Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

This film is easily the most disgusting, vile, selfish, rude, lazy, insulting, mediocre and shameless piece of crap to ever make it in a movie theater and that is saying a lot already.The connections between every movie EVEN including Tokyo Night (entry that is always excluded/ignored, and it's actually really good) it's fascinating and all of it can make sense with not-that-even-meticulous writing. What happened with the door premise from the Marked ones? it played wonderfully on the end of said movie. What ended up happening with Hunter? Was he just another marked one from the bunch? What happened with Katie? With Lois? (There's a woman that looks like her in The Mark Ones) With Ali Rey after The Marked Ones and/or before? Why such a cheap approach when it came to give "Toby" a shape? Inexcusable and unforgivable.This franchise created enough cult following to have fans within the industry that could do justice to the loose ends that people were really interested in, solve mysteries and who knows what else. The Ghost Dimension doesn't solve anything and just offers a tasteless and lazy story, the ghost camera was forced and seemed like an idea out the Looney Tunes.The story had so much substance and so many paths that would have kept the intrigue and the greatness that made the previous entries as good as they were.I'm not trying to be harsh or obnoxious, I just simply loved how the story was developing before this last disaster. Bring back Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman and/or Christopher Landon.

As far as most sequels go they more than most likely start thinning out the original concept. This is not the case with Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, though. This one retains all the creepy elements of the former films and branches it out to another level. Talk about adding some fear into our lives during a season known for Santa Claus and elves and reindeer. The character developments were fresh and the story line builds on as the film plays out making for a really eerie ending (and, of course, more than enough room for another sequel). I would have given it a 9.5 had it not been for the CGI effects ingrained into the VHS copies they were viewing. These were, at best, somewhat OK. The film also took on a demonic presence unlike the others and we even have a portal to that dimension made quite evident here. The little girl portraying Leila made quite an impression as well. It really was tons of creepy fun watching this latest of the Paranormal Activity movies.

Getting lucky in picking up the first Paranormal Activity (PA) flick for £2 at a local DVD shop and finding parts 2-5 on Netflix UK,I was disappointed to find that the final PA was not on Netflix. Keeping a look at the price over the last few weeks,I was pleased to recently see the DVD drop to under £5,which led to me experiencing the paranormal for the final time.The plot-Christmas 2013:Recently moving into their new home, (which was built on a house that was mysteriously burnt down!) Ryan and Emily Fleege get ready to celebrate X-Mas with their daughter Leila. Joined by Ryan's brother Mike and their friend Skylar,Skylar notices that Leila is talking to an imaginary friend called Toby. Attempting to find out why she now has an imaginary pal,the Fleege's are shocked to find Leila not willing to share any details. Believing that she is in a "difficult" phase, the couple are soon horrified to find a box of Videos filmed at the old house,a number of which mention a mysterious, possibly paranormal person called Toby. View on the film:Unleashing "Toby" from the shadows,director (and editor of PA 2-5) Gregory Plotkin & cinematographer John W. Rutland go for a full-on Haunted House Horror,where "black oil" smooth CGI crawls up the wall as Toby takes control of his house. Retaining the "Found Footage" presentation of the franchise, Plotkin brilliantly brings all the elements of each individual part into one "greatest hits" package, seamlessly leaping from chillingly stilted hand held camera moves, grainy,lo-fi Video and well-executed, creepy CGI layering Toby's world over the real world.For the final recording of the series,the screenplay by Adam Black/Andrew Deutschman/Adam Robitel & Gavin Heffernan cleverly use dusty Videos to wrap everything up via the Videos going into the background of the past movies,whilst casting an eerie atmosphere,by giving the Fleege's horrors an impending sense of doom. Along with unlocking the paranormal of the past movies,the writers make the film itself be a tense Haunted House chiller,with the Fleege's being given (some) intelligence in finding ways to escape the house,and Toby's attacks gradually building from the subtle shaking in the corner to an unrelenting howl,as Toby releases the full paranormal activity.

I approached this movie with low expectations due to the negative reviews and the slipshod quality of Paranormal Activity 4. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised to discover that this movie did not suffer from the plodding pace of the first movie or the frustratingly unintelligent characters that were featured in PA2 and PA4 (recall that the father in the second movie had cameras installed but then refused to watch the recorded footage). This entry moves along at a brisk pace and is never boring, and you never have to wait too long for some creepy visuals or a good jump scare (yes, there are jump scares and this will turn some viewers off, but it didn't bother me as I was in the mood to be startled). The character of Mike is somewhat annoying but he's there to serve as comic relief. Many of the visual effects are subtle and done quite well, such as the particles and shapes captured by the modified "ghost camera," but the use of CGI becomes much too heavy-handed in the latter half of the film. Whereas most of the scares are done very well, a few of the CGI effects seen near the end of the movie are more funny than scary and this is not a good thing; sparser use of computer- generated visuals would have been a wise move, but instead they were VERY liberal with its application here (especially in comparison with the previous entries). Also, without spoiling anything, there are some frustrating problems raised by the plot twists that occur near the end of the film and PA5 ultimately creates more questions than it answers. Fans who were hoping for a neat and tidy wrap-up to the franchise will be somewhat disappointed with PA5. However, if you accept that these films have had convoluted plots from PA2 onward and you're just in the mood to be scared and entertained, you'll probably enjoy this one. It's a solid popcorn movie for a rainy night.Just don't puzzle over the continuity of the plot too much... You'll give yourself a migraine.