Paranormal Activity - The Ghost Dimension

I was surprised to hear that "Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension" - the sixth installment in the supernatural franchise - was going to be the last. Not only because each chapter does fairly well at the box office and is cheap to make, but also because the through-line of the story doesn't seem to be close to wrapping up.

The problem with installments four and five were that they didn't seem to further the mythology of the series. In the third chapter we went back to the childhood of Katie and her sister Kristi, to find out how the paranormal activity started. This led to a strange cult that seemed to be responsible for everything. But then in the next two chapters, the films ended the exact same way, resulting in nothing every becoming resolved.

So here we are with a chapter taking place in 2013 that keeps reflecting back to Chapter Three - by far the most successful sequel of the series. This is a good beginning. Here we have yet another family: Dad Ryan (Chris J. Murray), mom Emily (Brit Shaw), and requisite mute daughter Leila (Ivy George), who are living in a damn nice house somewhere in the suburbs. Ryan's brother Mike (Dan Gill) comes to stay for a bit, and Emily's friend Skyler (Olivia Taylor Dudley) is often around helping out and taking care of Leila. (I wasn't sure what her role was in this, but she's really pretty so I didn't care.)

Anyway, Ryan finds an old box in his garage that has a bunch of videotapes and an old VHS camera that seems to have been finagled with. Everyone is stunned by how big the camera is (have they never seen cameramen outside a courthouse?), but when Ryan who starts to use the camera he keeps seeing some mystical goopy stuff floating around his house. Of course he doesn't immediately show this to anyone; rather, he just mentions it and everyone writes it off as just being the "ancient camera." But then they start watching the tapes, which include not only footage from Chapter 3 of the series, but also additional footage of now-older sisters Kristi and Katie being raised by someone else and being hypnotized and going through various rituals.

If that wasn't odd enough, the weird floating goop keeps hanging around in Leila's bedroom, and soon enough she starts to mention her new imaginary friend "Toby." Little by little the family realizes there is something in the house, and it has taken a liking to their daughter. Things go downhill from there.

While we tread familiar territory here, you are getting what you want and expect from a "Paranormal Activity" movie. It's creepy, scary fun that still manages to make you jump out of your seat and dread what might be around any given corner.

The gimmick this time is that the camera Ryan finds is able to see what the normal human eye can't, so the "plasma" of the entity is visible when looking through that one camera. This effect is used well, and while it is clearly CGI, it still manages to be progressively unsettling.

The four screenwriters involved in the project try their best to wrap up all the loose ends, and while there is a reason for everything, it certainly leaves the story open for further sequels. There are a few threads that could have been more interesting, such as poor baby Hunter, who was kidnapped by Katie in Chapter 2. He's mentioned and shown briefly, but there is a more clever way his importance to the series could have been handled. Also, it would have been nice to see Katie again, since she's been integral to the entire series.

That said, the scares still work, the actors are all natural, and the film mixes humor and horror in equal measure. Not to mention, this is the first time that 3D is utilized in an interesting way. Most of the film is actually in 2D, which will probably baffle some viewers, but when Ryan starts using the camera, anything seen through that lens becomes 3D and we are able to see the "other dimension." It's also the first time in a while that the 3D effect is more intrusive (things come at you) rather than simply giving depth to the images. While you don't have to see the film in 3D, it does give the film an extra bit of fun.

I give director Gregory Plotkin (this is his first feature) credit for getting the series back to its scary roots and the screenwriters props for trying to end it. It isn't wholly successful as far as wrapping up the series, but it's the scariest chapter since Part 3, and worth your time for some good old Halloween scares. I ain't gonna lie either; I'm sort of hoping this isn't the last we see of Toby.