Film: Conventions of a Horror Film (Genre)

My Review of Paranormal Activity 3 (Preliminary)

Negative Review of Paranormal Activity 3:

When I watched paranormal activity 3 it was mainly scary due to the jump scares. There weren't many shockingly scary things that occurred in the film, it seemed like any other horror film with jump scares and ghosts. The story line was interesting however, the whole film was based around the past activities that happened when they were younger. It would've been more interesting if they showed how Katie and Kristi felt watching back the videos of their childhood and what occurred when they were younger that they don't remember. The movie makes a jump from the present to past as they went from painting than room for their unborn child to Kristi coming over with boxes of old videos then it transitions into one of the old films. This was confusing and could've been thought out better. There was no transition back to their reactions watching the old videos and realising what happened. They also could've showed paranormal things occurring after they remembered everything that happened. There could've also been a return of 'Koby' to make it scarier. The plot and story line wasn't scary however, the jump scares were. The trailer was scarier than the movie and had scenes in it that weren't even in the movie. Overall I would rate this film a 6/10. 

Positive Review of Paranormal Activity 3:

The movie didn't have many positive aspects and the only good thing about the movie is the plot twist that involves the grandma Julie, the jump scares and the way the little girl has the 'friend Koby.' The editing and transitions were well organised. For example, when the mum walked into the kitchen and everything had been lifted off the floor and stuck to the ceiling then all of a sudden it all drops down onto the floor creating tension and a jumpscare. 

Paranormal Activity 3 Reviews (Preliminary)

Delivering The Scares (Positive Review)

Author: TourettesPersonal from Philippines

23 October 2011

To be honest, I never liked Paranormal Activity movies. It's about people who lived in a house with cameras and there are evil spirits haunting them then all of the events are caught on tape. The idea is interesting but the execution always end up being unsatisfying. Paranormal Activity 3 is the very beginning of the series. It's not actually a prequel. It's more of a backward trilogy to make the ending of the rest of the Paranormal Activity films mysterious. Although, the twist is a little bit predictable but Paranormal Activity 3 has a decent story to tell with these found footage. And it really has the scares. Finally, this series has a genuine scare.
Paranormal Activity 3 reveals all the mysteries of the first two movies. Unlike the first two, instead of watching the lives of these people and wait for the spirits to come out, this one really tells a story through the videos. The story is not anything new though but the execution is decent. The second Paranormal Activity narrates almost everything in the story. Here you don't need it, you just have to look at the video footage to know the story.
Aside from its storytelling, Paranormal Activity is all about the scares. They improved the scares by moderating the slow burns and keep the objects floating. The ghosts aren't quite invisible like the first two. Here, it's campy. You can see its shadows. And of course, there's a lot of threat from the ghost. The scares are more than just jump scares. It has more terror and gumption to the thrills which is kinda fun. The cameras are well shot. Everything is well made. But the twist remains predictable for some reason.
Paranormal Activity 3 is not earning the fear anymore. It's now earning the scares. It's great to see Paranormal Activity with exact scares than wait for more than five minutes to be scared. It's not the scariest horror movie of the year but it's the best part of the series and also the most decent horror of the year. I still wanna see the parts on the trailer that wasn't show in the actual film but Paranormal Activity 3 is satisfying enough in its short runtime. Decent enough as a found-footage-horror-film.

This review is a positive review on the film Paranormal Activity 3. In this review the person overall found the film interesting and scary with a good story line. This review looks into the story line of the film as this film links back to Paranormal Activity 1 and 2, the film tells a story throughout the clips of the old videos. This review compares this film to the others and what's different and improved. 

Different movie than the trailer... (Negative Review)

Author: jmcb002 from United States
21 October 2011

I thought I went to go see Paranormal Activity 3... you know, like the one in the trailer with a seance gone brutally wrong, house on fire, jumping girls from the upper story, medium coming to rid the house of bad spirits, closet ghost knocking games, crying girls huddled in cars, mom being flown out of bedroom, and water being thrown on a ghost to reveal that its shape is actually there. But no, I ended up seeing a crappy excuse for producers thinking they are being creative and edgy by changing it from the trailer and making it a story about satanic women rituals. I've already seen that horrible remake. I wanted to see a Paranormal Activity, not "The Wicker Man / The Last Exorcism". I hope someone sues the creators for false advertising by not making ANY scenes from the trailer into the final cut. That honestly makes me mad. The Paranormal movies were made on the premise of being about a haunting of demons; adding in the "cult" aspect just changes things. We were drawn in on the fear of the supernatural, not satanic women. I want to see the movie from the trailer, not what they decided was the best and scariest cut for theaters, because that version was terrible.

This review is a negative review of Paranormal Activity 3. The person writing this review strongly believes that the trailer was false advertisement and that nothing that occurred in the trailer was in the actual film and that it was all just to get people to watch the movie. After watching the movie, I noticed there were things in the trailer that weren't in the movie. For instance, the water being thrown on the ghost to show the shape of the ghost. I believe the trailer had more exaggerated and scary scenes added so that it was a way to persuade the audience to watch the movie. 

