PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES – The Review

By Michael Haffner

Ever since a micro-budget horror film called PARANORMAL ACTIVITY mopped up the blood from the SAW series in the fall of 2009, there has been a new kid on the horror block. Each October we have been treated to a new entry in a series that began with a young couple, an always-present film camera, and an evil presence that tends to make itself known in the evening. Much to the surprise of many, this past Halloween was void of a new film in the found footage series. It is just a matter of time before the series runs its course – much like the SAW films that came before – but the gravesite hasn’t been prepared just yet. This year we will be treated to not just one but two PA films from producer Oren Peli. What will shock fans even more though is just how different PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES actually is. Just don’t be too surprised if you find that some of these changes don’t entirely work.

The film begins with a literal shaky start as we see the home video footage of the valedictorian of a 2012 high school class give his commencement speech. From there we meet Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and Hector (Jorge Diaz) – two teens living in California who begin to experiment with a new camera Jesse gets for graduation. Like most films of this nature, the duo soon finds themselves (with their new gadget) recklessly snooping around the apartment of the recently murdered woman who lives below Jesse. A strange bite mark appears on Jesse’s arm the morning after they discover some clues in the apartment suggesting witchcraft. This mark begins to take an effect on Jesse’s mental state and physical strength as the duo attempt to piece together the strange noises and sightings that increase around the apartment building.

Writer and director Christopher Plandon is a PARANORMAL alum as he previously worked on the screenplays of all the sequels.  His knowledge of what works and what doesn’t is felt in some of the more tense sequences – including a few exceptional ones involving a hidden underground lair.  What’s interesting about his approach to this spin-off film isn’t just the obvious “Latino” angle, but the fact that the stagnant night-time shots that have become a series staple aren’t utilized at all.  There’s not one scene of people sleeping amid blue light!  Instead, we are treated to almost non-stop hand-held photography thanks to a group of frantic teenage kids.  There’s enough character development to flesh out the two main boys as believable teens playing detective, but the banter and events that transpire after one of them gets the “mark” seems a little too much inspired by the 2012 film CHRONICLE.  A far amount of time is paid to showing off the supernatural elements that are a result of the “mark” – powers that were really only teased in previous films.  Some fans of the series might find themselves scratching their head at the more sc-fi based avenue the story clumsily stumbles down.  In the end though, the film is always more concerned with preparing the audience for the next big scare.  Thankfully Plandon is aware of what made the ending to the third film so incredible and attempts to one-up it by injecting the exact same set piece from that film with more scares and surprises than you can even imagine.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY has spawned a series of films that mainly act as 90 minute haunted house flicks. The third film mostly succeeded in capturing the lightning in a bottle success that the first film achieved by placing the story in a different period and injecting it with some much-needed clever scares. While sadly, the fourth film took a turn for the worse creatively by being filled with the same scares we had seen before, this new entry is the first to take a sudden departure into some bizarro territory while expanding on the mythos that has slowly (and I mean slowly) developed. Once again, spooky images and sudden jump scares abound in a film that almost succeeds in standing on its own shoulders.  Newcomers to the series could watch almost the entire film without having seen the previous entries and experience a decent found-footage horror film. That fact alone is worth applauding. But if the fourth film suffered in the scare department than this one seems to paint itself into a corner structurally. For once you get the feeling that the creators and writers of this series don’t actually know where the overarching story is going. You begin to wonder if they might even be making this up as they go along. I would argue that after five films that it’s not enough to scare the pants off the audience. Certainly THE MARKED ONES does just that and does it in a few effective and new ways while also maintaining the spirit of the original film. We’ve seen creaking doors, dark figures appear in the background, and even a malevolent coven of witches. The less is more aesthetic of the original film has long vanished in the night. For better or worse we now have a better understanding of what’s lurking in the dark throughout the PARANORMAL films.  THE MARKED ONES finally gives patient fans an expository dump halfway through the film in a scene that feels like a deleted scene in an already swift 84 minute film.  But even that isn’t quite enough. Even more questions arise once the credits roll and you begin to question why certain events took place.  Why do I get the feeling I might have been better left in the dark about certain things? A clear understanding of the story is essential to any film series.  I’m just not entirely sure I want to sit through several more entries to get a half-baked answer to the “why” behind all the activity.

3 out of 5

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