social services employee to remove Leila from her psycho parents' care?
And
then finally, there's the climactic scene (lensed in night vision) in which one character
spontaneously spits up some sort of acidic substance, and melts the face of another main
character. This development comes out of left field.
Over
and over, Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimensions makes these huge jumps
from plot point to plot point with no mind or attention to how the previous
plot point might reasonably impact the characters.
Again and again, the characters behave recklessly, even stupidly, especially considering that a child is involved.
In
short, the movie is a disaster in terms of the reality it attempts to forge. The characters' implausible behavior recurs so often that every four or five minutes, the audience is reminded of it, and jarred out of the narrative.
Even
the conclusion, which explains all “the activity” of the previous films is a
huge bust.
Leila and her Mom travel through time to 1992 and there are involved
in the ritual to manifest Toby as a human being. Forget for a moment that we never see Toby in the film's finale as
anything other than two legs and feet, this conclusion raises a more important
question.
If Toby was raised in 1992 to
bring about Hell on Earth, what’s taking him so long to make it happen? He would have been walking around as a human
for 21 years by the time the Fleege family is involved. What's he waiting for?
Certainly, I appreciate the attempts to bring together the plot-lines and elements
of all previous Paranormal Activity films, but I don’t believe the final results pay
off very well.
Lastly, this is the first
film in the franchise proper not to feature an appearance from Katie
Featherston. Thus far, she has been (the
appealing) glue that holds everything together. It doesn’t seem right to cap the whole thing
off without explaining, precisely, where she is now, and what she is doing. I'd like to know more about how she fits in.
Paranormal
Activity: Ghost Dimension
features the same flaw as many earlier entries in the series, namely that nobody seems to be
reviewing the tapes in a timely fashion.
If they did so, they’d be scared as hell and get out of the house. But
worse than that, this sequel invents new flaws.
Its
aura -- to put it politely -- is dip shit.
And again, this thought comes from a huge admirer of found footage
films.