Paranormal Activity 3 Opening Analysis (Preliminary)

Analysis Of Key Scenes (Preliminary)

Alternative Film Poster (Preliminary)

Paranormal Activity Film Posters (Preliminary)

Paranormal Activity 3 Trailer 1&2 Analysis (Preliminary)

Watch the trailer of the film and analyse:

 Trailer one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twHFeqqFc30

In this trailer it begins with a home clip of the two sisters from Sep 03 1988. In the clip they're playing in the garden happily with their family. There was a sudden change of mood when it transitions to a sister speaking saying, "What ever happened to us when we were little, I don't remember..anything. Whatever it was it thrived out of here. The more we paid attention to it the worse it got." Whilst she was speaking there were transitions of different clips such as: old photographs, old clips, clips of the events that occurred whilst they pay attention to the things that happened in the past. The transitions that were used were: cutaway, fading out and fading in. Then there was a clip of the two sisters 5 and 9 years old, doing the "Bloody Mary" challenge in the mirror. This consists of standing in the mirror with the lights off and chanting "bloody Mary" three times. The myth is that a woman will appear in the mirror once the lights are turned back on. However, the older sister played around and tried to scare the little sister by suddenly screaming but not paying attention to what was actually in the mirror and walking out. Then there was a cutaway shot to a black screen with a loud scream. Then to a fuzzing screen of "Paranormal Activity 3." I believe this trailer wasn't as scary as it should've been. However, the different shots of old photos and old clips was effective as it gave us an insight of what was going to be occurring in the movie. I believe the purpose of this trailer was to have mostly scary and creepy clips added that didn't add up. The effect of this was that it would lead the audience to watch the full film when it released in October 2011.

Trailer two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCJWNM1a3F8

In the second trailer it opens up with another clip of the two sisters in the garden but on Sep 02 1988 then transitions to a video of the two sisters when they're older. One sister had her arms around the other which could symbolise protection. The camera man then states, "somethings going on." He then continues to ask the younger child to show him the 'knocking game' this was where the little girl knocked on the mirrored cupboard and there were two loud knocks coming from the inside. He asks the older sister, "how do you do it?" she seemed clueless and told him to ask her younger sister. He told the younger daughter that he really liked the trick and she angrily replied, "its not a trick." The boyfriend then realises that there is something in the house that is connecting with Kristi. He then sets up the cameras in hopes to find something. Then they all began to see what she was doing and videoed her speaking to "Koby." There was also a clip of her and her mother, she tells her mother her friends there and her mother replied with, "there is no one there" therefore, Kristi threw water towards "Koby's" way and you could see the outline of a suspicious body standing right next to Julie. There was a priest that came over to tell Julie that it's connected to her side of the family then all of a sudden he starts banging his face against the table and books. There was a cutaway shot to the side of Dennis' ribs of a scratch going all the way down with him stating, "something's digging in my side." There were fast cutaway shots and fading out's of different paranormal clips of things setting on fire and bulb's bursting. Then as soon as Julie suggests that they need to get out of the house, a strong force seems to have pushed her all the way back leading her to be thrown on her bed with the doors getting locked. I believe this trailer is more successful than the first trailer as this gave more of a scare to the audience. This one has more clips of the young girl doing abnormal things such as: the knocking. The cutaway shots were effective and also gave a jump scare effect. I believe the purpose of this trailer was to base more around the 'demon friend' Koby and the paranormal things he was performing around the family and the little girl Kristi.

The camera shots in these trailers ranged from extra large shot, large shot, medium large shot, and medium close up. There was a medium close up of the two girls playing in the beginning on the trampoline. The extra large shots were to show the paranormal activities taking place in the old videos of their childhood. There were medium close ups of Kristi's scary facial expressions. This is effective as Kristi was the one with the 'imaginary' friend 'Koby.' Majority of the camera angles are either eye level, low or high. The camera often zoomed into the little girls while they play. While this is being filmed the angles are either high or eye level due to the height difference. The angles were high in the recording footage from the cameras that had been set up in the high angle. The mise en scene in the trailer seemed homely and also safe as the two children had both of their parents playing with them and seemed to have a lot of toys. The mise en scene of the girls rooms and garden made the setting seem more normal for the horror movie. There wasn't any abnormal settings in the trailer for this, it just mostly had clips of when Kristi and Katie when they were little and other clips of the two sisters from when they had abnormal things occurring when they were older. The sounds were loud and sudden which created the effect of a jump scare. There were scary non-diegetic sounds added in to add to the atmosphere. The editing that was used in this trailer was: fade in, fade out, dissolve, and jumpcut. The jumpcut was used as another way of jumpscare in this trailer. Fade in and out were often used in the transition from their old videos to their older selves.

Paranormal Activity 3 (Preliminary)

Paranormal Activity 3 Plot/Background Information:

Paranormal activity is a Joost and Schulman horror film. The plot involves two sisters, Katie and Kristi. Katie delivers a box of old videotapes to her sister Kristi. The videotapes were set in 1988 when the two sisters were aged 5 and 9. The girls mum and boyfriend began to realise something unordinary was taking place in their home, therefore, her boyfriend named Dennis decided to set up cameras around the house. Eventually, a mysterious symbol was drawn on a crack space in the girls' room. Dennis looked into this and found a book about a coven of witches in the 1930s who served demons by brain-washing girls of child-bearing age into having sons for the demon to collect, before wiping away the child-bearer's memory of the event. Dennis tried to show this to Julie (the mother) but she doesn't believe in it. [1] (http://screenrant.com/paranormal-activity-ending-explained-2-kofi-137162/) The demon makes a bond with Kristi, due to the repeated attacks Kristi agrees to listen to all of "Koby's" requests. Julie becomes determined to go to her mothers house, however, it is revealed that Lois (the grandmother) is part of the coven of witches from the '30s that Dennis read about in the book and that she serves the demon terroizing them - she also had the same symbol hidden on her wall. Lois gathered the rest of her coven and watches as the demons kill Julie and Dennis.