As I’m writing this, the newest Paranormal Activity movie
came out yesterday. It marks the fifth
film in the series, and the first that moves away from that central family (for
the most part). I like the Paranormal
Activity movies but felt that the Sunday “Bad” Movie posts could use something
to celebrate the fifth in the series.
What would that something be? I
went to one of my favourite sources of bad movies to find out.
The Paranormal Entity series, as Wikipedia classifies the
movies, are four Asylum produced movies.
The first is a direct rip-off of Paranormal Activity. The other three are found footage movies
about different groups of people experiencing different paranormal beings in
different locations. The movies are
completely unrelated outside of the fact that they are produced by The Asylum,
they are found footage, and Wikipedia classifies them as a series.
Before I get into the individual movies, let me talk about
the series in general. Like many people
say about the Star Trek movies, the evens are better than the odds. At least, I find the second and fourth
Paranormal Entity movies to be the better ones.
There are no characters or actors that overlap between the movies. They all stand on their own as separate
works. Lastly, there was a movie
released in November 2013 called The Bell Witch Haunting, which might be in the
series. I do not have any confirmation
as of yet that it is the fifth installment in the Paranormal Entity series, but
from the trailer, it seems like it could easily fit in there.
Now it’s time for me to get into the individual movies.
Paranormal Entity
This 2009 Shane van Dyke written and directed film tells the
story of a mother and her two children, a brother and sister, as they deal with
some sort of paranormal force in their house.
It’s basically Paranormal Activity, but by The Asylum. The practical effects aren’t interesting and
the scares are practically non-existent.
I’m a defender of Shane van Dyke’s work with The Asylum. I love Titanic II, I enjoy Transmorphers:
Fall of Man, and I find Battledogs to be a lot of fun. Paranormal Entity is not any of that. It feels lifeless and is among my least
favourite Asylum produced movies. It’s
sad because I always have hope for Shane van Dyke’s output.
8213: Gacy House
In 2010, The Asylum came out with another found footage
film. This time, it centered on a group
of paranormal investigators going to the site of John Wayne Gacy’s house. Something doesn’t want them there, though,
and they suspect that the spirit of Gacy still resides on the premises. If that sounds like a more thought out plot
than the first movie (which, to be honest, it probably doesn’t), there is more
thought to it. The characters seem more realized
than in the previous film. You know them
as more than just the mother, the brother, and the sister. They seem like actual people. When things start happening to them, you
care. That’s where the real success of
the movie is. It has characters that you
actually invest in. You want them to
survive. It doesn’t really show too much
of what happens to people, but what it does show is interesting to watch. This is a vast improvement over Paranormal Entity.
Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes
I have to give a little bit of a backstory on this one. This story has been told numerous times in
film. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is
based on the same real life story as this movie. Basically, a girl in Germany named Anneliese
Michel was thought to be possessed by a demon.
When she died, her parents and some priests were charged with
negligence. That’s basically what plays
out in the movie, except there is also a camera crew recording what is going
on. The practical effects in this movie
are solid enough to be effective. I
liked that part of the movie but that’s about all that I could find to
like. The performances are bad and the
characters are even worse. It’s as
though director Jude Gerard Prest (I’m assuming he wrote it, but there is no
writing credit) read a synopsis of the real events and didn’t think to add any
more to the characters. They are all
plot devices rather than captivating people, and you don’t care what happens to
any of them. It’s a shame seeing as how
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was able to cover the same story to a much better
effect by creating characters that you enjoy watching as a viewer. This movie isn’t simply bad, it’s depressing
to think of what could have been. So
little effort was put into it that I can’t help feeling cheated out of an hour
and a half of greatness.
100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck
This is my favourite movie of the bunch. Like the second movie in the series, 100
Ghost Street is about a group of paranormal investigators. This time, the investigators are going to a
hospital where Richard Speck raped and murdered nurses. At least, I think that’s what they said. Yes, that’s what he did. They lock themselves inside and
investigate. What really works about this
movie is both the effects and the characters.
These characters are the most well-defined of any of the movies. They each had their own personalities, and
you could relate to them, even though you’ve never experience what they are
going through. The effects were a
mixture of practical and computer generated, but it worked for the movie. Sure, it takes you out of the realism a
little bit, but it helps to highlight the violence without going over-the-top
with it. I appreciated that a lot while
watching. All in all, this movie is a
major step up for the series and one that I would recommend to people looking
for a decent found footage horror flick.
These four movies are not a series in the sense that the
story comes together like the Paranormal Activity series they were originally
based upon. Instead, the Paranormal
Entity series is a thematic anthology series.
Every movie is a found footage movie about people fighting against the
supernatural. Like any anthology, the
different films are of varying qualities.
There is some good that came out of the Paranormal Entity series,
however. I will always be grateful for
that.
There are some notes I would like to make before I am done:
- Another anthology kind of series I covered was The Marine.
- I discussed my history with The Asylum in my post for Snakes on a Train.
- 8213: Gacy House was suggested by @SincereBC.
- If you have any suggestions for future Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can comment below or message me on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment